Business advocates fear the city’s plan to outline land use for south Fresno could lead to a repeat of what happened only a few years ago in a nearby part of town.

The public comment period on the South Central Specific Plan ends Wednesday, said Jennifer Clark, planning and development director for Fresno, during a recent Fresno Chamber of Commerce’s Government Affairs Council meeting.

The plan outlines what uses are permitted and where in the 5,600-acre region south of downtown, straddling both highways 99 and 41. The city has to balance the needs of residents in the pollution-burdened area and those of business.

However, many businesses worry that when the city finishes the plan, the designated uses will significantly change.

Similarly, the city needs to keep truck and industrial pollution in check.

To minimize environmental impacts, the city wants to implement 1,000-yard buffers from sensitive receptors such as homes. The plan also reduces heavy industry allowed in the area, rezoning much of it to light industrial and some to commercial.

Monday morning talks about 2024 priorities in Southeast Fresno. Number 1 priority? NO MORE INDUSTRIAL IN SOUTH FRESNO! @LCJandA pic.twitter.com/OvsOdRyJdk

— Leslie Martinez (@Lesamartinez_) January 25, 2024

Attorney John Kinsey, who represents many industrial businesses, said during the meeting that the region has been designated for industrial use for nearly a century. And, Kinsey said, a small number of homes are impacting the ability of industrial companies to do business. Some of the restrictions go beyond what California requires.

“When did the city of Fresno become a government mandating things that aren’t mandated anywhere else?” Kinsey said.

City Wants to Avoid Past Problems With Current Plan

The 5,600 acres in the plan area make up 30% of industrial building space in Fresno, according to city documents. And, the average newly built 206,000-square-foot facility delivers 72% of the city’s industrial growth in any given year.

About 1,130 people live in the area, on mostly rural plots. Directly adjacent to the plan area are the communities of Calwa and Malaga, with about 2,660 combined residents.

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City planners have long designated the area for industry, Clark said, with documents dating a century back setting that land aside for manufacturers and distributors. That designation was reaffirmed in the 1970s, 1990s, and the 2014 General Plan under former Mayor Ashley Swearengin.

Avoiding what’s called legal non-compliance was a priority for the city, Clark said. When the Southwest Fresno Specific Plan for the area adjacent to this plan was approved in 2017, it changed allowed usages for many industrial users, especially on Elm Avenue.

The Southwest Plan claimed that businesses could retain their existing use. However, property owners and business advocates said the zoning change created difficulties in securing loans and recruiting new tenants.

The city wants to avoid those hurdles this time.

“We know that’s caused a challenge in other locations,” Clark said during the meeting.

As Few as One or Two Properties Can Trigger Buffer Requirements

Kinsey agreed that the plan for the most part avoids the rezoning complications that arose from the Southwest Plan. But businesses have concerns about downzoning and a 1,000-yard buffer zone.

To minimize the damage of emissions caused by businesses or the trucks going back and forth in the area, the city wants to maintain a distance between emitters and sensitive receptors such as homes and the one school in the area, Orange Center Elementary School.

Some of the buffer areas are triggered by as few as one or two properties, Kinsey said. Questions about which sensitive receptors require buffers have yet to be answered. If the city includes receptors outside of the plan area, more than half of the plan area could become a buffer zone.

“The 1,000-foot rule is so onerous, it becomes the rule rather than the exception,” Kinsey said.

The city also called for companies to meet clean fleet standards beyond what the California Air Resources Board requires, Kinsey said.

Changes from heavy industrial to light industrial in some areas could impact some animal food manufacturers.

Kinsey said the added restrictions area among the reasons manufacturers are choosing Madera, Visalia, and Reno over Fresno.

After the public comment period, the city will publish the final plan and EIR, which Clark said would be by early fall. She said Fresno Planning Commission and Fresno City Council hearings should be held before the end of the year.