Sierra2theSea

Visalia Staples Will Move Next Door

The Visalia Staples store on South Mooney will relocate to a downsize location in the same Dick Sporting Goods-anchored shopping center according to a plan filed with the City of Visalia. The office supply retailer submitted tenant improvement plans on a smaller 17,000 sf storefront next to Dicks enabling them to vacate their larger 29,000 sf store just south.Sources say the vacated space will provide a chance for a new retailer to Visalia to locate here.

Visalia Walmart,Lemoore Walmart On Different Paths

The City of Visalia is recirculating the EIR on the expansion of the Noble Ave Walmart after the Superior Court found in favor of plaintiffs that more analysis was needed on construction impacts of the expansion that will add a groceries.The city expects the new analysis should satisfy the court and the addition of a grocery store allowed.Right now the city is awaiting comments with the final plan to be certified by city council.  Also in town Walmart is building a new Neighbored Grocery Store at Demaree and Houston.

In Lemoore it appears Walmart may be throwing in the towel.After years of delay, construction of a new Walmart Supercenter near the college is stalled again after the big retailer restarted a new EIR earlier this year but has not responded to city questions for months now. City planner Holly Smyth says a month ago Walmart who owns the 21 acres, put up a For Sale sign on the parcel.

Alltech, the Kentucky-based animal feed supplement company has filed for its design review permit at the City of Tulare to build their new complex near the Agricenter. The city planning commission will hear the design review application in late November to construct a 10,600 sq. ft. single story office, a 59,000 sq. ft. two-story warehouse, and a 50’ tall silo on an 8.45-acre parcel, includes associated on-site parking and landscaping. The office building will house sales, administration, and lab. The warehouse will include product storage, a blending operation, and a coating operation for livestock feed supplements. The facility will serve the natural food supplement needs of area agribusiness. The site is located on the west side of Laspina Street, south of Paige Avenue and zoned M-1 (Light Industrial).

City of Lemoore has more new home subdivisions builders this month. Planner Holly Smyth says besides Lennar,Paul Daley and Raven Homes the city has two new builders who have invested in new home subdivisions that include Woodside Homes and Wathen Castanos who pulled permits for 53 new homes, the most in three years.

On the industrial front the city is annexing 195 acres of industrial land into the city limits in the next few weeks.The property is located along Hwy 41 south of the city.

Also pending is a decision by the Board of Supervisor about a plan by  land owners to cut up some farm land into smaller parcels with home sites to make them more marketable  located north of Leprino West. Leprino is objecting.

City of Dinuba is preparing to demolish four Ave 416 buildings soon issuing permits to knock down an antique store, a home,a tile shop and a market building on the way to the widening of the busy road all the way to the city limits and on to the Kings River bridge.

Porterville: Tulare County is issuing  an EIR for the new proposed jail adjacent the new Porterville state funded courthouse The EIR says the county facility will house 514 prisoners and have a staff of 172. The project sits on 36 acres.

Fresno: Walmart has taken out a grading permit to build a new store at 6855 N. Willow – a partially built shopping center with a Walgreens and TMobil store.

The FoodsCo on Kings Canyon in Fresno in will get a new fueling station as more grocers get gas.
Selma: The community will get a 12,000 sf performing arts center being built by local builder Dwight Nelson valued at $800,000.
Mendota: Logolso Farms is building a new 12,000 sf packing facility  valued at near $400,000.The company grows grapes.

No Longer Town Divided With Three New Crossings

Tulare received some good news this month. The California Transportation Commission approved the city application for matching funds to build a new 2000ft pedestrian bridge across the Union Pacific Railroad tracks that divides the town.The $6.8 million project that will begin design work in January will connect the two sections of the cross town Santa Fe Trail that dead ends now in midtown and will be the third major crossing of these busy tracks in Tulare.The projects are a major stimulus to the local economy.

With 20 freight  trains a day there can be a 25 minute delay for people trying to get from the west side of town to the east where virtually all the city services,health care, shopping and most businesses are.UP plan a double track soon as well.According to the city application,lack of a grade separation in the Downtown area has not only been a safety hazard, it has depressed prices in the poorer west side town, the proverbial ‘other side of the tracks.’

One grade crossing at Cartmill on the north end of town was just completed.In November the city will go out to bid on the Bardsely grade separation, a tunnel under the tracks that will carry cars and trucks through the busiest part of town.

Construction work on both the new Santa Fe Trail bridge and Bardsley underpass could be going on simultaneously in 2014 says city engineer Mike Whitlock. Construction of the Bardsley grade separation will begin in early 2013 and take 18 months while the pedestrian bridge will start in late 2013 and take a year. The wide spanning bridge will look similar to the Goshen pedestrian bridge over 99.

