telecommunication facility. This wireless facility will be designed in a way to complement the park by disguising the tower as a pine tree, which will be fenced for safety purposes. The majority of the property is not located in a flood plain; however the portion where the wireless tower will be placed will be located in Flood Zone A (Flood Insurance Rate Map 06031C0185C, June 16, 2009).
A Weekend Away ...find it in Valley Scene General Plan Designation and Zoning
The General Plan designates the property as Public Facility. The property is zoned “PF” Public Facility. The applicant's proposal to construct a 78-foot Verizon wireless telecommunication tower facility is consistent with both the General Plan and Zoning Ordinance, with the approval of a conditional use permit. Figure 1 Land Use
Volume XXXVI No. 10 • 19 May, 2016
www.ourvalleyvoice.com
Visalia City Council Reviews Plan for Possible Sales Tax Increase Catherine Doe At the May 16 Visalia City Council meeting, members reviewed options on how to spend the revenue from a possible sales tax measure. The city council has until late July to make up its mind whether or not to put the sales tax measure on the November ballot. Because of a loss of revenue and state take-aways, the city council members are leaning towards putting the tax measure on the ballot to close the city’s budget gap. Eric Frost, Deputy City Manager, said that the two main concerns of voters are accountability and identifiability. In a professional survey of Visalia residents, voters said that it was important that the city do with the tax dollars what it says it will do. Accountability measures such as a spending plan, an oversight committee, and audits would be necessary for
the measure to pass. Visalia residents consistently have expressed their desire that any extra revenue go toward the big three: streets, fire and the police, said Frost. The city council will also be consider giving 5% of the tax revenues to maintain the city’s parks and trail system. In a presentation by Police Chief Jason Salazar he said that there is a clear need for increased revenue. In 2008 the city had 140 police officers. Even though the population has increased and the challenges are greater, the city still has the same number of sworn officers. Salazar said that the calls concerning the homeless have increased from 200 a year to 3600. Calls for 911 have increased to 14,000 a year and response times have increased from 5.6 minutes to seven minutes to arrive at
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Lindsay Considers Self-Sustaining Options; Answers Grand Jury Report Nancy Vigran The Lindsay City Council and city staff are continuing to seek opportunities and ways for its agencies to re-coop monies spent providing services for its constituents. The city has been running in the red and will continue to do so into the unforeseeable future, if it cannot turn some things around. One small measure the council is considering is to charge for arbor rentals in its Centennial Park. It is not unusual. Other local cities including Porterville and Exeter charge park and facility rentals for various locations.
“We looking for a way to try and reduce the overhead and maintenance only,” said Mike Camarena, city services director. Until now arbor use has been on a first-come-first-serve basis. And, generally, “people do a pretty good job of cleaning up,” Camarena said. But, there is still some amount of clean-up involved. To date, the council has had one study session on the issue with another planned for May 24. The city is looking to charge a rental fee based on the size of each of its 11
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Proposed Wireless Communication Tower
The map above shows where the proposed Verizon Hanford tower would have been located. Photo/Courtesy/City of Hanford
Hanford City Council Denies Use Permit for Verizon Tower At the May 17 Hanford City Council meeting the vote was three to two to deny Verizon Wireless its Conditional Use Permit (CUP) to build a wireless tower in a corner of Hidden Valley Park. Council members Russ Curry, David Ayers and Francisco Ramirez voted against granting the CUP and Mayor Justin Mendes and Garry Pannett voted in favor. At issue was Verizon’s desire to build a 78-foot tower on a 484 square-foot piece of property. The tower would be disguised as a pine tree and sit in the south west corner of the park close to 11th avenue and Cortner Street, close to a residential area. The tower would sit on nine cell blocks of cement with an 10-foot tall chain-link fence topped with barbed wire. Jack and Suzanne Willis, and Jean and Jim Leonard, all of whom live on Laura Lane next to the park and in close proximity to the proposed tower, appealed the April 12 Hanford Planning Commission’s decision to approve the structure. During the city council’s public hearing it was standing-room-only. Of
Catherine Doe the eight speakers, all of the Hanford residents were against the tower and the two Verizon employees spoke in favor. Jack Willis spoke on behalf of the four residents who filed the appeal. Dissent broke out when Mayor Mendes cut Willis off after five minutes, saying that a public hearing is no different than public comment. After attendees started giving Willis their five minutes to speak, the city clerk advised the mayor that Willis indeed did have 15 minutes to present his case. Willis appealed the planning commission’s decision based on the fact that the tower should not be exempt from a CEQA review. He also said that the tower did not qualify as an infill development as Hanford staff claimed because it was not unused or underutilized land. The tower also was not consistent with Hanford’s general plan, said Willis. Lastly, to approve the tower the land would have to be surrounded
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Local Political PAC Comes Out Against Mathis Catherine Doe Tensions are rising in the Tulare County Republican Party over Assemblyman Devon Mathis’ yes vote on the Managed Care Organization (MCO) Tax. Mathis says it is not a tax, and that his vote allowed the state to receive one billion in federal funding. Many Tulare County Republicans say that it was a tax and that health care insurance premiums will go up as a result. Because of Mathis’ vote, and other alleged problems with his first term in office, Common Sense Information PAC (CSI) is launching a radio and newspaper ad campaign to educate the public about Mathis’ vote. CSI is also targeting Bakersfield Assemblyman Rudy Salas for not taking a stand against the $15 minimum wage increase. Founded by businessman Tal Cloud
Southern Inyo Hospital, now managed by HCCA, is slated to receive $1.3 million from the Managed Care Organization tax. Photo/Courtesy/CAReHIN
six years ago, CSI has advocated or campaigned against certain candidates running for office or political issues. CSI debuted in 2010 when the PAC ran radio ads attacking then-state Sen. Jeff Denham, who was making his first congressional run. Denham ended up winning the election. Cloud said, “Assembly Member Devon Mathis Republican, from Visalia, has been a failure in his first term
protecting conservative values that he claimed to represent when he asked for our vote two years ago. Assemblyman Mathis voted to raise taxes and give the Democrats in Sacramento another weak Republican member to take advantage of, and we cannot have that given how close we are to a Super Minority in Sacramento.” Assemblyman Jim Patterson, Assemblywoman Shannon Grove, and State
Senators Jean Fuller and Andy Vidak all voted no on the MCO tax bill. The issue at hand is Assemblyman Mathis’ vote on February 29 in favor of the Managed Care Organization tax. Ten other Republicans in the assembly, and two in the state senate, voted in favor of the tax along with Mathis. The California Disability Services Association, California Hospital Association, Kaweah Delta Health Care District among many others also supported the bill. According to a recent Foothills Sun Gazette article, Mathis said, “The MCO tax reform package is good fiscal policy for California and directly helps some of our state’s most vulnerable Medi-Cal and developmentally disabled patients. This bill package creates a net $100 million tax savings, and will allow more than $1 billion of Californians’ federal
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