Leadership Visalia: Land Use & Planning Day Session

By Melissa Lopez, Revel Venues

On Friday, November 3rd, 2023 the Leadership Visalia Group was hosted at Sequoia Regional Cancer Center by Facilitators David Bly & Victoria Balderas.  We were welcomed by yummy breakfast snack and a lot of coffee to keep us energized through our day. We started with an ice breaker, “If you were a Starbucks drink, What would you be?” A lot of us are Chai Tea Latte people, which I thought was pretty interesting.  The group had the opportunity to hear from Steve Brandt of QK.  Previously, he worked for the City of Visalia for 6 years and have over seen several projects.   He took our group on a journey through storytelling, from Visalia’s establishment in 1852 to some of the current planning decisions. Visalia was the only town between Stockton and Los Angeles at the time. When the railroad in 1870’s decided to move south to the valley, everyone assumed it would connect to Visalia, however the railroad was asking for a huge sum of money that Visalia at the time, for reasons unknown for sure did not pay the requested fee. The railroad changed their plans and created Goshen to compete with Visalia. Visalia was the only town that was not on the railroad line at the time, however the town built their own railroad that connected to Goshen that still runs on Goshen Ave through downtown Visalia today. In 1922 The Boy Scouts planted several Oak trees on 198 from downtown to the 99, some of those trees are still located in the medians between 198 and 99.

Visalia’s main goal has always been to have a very strong downtown community. As the city started to grow, Mooney Blvd was a main highway leading to Tulare, during that time the county was starting to develop, and the City of Visalia had to become more aggressive to annex more land. During this time both Visalia and Tulare were competing, and in 1950 the city of Tulare was bigger than Visalia which lead to the decision to build quicker than Tulare.  During the 60’s - 70’s, the city manager, Harry Tao started to Industrial Park, Plaza Park specifically, it has taken 60 years to get it to what we see currently. These plans take a lot of forecasting for the future. In the 60’s the state required all cities to start building with a General Plan.  Visalia’s core, Downtown, has always been the focus. Today the general plan still holds true, as our city grows with tiers. The best way to describe it is simple, once all empty space is filled in the tier then the next phase is open for development.

After storytelling with Mr. Brandt, we jumped in on our first activity for the day. We built our own city, and boy was this challenging. We needed to build a city based on 100,000 residents with all the necessary amenities. We had to think of location for a police department, fire department, schools, water treatment and government buildings. This was really an eye-opening task. Our lunch was proved by The Pickled Deli, which is highly recommended. As we moved in to our second half of the day, we took a little field trip to The Lofts at Fort Visalia. This project is headed by Self-Help Enterprises. We had the pleasure of touring the space with representatives Christine Ainley of Self-Help and Salvatore, a supervisor from BJ Perch Construction Inc. Before construction on this project started, raising the property out of flood zone was necessary. This property is a multi-family project, 80 units total with 50% of these units allocated to unhoused individuals. Some of the units will be fully furnished by Self-Help. This location is believed to be the location of the first settlers of Visalia. The facility will have a computer lab, community kitchen, conference room along with so much more for the residents.

After returning from our tour, we had the privilege of continuing our discuss around city planning with Adam Peck of the Planning Commission and Brandon Smith of the City’s Community Development Department. They discussed the protocol on getting items approved through the City. Zoning and use are major factors in approving a project. Most times companies will not come forth and divulge what is going to be developed on properties until everything is approved.  This is a lengthy process and once items are approved it can take many years to even start construction, if they even start at all. Site plan review is also a major component in the planning and at this stage all entities such as utilities, safety, and developers play a role. They meet weekly and get updates in regards to the projects. This portion of the day session was extremely informative for all of us.

After a short break, we had the privilege of sitting with Mary Alice Escarsega- Fechner and Carolyn Haynes-Thomas of CSET for a Red Table Talk to discuss the new Navigation Center. This center will provide wrap around services for individuals to assist in finding permanent housing. It will also support individuals experiencing homelessness, offering a pathway to regain stability, have access to services and to find housing. This center will mainly take referrals from Kings Tulare Homeless Coalition.