“The trail is heavily used by people walking and biking to work, to the Library or shopping, as well as for recreation.  The J Street over-crossing will give trail users a safe way to cross both a busy street and a busy rail line.” says city analyst Laurel Barton.
The Santa Fe Trail is planned to run 4.5miles through the city with about 2 miles of the paved walking and biking trail built out already. But users are stopped cold at, the town will be joined.The trail is planned to go well south of Tulare as well to join up with the Santa Fe trial in Visalia under construction right now in south Visalia.
Both cities acquired the right of way when the track was abandoned several decades ago.
Funding the bridge is the state allocation of $3.38 million in Prop 18 funds and $3.4 million in local, voter approved Measure R monies.
The city says the project will lead to increased safety,public convenience ,improved air quality and environmental justice  benefits that will help increase property values on the West side of town with improved access.
Boosting rail traffic  on the UP line is an expected  construction of a double track in part to access the old grain mill on the west aide town south of the new Bardsley under crossing.
Funding of the three new crossing in Tulare fills a great need says the city application with 16 miles between cross track grade separations currently. The city is also expecting more development on the west side of town so the crossing will help facilitate commerce and jobs for the community.

Coming just a few days before the big Presidential debate touched on the subject of US Navy ship strength,the news here is that the Navy is not just playing “battleship” but is offering a more flexible hybrid ship able to launch both rotary aircraft the the Joint Strike Fighter heading in the next few years to the West Coast. Local hope that West Coast  base is NAS Lemoore. An announcement is expected soon.The new assault ship will be based in San Diego.

The newest amphibious assault ship America (LHA 6) was christened Oct. 20 at a ceremony in Pascagoula, Miss.

“When America joins the fleet, we’ll be a stronger, more flexible, and a better Marine Corps team. We need this ship,” said Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mark Ferguson during the ceremony.

The 844-foot ship will be a flexible, multi-mission platform necessary to quickly respond to incidents worldwide and provide forward presence and project power as part of joint, interagency, and multinational maritime expeditionary forces.

America also marks the first of the Navy’s newest class of amphibious assault ships replacing the Tarawa class. It is considered to be the next generation “big-deck” amphibious ship. The new ship will be more capable to support current and future aircraft such as the tilt-rotor MV-22 Osprey and Joint Strike Fighter.

“It’s kind of like a mini-aircraft carrier,” said Lynne Pace, the ship’s sponsor prior to breaking a bottle of champagne over the bow.

As an amphibious ship, its mission will include embarking, transporting, controlling, inserting, sustaining and extracting elements of a marine air-ground task force, and support forces by helicopters and tilt-rotor aircraft.

“To the crew, you are charged with a very special responsibility between now and the commissioning of this ship. You will set the standard of excellence. You will set the personality,” Ferguson told the ship’s crew.

This is the fourth ship in Navy history to be named America. The first was a 74-gun ship-of-of-the-line that was used by the Continental Navy that was then presented to the king of France as a gift in appreciation for his country’s support to the new nation. The preceding America was a Kitty-Hawk class aircraft carrier that played key roles between the Vietnam War and Operation Desert Storm.

Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss., laid the keel in July 2009 and plans to deliver the ship in 2013 after conducting a series of sea trials.

The USS America will be homeported in San Diego.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has announced a proposed rule to remove the Valley Elderberry Longhorn Beetle from the list of threatened species.
The delisting will be important to landowners, flood control agencies, and irrigation districts as well as municipalities and other agencies throughout the Central Valley as they will no longer be required to seek prior authorization for the incidental take of the once rare beetle.
The beetle depends upon the valley elderberry bush that  grows along streams, rivers, flood control channels and  irrigation ditches particularly in the Central Valley.  To insure the beetle survives these agencies must preserve the habitat for the beetle, the bush.
The federal notice said that at the listing in 1980, it was known from 10 occurrence records at 3 locations:Merced County, Sacramento County, and Yolo County. Currently, it is known from 201 occurrence records at 26 locations, including much of the San Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys from Shasta County in the northern Sacramento Valley to Kern County in the southern San Joaquin Valley. The listing as endangered came after loss of  some 90% of the Valley’s original riparian habitat.
In 2010, the USFWS  received a petition from the Pacific Legal Foundation requesting that the Service remove the
valley elderberry longhorn beetle, which is currently listed as a threatened species under the Act, from the Federal
List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife. In 2011, USFWS  published a 90- day finding on the petition, which
concluded that the petition contained substantial information that delisting the beetle may be warranted.
“Today’s announcement is good news for California’s economy, for property rights, and for honesty and integrity in environmental regulations,” said Pacific Legal Foundation attorney Damien Schiff, “The beetle isn’t endangered or threatened, so heavy-handed restrictions on landowners and businesses aren’t needed in order to help the beetle.”
Finding some elderberry bush in their way has cost development projects in the region both time and money to mitigate a take of the species if a bush had to be removed.
The Porterville Recorder noted last week that “As a way to mitigate projects in Porterville, the city in 2008 created a safe haven for the insect’s habitat — a mitigation site, which requires the maintenance and monitoring of 58 elderberry trees.
Over the past decade the city has spent an excess of $500,000 on the site along the Tule River off of Highway 190 just west Avenue 274.
City Manager John Lollis said any action to delist the bush would be welcomed by the city.”
The public comment period on the proposed rule is scheduled to close on December 3, 2012.