01-27-10 Big Vote Eve

Today is the day before the City Council’s big vote on the Fulton Corridor Specific Plan and the Downtown Neighborhoods Community Plan. Every remaining brain cell I have has been focused on this effort for weeks. This is the culmination of years of hope and effort that urban Fresno would finally have good planning. Everything is lined-up. The community has been coming out in support in wave after wave. The City Council has budgeted for the plans. Reputable firms from around the country have submitted proposals and a selection committee of residents, downtown property owners and City Department leaders have selected their top firm Moule and Polyzoides. We have endorsements from dozens of community leaders and property owners. Elliott has created a great presentation for tomorrow morning (Suzanne Bertz Rosa will be proud).  Here is a link to the presentation:

https://owa.fresno.gov/owa/redir.aspx?C=18d8c243baa24c9399164579d2feeecc&URL=http%3a%2f%2fm3.fresno.gov%2fupload%2ffiles%2f111125937%2fPlancontractpresentationtoCouncil%2c01-28-10.ppt



I started my day with a meeting with Safeer Hopton who is an expert at co-ops. Safeer has expressed an interest in helping the Lowell neighborhood develop a co-op grocery store.


9:00 We had our Agenda Conference meeting with department directors and City Council staff. The meeting focuses on the following week's agenda, so Andy Souza stepped aside to let Interim City Manager Bruce Rudd take the reins, since he will be on the dais next week. It was a symbolic passing of the torch and the end of an era. As always, Andy handles these moments with grace, style and humor.


10:00 We had our weekly interdepartmental meeting on downtown revitalization. We discussed the downtown homeless population and the efforts that Greg Barfield is making in solving the issues with the F and Ventura encampment. I talked about the specific plan item on the agenda tomorrow. We also began discussions about how to best market the new downtown development incentives and the value that the plans will add to future developments.


11:00 John Dugan and I met with the Mayor to review the presentation for tomorrow's specific plan hearing.


12:00 Elaine Robles and I ran to Robertito's to pick up some tacos and horchata for the crew back at the office. We worked on some final changes to the presentation.


1:00 Wilma Quan, Elliott, Elaine and I had a conference call with the planning consultants to review their presentation.


2:00 I met with Gary Schulz from the Raisin Administrative Committee and Stan Martin from Civic Center Square to detail the parking requirements for downtown's newest tenants. The RAC is a huge step toward re-establishing downtown as a center for agribusiness. We want to make sure that they have a great downtown Fresno experience.

3:00 I met with John Dugan, Assistant City manager Bruce Rudd and Mayoral Chief of Staff Georgeanne White to talk about design requirements for new developments. We talked about infrastructure planning and issues like Floor Area Ratios that will add to the density of downtown.

I had a little time to finish a grant proposal for a downtown public market (indoor farmers' market).


5:30 Elaine Robles, Amy Huerta and I attended the Housing and Community Development Commission meeting to give them an overview of our department and to fill them in on our revitalization plans and focus on locally-owned businesses.