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The measure for the City of Fresno to enter into a financial agreement with the State of California for an ambitious urban development project is expected to take place on Thursday.

In Fresno City Hall Tuesday, Mayor Lee Brand announced that the Transformative Climate Communities initiative will go before Fresno City Council at their regular meeting on Thursday. It is expected to pass.

The result will be $66.5 million in cap-and-trade funds going toward Transform Fresno, a series of projects aimed at greening, education and economic development in a connecting sector of Chinatown and downtown and southwest Fresno.

“Those [neighborhoods] represent the most challenged spoke of the development wheel of our city,” said H Spees, director of strategic initiatives for the mayor’s office. “And to make an investment in that spoke and to strengthen it for future development is transformational.”

 

 

According to Spees, more than 60 projects were put forward by the Community Steering Committee. These included projects from representatives from all three neighborhoods, including groups like the Fresno Housing Authority, the Fresno Metro Black Chamber of Commerce and the State Center Community College District. These 60 projects were then whittled down to 24.

“Their voices shaped the narrative,” Brand said. We held a number of public meetings, where hundreds of citizens shared their ideas on using TCC funding.”

According to Fresno City Councilmember Miguel Arias, the Transform Fresno Project is expected to come to fruition by February 2023.

See the Business Journal’s in-depth reporting on TCC’s status since its approval from the Feb. 15 edition of the paper here.