Arias’ multi-million-dollar proposal, “Rebuild the Neighborhoods of South Tower” is part of the Rebuild Fresno initiative, which aims at incentivizing affordable, market-driven infill housing development in the City of Fresno.

Over 100 years ago, a promise was made to a south Fresno neighborhood of cement curbs and sidewalks.

Today, a city council member wants to help keep that promise.

Fresno City Council member Miguel Arias invited local media and community members of the South Tower neighborhood to unveil his proposal to rebuild the area and fulfill an over 100-year old broken promise.

Arias’ multi-million-dollar proposal, “Rebuild the Neighborhoods of South Tower,” is part of the Rebuild Fresno initiative, which aims at incentivizing affordable, market-driven infill housing development in the City of Fresno.

The announcement was made Wednesday on the southwest corner of Dudley Avenue and Wilson Avenue, next to Muir Elementary School.

Arias said he picked that neighborhood because it perfectly represents the neighborhoods in south Fresno that have been left behind for decades and suffer from eroding infrastructure.

Arias said that the City of Fresno, for the first time, will receive more than $100 million in sales tax revenue in this fiscal year. That tax revenue, along with $250 million from federal rescue funds, $40 million from Measure P for Parks a year and an anticipated $10 million in cannabis tax revenue, gives the city a historic opportunity to invest in south Fresno neighborhoods that have been left behind, Arias said.

“We have still parts of this neighborhood that don’t have basic sidewalks, curbs and gutters, right across from an elementary school,” Arias said. “This part of town was annexed to the city more than 110 years ago, and to this day, it still doesn’t have the basic infrastructure you’ll find across other parts of the city.”

Arias said that he will be recommending dozens of neighborhoods in South Fresno for revitalization at the city’s budget hearing next week.

He noted grass growing in cracks in the street, overhanging trees near sidewalks that need trimming and crumbling roads that cannot be adequately fixed with pothole repairs.

Arias said that neighborhood surrounding Muir Elementary was mentioned to the Mayor’s office during the city’s budget preparation, but it is not in the mayor’s proposed budget, along with many other proposals from other council members.

Arias said this means that the city council will be active during the budget hearings to make motions to include these forgotten neighborhoods in the infrastructure investment plans of the city.

With the high demand for housing in the Central Valley, including Fresno, Arias said that there will be a recommendation during Thursday’s council meeting to establish an incentive program for infill development of new housing in empty dirt parcels in the inner city.

This will involve setting aside $5 million in Rescue funds to convert any empty parcel into new housing. Any parcel smaller than five acres will have its impact fees weighed and will receive a credit of up to 50% of any offsite improvements.

Arias said that developers that build in the outskirts of Fresno get credit from the city for installing sidewalks, curbs, gutters, water and gas lines. Developers building in the inner city do not get credits because there is an assumption that the infrastructure already exists and no offsite improvements are needed.

“Whenever a developer comes in and says, ‘I want to build a new home or an apartment complex in this empty lot,’ the developer is forced to improve all the infrastructure that has been deteriorating for 100 years in the inner part of the city, and they don’t get any credit,” Arias said.

Developers then pass on those costs in the form of higher rents to residents.

Arias said that he wants to remind Mayor Jerry Dyer, and the rest of the city, of the promises that were made over 100 years ago.