Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Thank you. so so you you Thank you. Thank you. ¶¶ Thank you.

All right, good evening, everyone. It's 6.02. We'll go ahead and start tonight's meeting. Let's first take a roll.

Commissioner Laiday. Present. Commissioner Calandra. Commissioner Diaz. Commissioner Kreiner. Commissioner Shergill.

Present.

Vice Chair Bray.

Here.

Chair Vance.

Here. Thank you. Next, we'll go ahead and do the Pledge of Allegiance. Everyone, please stand. Ready? Begin.

Congratulations to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All right, next. For everyone's convenience, I'll go ahead and read the procedures for tonight's meeting. This meeting is being conducted in person and electronically. For each matter considered by the commission, there will first be a staff presentation, followed by a presentation from the project applicant. Testimony from supporters of the project would then be taken, followed by testimony from those in opposition. The applicant will have the right to a final rebuttal presentation prior to closing the public hearing. In accordance with section 13 of article two of the planning commission rules and regulations governing the length of public debate, all public testimony from those in support and in opposition of the project will be limited to three minutes per person. The three lights on the podium next to the microphone will indicate the amount of time remaining for the speaker. The green light will be turned on when the speaker begins. The yellow light will come on with a soft bell ring when one minute is remaining. The speaker should be completing the testimony by the time the red light comes on, with this final bell indicating time has expired. All in-person public testimony must be presented to the commissioner at the podium. Any testimony that references race, religion, ethnicity, economic status, national origin, or any other classification protected under state or federal law in a derogatory manner shall be deemed irrelevant and will not be considered by the commission in making its land use determinations. If you challenge these land use matters in court, you may be limited to raising only those issues you or someone else raised in oral or written testimony or before the close of the hearing. Next, we have the agenda. Do we have any changes to the agenda?

Good evening, Chair Vang, members of the Planning Commission. I'm Israel Trejo with the Planning and Development Department. There are no changes to the agenda. Thank you.

All right, thank you. Do we have any comments, changes, or motions to approve the agenda?

I'll motion to approve. I'll second it.

All right, we have a motion made by Vice Chair Bray. We have a second by Commissioner Shergill. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed say no. Agenda's approved. Under consent calendar, we do have meeting minutes for February 4th and February 18th. We'll go to the public. Do we have any members of the public like to comment under the consent calendar? I see none. Do we have any motions or comments from the commissioner?

Make a motion to approve the consent calendar.

I'll second that. So we have a motion by Vice Chair Bray, second by me. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed say no. Consent calendar is approved. Do we have any reports from the commission? Go ahead, sir.

Yeah. We really want to thank our city of Fresno and our wonderful Fresno community. This weekend on Saturday, April 18th, One Fresno Foundation with the collaboration with Keep America Beautiful for America's 250th anniversary birthday celebration, we are going to be cleaning up Fresno. So we would like to thank the community. We have a lot of people who are signed up. And I'll be there at the Juswan Sankarta Park with the community cleaning up the park and the neighborhood. So all the people who are signed up, and if you're not signed up, please do join us for cleaning Beautify Fresno. That'll be so amazing. And also this month, we wanna thank State of California. They are celebrating Vaisakhi. A lot of our school districts, especially Global Unified, San Unified, Fresno Unified, they have celebrated Vaisakhi with the students and the staff. And then on Sunday in Selma, we will have thousands of Fresno community members, Fresno families, they'll be joining a parade in Selma Gurdwara. So we want to welcome everyone and we also want to wish everyone a happy Osaki. Thank you very much.

All right, thank you, sir. Let's please note that under item ID 26469, if you're here for that matter, it's going to be continued to May 6, 2026. Next, we have under new matters, this is item ID 26395, consideration of street name change application number P2600936.

