FOWLER – A proposed housing project set to develop on the west side of town has made another incremental advancement.
On Aug. 19, the Fowler City Council unanimously passed an ordinance to prezone a potential 103-home housing development, which is set to be built on the north side of East South Avenue between Sunnyside Avenue and Clovis Avenue. The ordinance, which advanced with a 4-1 vote at its first hearing on Aug. 5, formally designates the land to be used for medium-low density, single-family housing.
This ordinance was one of two items attached to the housing project, and thus required two separate votes. Since it passed the first hearing relatively smoothly, it was mostly a formality that the ordinance should be heard and voted on a second time.
“I was the ‘no’ on this one, and I know that for as much as I don’t want it…we have very little pushback on this,” Mayor Juan Mejia said. “But I think that if we didn’t have that lively, spirited conversation in the last meeting, we wouldn’t have come up with the conditions that we have put in place.”
Although the initial hearing for the ordinance passed with little opposition, the real bulk of the Aug. 5 hearing related to the approval of the housing development’s tentative map.
The project itself was highly contentious amongst the council during the first hearing, with most feeling that the city’s current water system could not support an additional 103 homes while still maintaining adequate water pressure for existing residents. Councilmember Karnig Kazarian even expressed a wish that the council could simply stop the project right then and there.
However, protections from the Housing Accountability Act prevented the council from outright denying the project without a clear impact on public health, and Fowler City Planner Dawn Marple’s presentation supported that the city could easily sustain the new development. In a compromise, the council voted 3-2 to approve the project’s tentative map under the condition that no construction begins until the upcoming Well No. 9 is online and has been tested for water pressure.
Following the bedgrudging approval of the tentative map, the council quickly voted to approve the prezoning ordinance, with Mayor Juan Mejia being the only vote in opposition.
Now that both items have been approved, annexation of the project site’s land can begin. Marple estimates an additional 18-24 months for a building permit to be issued for the project, assuming the council’s condition has been met.
EDITOR’S NOTE: A previous version of this article was updated on Aug. 26, 2025 at 4:48 p.m. pst to correct the name and title of Fowler Mayor Juan Mejia.
