ENVISIONING THE FUTURE

STRATEGIC PLANNING WORKSHOP:
On January 17 and 18, 2014, the Visalia City Council met at Rawhide Stadium for its annual strategic planning workshop.  The first day was spent reviewing where the city is at on various projects, including the general plan update, the homeless issue, city properties and the sign ordinance.  Saturday was spent brainstorming and attempting to peer into the future 20 years.  If we had unlimited financial resources, what would the city leaders like to accomplish?  The various department heads made presentations as to what they foresaw as to future equipment needs, and capabilities.  For instance, Fire Chief McBee predicted new firefighting technologies that will be available in the not to distant future.  Councilmembers finished up by discussing their wish list, including items such as a new city hall/civic center, improvements to north Visalia and Oval park, a new aquatics center, renewing relationships with our sister cities, and developing a local signature event, amongst other things.  For the near term, it was discussed that 2014 would be a good year to finish the projects that are currently on the table.  It’s up to the city council to set policy for city administration and staff.  Sometimes it feels like we’re taking baby steps and merely changing the city’s course a degree or two.  But that is the nature of local politics.  The key to effective local leadership is to leave the city in better shape than one found it.  I have to admit that this was one of the more interesting city council retreats I’ve attended (my fifth one), we even got the chance to stretch our imaginations.  Good job to Mayor Nelsen, the city council, city staff and those citizens who attended for an interesting and thought provoking discussion.

ADDITIONAL ECONOMIC EXPANSION:
In my private law practice, we have used the services of OnTrac for regional overnight package delivery on a regular basis for a number of years.  I was pleasantly surprised to learn that OnTrac is now expanding its operations in Visalia.  It is consolidating its Fresno, Visalia and Kettleman City operations under one roof here, and it will be OnTrac’s largest facility in the Central Valley.  This new 90,000 square foot facility in our industrial park will result in additional jobs locally.  From Visalia, OnTrac is able to reach every zip code in California and major metropolitan areas in Nevada overnight, with two-day shipping to Arizona, Washington, Oregon, Utah, Colorado and Idaho.  This new facility will compliment the UPS center which we already have, and is another reason why new businesses should choose to locate in our industrial park.  Additionally, the Visalia Planning Commission recently approved a request by California Dairies, Inc. for a new 140 foot tall evaporator tower at its facility on North Plaza Drive.  Right across the street, the DeJong dairy family is purchasing 110 acres in the industrial park for a new cheese making plant.

MORE UPDATES:
As of early January, more than 580 carts have been confiscated since the shopping cart ordinance took affect in October.  Additionally, the new fire station 53 in the southwest quadrant of Visalia is continuing to move through the planning stages.  It will be built on 1.25 acres at the corner of Walnut and Atwood, part of the old COS farm.  It is anticipated that it will open in 2015 at this location, which was determined to be the best for response times and for future city growth.


INSIDE CITY HALL:
Our community relations manager, Nancy Loliva, puts out a regular newsletter entitled “Inside City Hall.”  It includes summaries of city council actions as well as tidbits about what is going on around Visalia.  If you would like to be added to the subscriber list, contact Nancy at nloliva@ci.visalia.ca.us.

BEST-PERFORMING CITIES RANKING:
It was announced in January that the Visalia-Porterville market jumped 69 spots in 2013 in a national ranking of high-performing cities.  Visalia-Porterville’s improvement ranked eighth overall and second among all California markets.  We’re now ranked 99th overall in 2013 (up from 168th in 2012).  We placed well ahead of our central valley neighbors including Fresno (158th), Merced (159th), Stockton (185th) and Modesto (188th).  The best performing cities index is published annually by the Milken Institute with the goal to “help businesses, investors, industry associations, development agencies and government officials to monitor and evaluate the performance of metros where they work and do business relative to the rest of the country.”  For full details of the 2013 Best-Performing Cities Index visit www.best-cities.org.


Warren Gubler
Visalia Vice Mayor
(559) 713-4400 ext. 3313
wgubler@ci.visalia.ca.us
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