March 18, 2024- “We just want it to be done right, because we’ve only got one shot,” Quail Run residents echo.
The Clovis City Council meeting on March 18th ran long, and consisted primarily of a public hearing about a new Wilson Homes development along Shepherd, between North Fowler and North Sunnyside avenues next to the Quail Run rural neighborhood.
Supporters of the new development spoke highly of the new dense housing and its price for homebuyers. Dillon Robinson, second generation owner of Sierra Fire Protection said, “Affordable housing is not just a luxury. Think of the families that will benefit from these homes [and] the children that will grow up in them.”
Residents of the Quail Run neighborhood voiced their concerns over the drastic increase in housing density.
With the new development, the area would be rezoned from Rural Density, at 1 house every 2 acres, to Medium-High Density, which allows for up to 15 houses per single acre. The proposed density of the new development would be 7.77 houses per acre, totalling over new 600 homes in the 155 acre development.
The proposal also includes amenities such as walking trails, a public park, and extra funding of $162,000 from Wilson Homes directly to the County of Fresno to improve Sunnyside Avenue, with increased traffic from the new development in mind.
Residents of the 18 houses in the Quail Run neighborhood attended the public hearing to voice their disapproval of the project, and concerns were based primarily on the increased density of traffic.
Quail Run resident Patrick Menagh displayed a map showing the driving routes out of the proposed neighborhood, and to the Clovis North area schools. The two options were to the north, using Behymer Avenue, or south to Sunnyside Avenue. “To think that 605 vehicles are going to travel south [to Sunnyside] is crazy,” Menagh said.
Other neighbors corroborated Menagh’s statements, mentioning the lack of sidewalks on their stretch of Sunnyside, the poor quality of Shepherd Avenue by the new development, and the single-lane traffic circle serving the Lennar development on the west side of Sunnyside Avenue.
Quail Run resident Jill Poulsen said, “In the morning or after school it will only take 38 cars to cut off the entrance and exit to all of these neighborhoods at once.”
Additionally, Quail Run resident Jacqueline Ruiz voiced her concerns over the fairness of the neighborhood meetings between Wilson Homes and the Quail Run residents, “The number of meetings [is not] indicative of a collaborative process.” Ruiz said the neighborhood’s last meaningful engagement with Wilson Homes was in January of 2020, and since then she has felt that she and her neighbors’ concerns have fallen on deaf ears. “We received tacit threats that Wilson homes could bypass City Council altogether and build apartments,” Ruiz said.
As the plan developed over 5 years, Ruiz said that Wilson Homes initially proposed 250 to 300 that would be cohesive with the surrounding rural neighborhood.
Quail Run resident Jared Callister says, “Everyone I… talk to who is not paid by or affiliated with Wilson is… shocked to realize the amount of homes that will go in that small area.”
Callister revealed that the Clovis Planning Commission considered this project in November and every member voted “no” with concern to density and traffic in the area. Callister quoted Commissioner Bedsted, who remarked on the jump from Rural Density to Medium-High Density, and said that the commission wants Clovis to be walkable and safe.
After the public hearing, Mayor Ashbeck stated that she would prefer that the County of Fresno, the City of Clovis, Wilson Homes, and the residents of Quail Run have 30 days of guided meditation to make changes to the project.
The rest of the council agreed, as did representatives of the parties present, and the council approved only three of the 9 resolutions making up the proposal, leaving the rest for a later date.
The next city council meeting will be held on April 8th, 2024, as the April 1st meeting was canceled.
Full agendas, minutes, and videos of Clovis City Council meetings can be found at CityOfClovis.com.