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pismo's fansler lot

Aerial photography in a City of Fresno report shows the property in question near Blackstone and Nees avenues.

published on January 19, 2023 - 5:03 PM
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After nearly three years of developments that saw both the beginning and end of a global pandemic, the Fresno City Council voted Thursday to rezone a parcel of land in a prime commercial corridor.

Dave Fansler, owner of Pismo’s Coastal Grill, previously proposed to move his restaurant in the Villaggio Shopping Center 100 yards west of its current location near San Pablo and Nees avenues. The City of Fresno stepped in, requiring a rezone of the plot of land in question.

Fansler’s parcel had been zoned as high density residential. With a vote of 5-2, the Council amended the status of the land, rezoning it to regional mixed use.

Councilmembers Nelson Esparza and Miguel Arias cast the two nay votes.

The 1.73 acre location was purchased from the Villaggio Shopping Center by Fansler in 2015 originally with the intent of developing it into residential real estate.

Fansler later changed course, opting to relocate nearby Pismo’s to a new, larger location.

This move caused complications with the city’s planning regulations, which require both high density residential and regional mixed usage plots to house 30 to 45 units per acre. Regional mixed zoning allows commercial usage as well.

Transitioning the zone into regional mixed use means Fansler would either be responsible for providing the required housing units or presenting an appropriate, alternative parcel of land that was capable of providing the same amount of housing.

Councilmember Miguel Arias posed multiple questions regarding the parcel of land, including where additional housing units would be located should the land be rezoned.

“The complaints I get from my district is in Northeast Fresno we continuously downzone high-density housing, and then we seek to upzone high-density housing in the southern part of the city,” Arias said in his closing statement prior to the vote.

Arias’ main concern is that the rezoned area would create a burden on other districts to accommodate much-needed housing should its use ultimately be mostly commercial.

Fansler has indicated he is unsure of his plans for the property at the moment.

“My preference would be, if the council is to move in this direction, that you require the applicant, if he chooses to not build residential housing in a parcel zoned for residential, that he recover those residential units from that area and not impose them on any other part of the city,” Arias said.

The council’s decision on Thursday places the ball in Fansler’s court to develop the land — be it commercially or fulfilling his original plan to develop the land into residential real estate.


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