SELMA – A developer is looking to bring more than 150 acres of mostly vacant land into the city limits on the north side of Selma.
The Selma City Council agreed to pre-zone the land in question and annex it into the city — pending approval from the Fresno County Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCo) — at its Sept. 2 meeting. The proposed annexation is primarily for land north of Dinuba Avenue, on both sides of McCall Avenue, and includes nearly 153 acres comprising 20 properties, plus one additional 20-acre property.
Jeff Roberts, a planning consultant, submitted the initial application for the approximate 150 acres of land. After hearing about the proposal, resident Allison Ying Bauer submitted an additional request for her property along McCall Avenue to be included in the annexation application.
“We’re ready, willing and anxious to move forward with the LAFCo process,” Roberts said.
The council ended up voting 4-1, with Mayor pro tem Sarah Guerra voting against, to recommend that LAFCo approve the initial annexation application. Guerra joined the rest of the council, however, in voting to include Ying Bauer’s request.
With Ying Bauer’s property, the full area proposed for annexation includes parcels mostly north of Dinuba Avenue between Wright Street and Mill Ditch Avenue, as well as a small parcel immediately to the west of Wright Street.
The area also includes six properties in the southwest corner of Dinuba and McCall Avenues that are not currently within the city limits. They are the only parcels south of Dinuba Avenue between Mitchell Avenue to the west and Mill Ditch Avenue to the east that are not in the city limits.
Annexation impacts
Two residents who would be impacted by this spoke against the annexation at the public hearing. Gladys Griffith and Jacqueline Harper live on the south side of Dinuba Avenue and said they do not want to be incorporated into the city limits.
“I was not pleased about this, since I oppose taking good, fertile farmland to turn it into urban sprawl,” Griffith said.
Griffith added that she felt misled by the notices sent by the city about the annexation, as she believed the notice said the annexation would not include her property. Further, both her and Harper said they were concerned about the potential impact the annexation would have on their expenses, particularly those related to their property tax bills.
“We learned that there would be fees charged to the properties that contained residences on them,” Griffith said. “When we asked what those fees were, the answer given was ‘some percent of the property’s valuation.’ That can amount to thousands of dollars — that would definitely affect us senior citizens living on fixed income.”
Resident Mandeep Singh also voiced his own concerns for Griffith and Harper, his neighbors. He said he was not aware of the annexation and had not received a notice from the city until the two women knocked on his door. Singh asked the council and city staff to clarify whether or not they would be charged extra taxes or be required to connect their homes to the city’s water and sewer systems.
Deputy City Manager Jerome Keene said that homeowners would not be required to immediately connect to city services if they have existing, functional services connected to their homes. If they get to a point where their services, such as a septic tank, no longer operate or they need to upgrade them, they would need to connect to the city’s services at that time.
Additionally, Keene pointed out that the overall county property tax of 1% will not change regardless of whether someone resides in the city limits. The main difference between county and city property taxes have to do with how residents pay for their garbage disposal and sewer services.
County and city residents in the area pay the same school district tax assessments; city residents pay just one additional tax, Measure P.
Potential development
According to the application submitted to the Selma Planning Commission, the land is owned by Corbyn Raven, owner of Raven Custom Homes, and Marjorie Lund, who is listed as a trustee. Roberts said he is a sub-consultant to the owners’ planning consultant Vang Inc. Consulting Engineers.
About two-thirds of the total area being requested for annexation would be for potential development, according to a project limits map included in the annexation application. The council’s approval of the application was not an approval for any development on the land; any future project will need to go through the entitlement process.
As part of the annexation application, the council also approved pre-zoning the land, meaning that once it is incorporated into the city, it will have a specific land use designation assigned to it. Roberts said the zoning designations requested matched the zones already identified in the Selma 2035 General Plan.
These zones include 59 acres of low density residential, 80 acres of medium-low density residential, 4.5 acres of medium-high density residential, 4.8 acres of high density residential and about 1.5 acres of a neighborhood commercial zone.
The neighborhood commercial zone is located in the southwest corner of Dinuba and McCall, where Singh’s property currently sits. With the zone change, Singh would not be able to rebuild his home if it were to burn down, though he did not speak to his opinion on this at the public hearing. The remainder of the existing properties would not be impacted by the zoning designations.
In his staff report, Keene said the annexation application is consistent with the city’s general plan, the city has the ability to provide adequate public services when the time comes and the annexation project is exempt from any additional environmental review.
Connection to any city services would not occur until later on in the potential development process, however.
Keene noted that annexation of the land into the city would give Selma full control over the intersection of Dinuba and McCall Avenue, so the city will not have to secure the right-of-way for any future projects that occur in that area. Additionally, being within the city limits will give the city code enforcement jurisdiction at that intersection.
Public noticing considerations
The issues raised by residents also brought up a separate issue of how the city is sending out public notices for things like the annexation.
“I’m just a little bit disturbed in the comments that Mr. Singh’s neighbors … mentioned that they were not notified, and that’s disturbing, because they have lived there for many, many years, and not to be notified or misinformed by the city is a little disturbing,” Guerra said.
Griffith and Harper did not say they did not receive public notices, just that they felt they were misled. Singh, however, confirmed he did not receive a notice. This was likely because Singh more recently purchased his property, Keene said. The city relies on the county’s property tax assessment roll to determine who to send notices to, and so their information is only as updated as the assessment roll.
Still, Keene said that if the council directs them to, city staff can start to send out public notices through certified mail to ensure that all residents receive them. He added that the city will forward the correct property owner information to LAFCo to ensure that notices for the eventual LAFCo public hearing get sent to the correct people.
With the council’s approval of the annexation, the application will next be sent to LAFCo, which has the official say on all annexations in the county. Keene said the process for LAFCo to review the application and hold its own public hearing is likely to take three to four months, with the process wrapping up in approximately six months.
Banning animal abandonment
Following the approval of the annexation, the council held another public hearing for the second reading of the city’s animal abandonment ordinance. The ordinance makes it a misdemeanor — punishable by up to a year in jail, a $5,000 fine or both a fine and jail time — for any person to abandon an animal within city limits.
City Attorney Neal Costanzo explained that the city can only enforce the ordinance if the abandonment is committed in front of a police officer or is captured on video that is then provided to the police department. Misdemeanors can essentially only be prosecuted if the individual is caught in the act.
Still, Costanzo said the ordinance is all about deterring anyone from abandoning their animals, “telling people that if we catch you doing this, or one of our citizens who’s responsible enough to report it sees you doing this, you’re in a world of trouble.”
Mayor Scott Robertson thanked Oceguera for his work on making sure the ordinance was brought to the council. He also said the next step should be for the city to develop an anti-breeding ordinance, which Costanzo said is currently being reviewed by the California Department of Consumer Affairs.
The council unanimously voted to approve the ordinance, which will go into effect in 30 days, on Oct. 2.