Good evening, chair and commissioners. Uh, my name is Brittany Martin and I'm a planner too, with the planning and development department. The item before you tonight is the consideration of street name change application number P 26 dash 0 0 9 3 6. The street name change application proposes to revert Cesar Chavez Boulevard back to the original street names of California Avenue, Ventura Street, and Kings Canyon Road. The change affects an approximately 6.9 mile corridor within the city and is limited to the segments currently designated as Cesar Chavez Boulevard. I'll walk you through the specific locations on the next slide. This slide shows the location and extent of the proposed street name change. I'll go through the corridor from west to east. The corridor begins at South Marks Avenue and continues east to South Thorn Avenue. This segment would change to West California Avenue. The segment between South Hughes Avenue and Southwest Avenue is excluded from the street name change as it is already currently designated as West California Avenue. From South Thorn Avenue to South Tupman Street, the street would change to East California Avenue. Continuing from South Tupman Street to South Parallel Avenue, the name would revert to Ventura Street, and from South Parallel Avenue to South Cedar Avenue, East Ventura Street. Lastly, from South Cedar Avenue ending at South Peach Avenue, the street would change to East Kings Canyon Road. As illustrated, the corridor is divided into segments that would revert back to the original street names that existed prior to the Cesar Chavez Boulevard street name change in 2024. On March 23rd, 2026, the city council approved resolution number 2026-42, which is included as exhibit B. The resolution cites recent public discourse regarding Cesar Chavez's legacy and expresses the council's intent that public street names reflect city values. Through this resolution, the city council directed staff to proceed with reverting Cesar Chavez Boulevard back to the original street names of Kings Canyon Road, Ventura Street, and California Avenue. The proposed change is also consistent with Fresno Municipal Code Section 15-6203, which states that where there are continuations of existing streets, existing street names shall be used. Tonight's item implements that city council direction through the formal street name change process. If approved, the street name will be updated for all addresses along the corridor that currently use the Cesar Chavez Boulevard designation. Property owners and tenants will be notified by mail prior to implementation. Only the street name will change. Address numbers and directionals will remain the same. In example, 555 East Cesar Chavez Boulevard would change to 555 East Kings Canyon Road. The city will coordinate updates with all relevant city departments and outside agencies, and property owners and tenants would be responsible for updating their personal records. Public notice for this item was completed in accordance with city requirements. On April 3rd, 2026, a dual public hearing notice for both the Planning Commission and City Council was published in the Fresno Bee. Prior to this hearing, we have not received any public comment. Staff recommends that the Planning Commission recommend approval to the City Council of the finding of no possibility of significant adverse effect and approval of street name change application number P26-00936 to revert back to the original street names. This concludes my presentation, and I'm available for any questions.

I have a question. How long were those streets named Ventura, California, in Kings Canyon before this happened? How far back did that go?

We would probably need to get back to you on that one. A while. I'll defer to my planning manager, Israel Trejo, on this.

Yes, thank you. Commissioner Bray, so I would say since they're located downtown, it was when the city of Fresno was first established, so probably close to 100 years.

They're historic.

I don't know that they're considered historic within the definition of CEQA, but yes, they've been those names for a long time.

Do we have any other questions or comments?

Go ahead. So my question is... Did we save all the previous signs? Like, are we spending more money to, like, are we spending a lot of money to, you know, pretty much to do the whole thing over, or are we gonna use the same signs that we had before?

Yes, so Commissioner Shergill, many of the signs, I believe, if not all of the signs were saved as part of the findings of, you know, approval of this. application, there is no economic finding. So again, we do have most, if not all, of the street names.

And then a lot of people are Fresno people. They're affected by, I mean, they're probably, some of them are probably frustrated. Like, they're like, man, we have to change the whole thing. Are we doing community meetings to maybe help people? Like, if they need any help to change their, you know, with all the addresses and all that? Are we informing the people? How are we informing the people?

So we will inform, if the street name change is adopted by council, we will inform those tenants and owners along that corridor. At this point, there is no money to assist tenants and owners with changing their personal information, but we are in the process for looking for money to help.

Yeah, at least, you know, if people need help, you know, they can call the city hall, maybe have a meeting with the community. So just to assist them, because there are a lot of people that will be affected by this change.

Yes, so we did in the public notice that we published in the Fresno Bee, as well as, again, if it is adopted, we do have a contact information that we can assist tenants and property owners going through the process with changing their information.

And I understand, you know, we published it in the Fresno Bee. I mean, how many people read Fresno Bee actual paper? Are we reminding people online? Are we using an online venue or other multilingual venues to remind people?

So at this point, we just, again, if it is adopted, they'll receive a notice in the mail. Thank you.

I do have something else to say. I just noticed that you said how many people are affected by this, and the reason for the name change is because the amount of women that are affected of the acts that have happened. So before we, I'm not sure if you're aware of the circumstances and the situation of why the name change is occurring, but I understand there's a business effect that they're saying there won't be any charge or any monies that the city will have to pay for this, but I do ask you to think of all the women that are affected and men and people in general that are affected by the acts of this person as well.

Oh, no, no, I don't have a problem with the name change. I just want to make sure our Fresno community is communicated because we're pretty bad at communicating situations. That's why we upset people here sometimes. No, no, I totally have done my research. I know the whole history. But I'm just saying I am more concerned about the Fresno people, just helping them, reminding them. I'm actually for the name change. I have no problem with that.

Okay, thank you for that. I just wanted to make sure you're aware because you didn't mention that, but you mentioned the effects of business and costs.

Like I said, I'm more concerned for the Fresno people who are alive. I want to make sure we kind of.

Yeah, can we limit this portion to asking questions and then before we go out to the public, before we come back for a debate? Thank you.

