Clovis housing project in technology park clears hurdle. Why some residents are upset?

Reality Check is a Fresno Bee series holding those in power to account and shining a light on their decisions. Have a tip? Email tips@fresnobee.com.

The City of Clovis has removed a huge roadblock to a controversial student housing project that residents say is being handled in an inappropriate manner. Some residents critical of the project say they don’t want multifamily development near their homes, while others say the city is giving preferential treatment to a prominent local developer.

Clovis City Council voted 3-1 to rezone several parcels within the 333-acre Clovis Research and Technology Park located along Highway 168 to allow for student housing. Councilmember Matt Basgall recused himself from the vote because he is a CHSU employee. Only Mayor Lynne Ashbeck voted against the rezone, saying she wanted more time for city staff to work on the proposal and more guardrails on the project.

The vote wasn’t to approve a specific project. City officials said the vote was an administrative “cleanup action” to remove inconsistencies among the General Plan, Development Code, Zoning, and Architectural Guidelines to streamline future development within the park.

But the changes also will clear the way for California Health Science University — a private, for-profit medical school located inside the park 333-acre Clovis Research and Technology Park area — to build 70 acres of student housing on Alluvial Avenue near Temperance Avenue in east Clovis.

Several Clovis residents railed against the change, arguing that the proposed student housing development would disrupt the “Clovis way of life” and create traffic, stress local schools, and lower their property values.

Others said the city is giving special treatment to Darius Assemi, president and chief executive of Granville Homes. Assemi is a prominent local developer as well as owner and board member of CHSU.

“There’s one person who benefits from this, and only one,” said Clovis resident Bob Davis during public comment.

The student housing development — proposed by the Assemi Group and the Assemi family’s Granville Homes — has been pitched as student and faculty housing to support the nearby CHSU. The proposal would include up to 250 single-family homes, 64 townhomes and up to 400 apartment units.

But some Clovis residents, including David Wright, said city staff has not clearly defined what is meant by “university-affiliated housing,” or created guardrails to ensure the housing will actually be used by students. Others think it’s just a way to push through market-rate housing without having to pay the developer fees typically required of housing projects. These fees support city services such as trash, sewer and police.

“You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig,” said David Gilmore, an attorney representing Clovis residents Martin and Debbie Britz. Gilmore criticized the city for not conducting a new environmental review based on the proposed zoning changes.

Senior City Planner McKencie Perez said during the Aug. 19 council meeting that when future development projects are proposed, they will be subjected to environmental impact reviews as well as traffic, water and sewer analyses. Future developers will also be required to pay school impact fees to Clovis Unified School District, she said.

“Once we have a project, we will be sitting down with neighbors and city of Clovis staff for their feedback,” Assemi said in a statement to The Bee.

Some residents say they are considering legal action against the city.

“In my opinion, what the staff is doing is the developer’s work,” Gilmore said. “If the developer wants to have the property rezoned, the developer should apply to have it rezoned (and follow) the process like everybody else and pay all the fees that are required to be paid to do that.”

The Aug. 19 vote rezoned 63 parcels within the R-T park. Property owners in areas with inconsistent zoning were able to choose alternative zoning options: Forty-one chose the research-technology zoning option and 22 chose an “overlay” option that allows for R-T and residential uses. Eleven of the 63 parcels are owned by or connected to Granville, city staff said.

‘Cozy ties’ between city, developer

The Clovis Research and Technology Park was designed in the late 1990s by city leaders hoping to attract technology jobs to the area.

The park includes property that is specifically zoned for research and technology uses, but it also has pockets of residential zoning to accommodate homes that pre-date the creation of the park. It also includes some mixed-use commercial zoning.

But the city failed to attract the tech companies or the jobs, so the land largely remained unoccupied.

City and business leaders say it’s time to re-purpose the land since it didn’t attract the desired businesses.

“We waited over 20 years, really nothing came,” Mayor Pro Tem Vong Mouanoutoua said during the Aug. 19 meeting.

That changed with the arrival of the CHSU medical school.

In November 2023, The Bee obtained hundreds of emails that show a Clovis planning department had cozy relationships with the Assemis.

Ricky Caperton, a former senior city planner with the city of Clovis, interacted with the Assemis in ways that ethics and municipal planning experts told The Bee raised questions about transparency and in whose interest the city was serving.

These experts raised concerns about the nature of the exchanges, saying it appeared to be a potential conflict of interest for the city official to be doing things that are beyond the norm for the way they should handle development projects.

‘They are good for Clovis’

Ashbeck acknowledged before the Aug. 19 council vote that some of the “guardrails” on the student housing project proposal could have been done earlier.

Still, she said, “we are better for the medical school. We want them here. They are good for Clovis.”

Florence Dunn, president of CHSU, said in a June 27 letter to the council said that the college expected nearly 600 students enrolled for in-person classes on campus at CHSU in fall 2024. Approximately 70% of these medical students are coming from outside the Central Valley and need housing, she said.

CHSU’s College of Osteopathic Medicine has been accredited as of April 4, 2024. This accreditation is valid for seven years.