This story was originally published by Fresnoland.
The Fresno City Council on Thursday morning delayed a vote on a controversial industrial rezoning in Southwest Fresno until May 22, following a request from the developer. The proposal would convert 60 acres of industrial businesses on Elm Avenue from mixed-use back to industrial zoning, threatening a community plan that residents fought years to create.
Representatives for the property owners have insisted that the zoning change has made it difficult for the current industrial businesses to obtain financing or to change tenants.
Alex Tavlian, a lobbyist and political consultant behind a recent controversial mailer and publisher of the SJV Sun, has previously worked on the project, according to an email acquired by Fresnoland. The email shows Tavlian, during the most recent set of community meetings for the rezone in late 2023, communicating with the city over how residents were notified for the rezone request.
Tavlian was registered at the time as a lobbyist for FrontPoint Partners, LLC, according to the city’s lobbyist registration filings, which has funded controversial campaigns without disclosing its donors. Both Tavlian and John Kinsey, the attorney representing the developers, attended the Planning Commission’s meeting on the rezone last week. Neither Tavlian nor Kinsey responded to requests for comment.
At the April 16 Planning Commission meeting, commissioners voted to recommend denial of the rezone, with Chair Vang citing property owners’ failure to participate in the 2017 Southwest Fresno Specific Plan process. “When you’re investing that kind of money within that area, I think the failure of participating in those critical discussions, you have to do some self-reflecting,” Vang said.
The land in question, bounded by South Elm Avenue, Highway 41, and East Annadale Avenue was rezoned from industrial to neighborhood mixed-use in 2017 as part of a community planning process. Residents who spent two years developing the plan describe it as an achievement aimed at improving their health and quality of life.
“Currently we lose 20 years of life expectancy,” Debbie Darden, a West Fresno native, told commissioners.
A central point of contention involves claims by Kinsey and Councilmember Annalisa Perea that the resident’s plan actually harms their health. Perea and Kinsey have claimed that the current mixed-use zoning prevents businesses from obtaining financing for clean technologies like electric vehicles. This claim has been repeatedly disputed by finance experts.
Investigations by Fresnoland found that multiple banking experts, including Valley Business Bank vice president David Corona, confirmed that the zoning status would not affect financing. “If I’m giving a loan to a tenant that’s buying electric vehicles…the conditional use permit doesn’t come into play,” Corona said. “Because for electric vehicles, we’re going to finance against the vehicle.”
Even Nick Audino, the leasing agent for the industrial properties, said in 2023 his tenants have “never” faced the financing problems Kinsey claims.
Kinsey did not respond for comment.
“We deserve better than the lies, manipulation and half truth, especially from those who are supposed to be upholding the law,” said Eric Payne, executive director of the Central Valley Urban Institute.
“I just think that when a lawyer or someone who took an oath to serve justice chooses instead to mislead or to twist the facts, they don’t just fail us individually, they undermine the trust in the very system that’s meant to protect our rights.”
The major issue at hand with the rezone is land values. According to Dennis Woods, chairman of United Security Bank, “If we lose the zoning and we lose the tenants, the land values will drop.” The city previously spent over $100 million subsidizing industrial development in the area, according to Kinsey.
Moving around homes, on paper
Another issue complicating the matter is that rezoning the land back to industrial would eliminate potential for approximately 3,540 homes to be built there under the current mixed-use zoning, according to planners. In order for the city to still take credit to state housing regulators for the potential for those homes to be built, the city must concurrently approve another rezoning to accommodate an equal number of housing units somewhere else.
City leaders have suggested one way to move around the housing ‘capacity’ is likely a rezone citywide of office space, opening up a lot of new ‘paper’ housing capacity particularly along office corridors in north Fresno, like Herndon Avenue.
It would follow a long history of Fresno: housing in the North, industrial in the South.
“What is at stake in these rezones, partly, is that the council wants new industrial businesses to take their place. They don’t want to lose out on their ability to make this neighborhood their dumping ground for all things industrial,” Dr. Venise Curry previously told Fresnoland.
The council’s impending decision represents what many residents see as a crucial moment for Southwest Fresno. As Pastor Dominic Holland put it at the commission hearing: “Your choice is clear – is it more important to embrace the ease of doing business for some who live outside of West Fresno, or the quality of life for those who live within West Fresno?”
Omar Rashad of Fresnoland also contributed to this story.