This story was originally published through Fresnoland, a nonprofit news organization committed to making politics public.
The Fresno City Council voted 6-1 Thursday to approve an amendment to the Fresno General Plan to allow for the expansion of Busseto Foods’ facilities in southwest Fresno. Councilman Mike Karbassi was the only one to vote “no” to the proposal.
The Council voted to rezone 18. 9 acres of vacant land on the southeast corner of West and Church Avenues in southwest Fresno, from medium-density residential to soft industry, where Busseto Foods will build a 477,400-square-foot campus to consolidate its one-roof operations.
“I appreciate the board’s consideration in its vote, knowing that the domain is not suitable for a residential location,” said Robert Mitchell, co-chair of the Golden West Side Planning Committee and a resident of southwest Fresno.
But Brunette Harris, a 65-year-old resident of southwest Fresno, disagreed.
“This is a similar factor to the express plan for Southwest Fresno, and what they’re doing is essentially cutting off parts of (SWFSP),” Harris said after the vote. with the express plan. “
Harris is a member of HEAT (Hope-Effort-Properly-Thriving in Southwest Fresno), an organization that focuses on “informing our community” to familiarize itself with what’s going on.
Councilman Miguel Arias, who represents the domain where the plant will be located, said he is pleased that the council has corrected a larger error that zoned the goods with landfill, poultry plant and exploitation plant for single-family development.
“Not even an attorney general would need to live alongside those uses, and this (vote) allows for a modern $250 million facility that will be a prime example of how we can process food in an eco-friendly way,” he said. Arias.
Approximately 15 members of the public commented on this case; only two, attorney John Kinsey, who represents the organization to rezone 92. 5 acres of land in southwest Fresno, and a landowner in the disputed domain, have spoken out in favor of approving Busseto’s application.
Others, such as Ivanka Saunders of Leadership Counsel and Nisha Vyas of the Western Center on Law and Poverty, said rezoning would have a serious effect on an already overburdened population.
“The approval of this rezoning will be a confirmation for communities in southwest Fresno, where the majority are citizens of color, that again, this city doesn’t really care about, nor does it have the same right to a healthy lifestyle,” Saunders said.
The southwest Fresno network has maintained that its dominance has already been affected by a concentration of polluting industries and struggled with the location or expansion of the industry in its neighborhoods.
The city council will also settle for a proposal from a homeowners and business organization to rezone a 92. 5-acre, 15-parcel site in southwest Fresno from community use combined to moderate commercial use, saying the existing zoning jeopardizes businesses’ ability to fund themselves.
Their struggle to rid the community of commercial zoning resulted in the express plan for Southwest Fresno that redesignated commercial sites for commercial, mixed, or workplace use, giving citizens more influence over how today’s industry can operate. This is a major substitution in the creation of political spaces of plans.
Does Busseto’s proposal undermine the intentions of the area plan?
Not exactly, said Robert Mitchell, who said that if he had been a voting member of the Southwest Fresno Express Plan, he would have supported designating that domain, the express location of the proposed food plant, as a residential domain.
On Wednesday, Mitchell explained why he supports Busseto Foods’ candidacy while opposing business expansion in Fresno’s southwest neighborhood.
Mitchell’s reasons for the 18. 9-acre rezoning include: that the Busseto plant “will not emit any pollutants from its operation,” therefore, “a greener facility. “The organization “is also committed to partnering with our community,” Mitchell said, and made contributions to “one of the oldest recreation centers in our community, which has been overlooked throughout the city. “
Mitchell said the most compelling reason is the location of the property, which was considered to be a long-term dwelling imaginable.
“I don’t think anyone deserves housing surrounded by salvage sites and in front of a set of factories already in operation that are very polluting,” he said.
Mitchell added that other industries do not read the approval of the Busseto plant as an open invitation, “We intend to be vigilant and make sure that what happens within our network is what is in the maximum productive interest of our network. In all respects, economically, and certainly, as a health challenge related to increased pollution.
About the next plant, Arias said: “They can innovate now because we have only approved their rezoning, but we have also approved their progression permit, so they can innovate starting this year. “
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