Sounds good, sounds good. Any other questions or comments? Thank you. Thank you. All right, we'll go ahead and open this to the public. Do we have any individuals who would like to speak in support? Go ahead. Good evening, please state your name, address, and you have three minutes, miss.

My name is Karen Musson and, oh, thank you, thank you. And my address is 5640 Columbia Drive North, Fresno, California, 93727. And yes, I'm here in favor to speak in favor of bringing the names back to their original names. Ms. Bray asked regarding the history of these streets. They're all quite historic. Actually, Ventura Street was named and is placed on maps as early as 1873 in the city of Fresno. California Street was named actually by Leland M. Stanford is when he selected the site of the railroad in 1881. And Kings Canyon Road, of course, you all know, I think, the history of the park. But the Fresno County Board of Supervisors adopted the same name in 1950. So it is the newest road, which is still over 75 years old. but all of the other roads were over a hundred years and have historic significance not only for the city of Fresno but for the state as a whole. So I just want to encourage you to accept the resolution as written and to And I know the business owners and residents would appreciate that as well. It was quite a hardship for them to change the name because they'd been using those names for quite a long time. And I know that they would welcome that they return to Kings Canyon, Ventura, and California Street. Thank you.

Thank you.

You know, I don't know if you're actually interested in the history, but I do have several copies if anybody's interested.

So I will take it.

Thank you.

Thank you so much. All right. Do we have any other individuals who would like to speak in support? Good evening. Please state your name, address, and you have three minutes.

Yes. My name is Jackie Grazier, and I live at 5434 Columbia Drive East, 93727. I live in the Sunnyside area. And you are all asking very good questions. The issue, this issue was a very contentious issue when it went through the City Council and I don't know if it ever came before the Planning Commission. But I am very glad that it has come back to the Planning Commission because it really should have started from this dais and not been so hastily done because I think if the homework had been done originally, I don't think the names would have been changed of these historic streets. When this happened, many of us were very upset. It was a very divisive issue because we were very connected to the history and the identity of Kings Canyon, the gateway to the Sierra. Ventura, where the Armenian church has been located on for over 100 years, and California, which was very important to the African-American community of Fresno. And oddly enough, by the time many of us even knew this was going on, the decision had been made. It was a done deal. We couldn't affect any kind of Let me just say, nobody was listening to us. So, I mean, I feel like this is the very first time I'm speaking in front of a group that is actually listening because It is something that is before you, and you do have the opportunity to do the right thing, which is to return the streets to their original names. We formed a coalition of the three groups, the California group, the Ventura group, and the Kings Canyon group, and we became one community compact. And we have been trying to get this before you for the last three years. And I'm very sorry for the way that it's come back to, because that's not something that we would wish upon anyone. But now you do have the opportunity to return the street names. I believe one of the reasons why those signs weren't thrown away is because we did file a lawsuit which continued the issue. And now here we are at this moment. The street signs are in storage. The name of Mr. Chavez is coming down. And it only makes sense to return the street names to their original historic. They are historic names. So thank you for your time. Appreciate it.

Thank you. Do we have any other individuals who would like to speak in support? All right, I see none. Now we'll move to any individuals who would like to speak. Do you want to speak in support? No, if you want to speak in support, go ahead and approach because I'm going to move forward to the opposition after those two. Please state your name, address, and you have three minutes, sir.

Manuel Silva, 6517 North Hazel Avenue, Fresno, California. Basically, I'm preparing a statement, but not for you guys. I'm preparing a statement, and in that statement, in my arguments, why I would like for... for the street right now, Cesar Chavez Boulevard, to be removed. And I want it to be replaced not with the original names, but I want it to be replaced to honor someone else, another Latino leader who fought for farm workers. And that Latino leader that I'm proposing that we name the street after would be Dolores Huerta. She fought for the campesinos, the farm workers. So I'm suggesting my proposal is Yes, remove Cesar Chavez. We hold our leaders accountable. What he did was terrible. He let us down. We're going through a lot of pain right now, a lot of hurt because We lost a leader. And we need, in the Chicano community, we need leaders. We just heard a lady say right now that they identify with the street. It has historical significance to them. Well, just look at this. In 1993, they voted to, the city council said, yes, we're going to change it to Cesar Chavez Boulevard. Well, after a little while, everyone changed their minds. Jim Patterson, the mayor at the time, he vetoed the measure and when he reached out to the mayor's office, he vetoed the thing. So we had to wait for another 30 years, and 30 years later, with a Latino majority in the city council, they voted six to one to change the name of the street from King's Canyon Avenue, Ventura, and California Avenue. When we say California Avenue, the historical significance, the west side, they had a street name after Martin Luther King, Boulevard, they had a street. They had a school named after Martin Luther King. We just asked for one little street. You know, we want our heroes too, the Chicano community, the Hispanic community. And we were saying that the majority of the people that live on those three streets, the majority of the people that live there, that work there, you know, They're Hispanic, a large, almost 80% of the people live there, so it has a historical significance to them. They identify with that neighborhood. Most of the people that were there 30, 50 years ago, they were white owners. A lot of residents that lived in that area were white. Many of them have passed away. Later on, they moved to the north side of town, but all I can say, that part of town is largely populated by Hispanics. So all we're saying, please, we're just asking for one little thing. Again, I hope they can muster the political leadership, they muster the courage to once again say, We're going to stand with the Latino community. We're going to stand with the farmworker community. We're going to change Cesar Chavez Boulevard, because his name doesn't belong there, but we're not going to go with that proposal to change it to the original schools. No, we're going to go with a proposal to rename it, not Cesar Chavez Boulevard, but rename it Dolores Huerta Boulevard. And all I can say is viva Dolores Huerta, viva los campesinos, and hopefully you can pass this message on to the city council. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, thank you. All right, do we have any other individuals like to speak in support before I move to opposition? All right, I see none. Any individuals like to speak in opposition? Okay, we're gonna go ahead and close public comments. We'll bring it back to the commission. Do we have any questions, comments, motion?

I'd like to make a motion to accept these recommendations, but also with the suggestion that there be some way to figure out how this could get designated as historic names as we just found out they've been around for a long time and my other one is that next time before they change the name in the street they might want to check around and not just do it as it was done the third one is I know the city's looking for money, and a place where there could be some money is in the council members' budgets, where they might each contribute a little money to helping the businesses and the residents who may have had to change, especially the businesses, may have had to change their collateral with the new name. And I'm gonna get in trouble for this one, but We live in a country where you're innocent until proven guilty. And I understand the charges that have been made against Mr. Chavez. And we've seen a lot of this in the past. And I believe that you're not guilty until you're proven innocent. And I'm just opposed to that thought. But anyway, so my motion is to accept the staff's recommendation along with the recommendation that they designate these streets as historic and see if we can get some money from the council members' budgets to help out the people who have spent money to change the names.

All right, so we have a motion on the table.

I just want to ask, Are we getting the public involved with this matter?

Because this is very... Commissioner, what we're going to do is because there's a motion, let's go ahead and see if there's a second. And if there's not a second, then we'll go ahead and allow you to comment on it just because there's already a motion on the table. Is that okay?

Okay. Do we have a second?

Okay.

All right, so no second. Motion dies.

Go ahead. My main question is for the public. Like, I really want the Fresno people to be involved. Of course, historically, our Latino community and all the communities are very important. And farm workers. I mean, I used to pick strawberries in Livingston back in the 90s when I was a child. I mean, it's a back-breaking work. And I told my father, man, you know what, man, this is hard. He says, you better go to school then. I'm like, all right, I'm going to go to school. So here's the thing, are we involving the public? Are we getting input from the public? Like, yes, what happened? Like I said, change the name, 100%. We gotta do what we gotta do. But are we involving the people who are involved, like people who live in the area, people who will be affected by this change, and people with multiple perspectives? Are we getting a public input?

So, Commissioner Shurgill, the extent of the involvement has been notification in the Fresno Bee for this hearing as well as hearing next week at 9.20 a.m. in front of the city council. So if someone proposes a different name or a different proposition, that's the time to propose a different name.

So we want the community to come to the council meeting and propose the name there?

So they can do that or they can provide information via email or phone call on different propositions.

How do people do that? Some people may not know how to, they may want to get involved but they do not understand. Who do they email? Whom do they call?

Yes, so the information is in the Planning Commission agenda as well as it was in the the notice that was in the Fresno Bee. There is contact information within that document.

Can they call the 621 city number?

I'm sorry?

Can they call the 621 city number? The universal number we have, 559-621-CITY?

Yes, if they call that number, they will be relayed to planning on any different names that they're proposing. Thank you.

Thank you, Israel. I'd like to make a motion to recommend approval to the city council.

I'll second that.

All right, so we'll go ahead and just take individual votes on this, please. Motion was made by Commissioner Lede. We have a second by Vice Chair Bray.

Commissioner Lede. Yes. Commissioner Shergill.

Yes.

Vice Chair Bray. Yes. Chair Vang.

Yes. Motion passes. All right, do we have any reports from the Secretary?

Good evening. I have nothing new to report tonight.

All right, so even after a month that I haven't seen you, there's no reports? Okay. Do we have any unscheduled oral communications? I see none. Time is 6.32. Meeting is adjourned. Have a good evening. Thank you.

6.30, got to take her to Vegas.