by Mary Gadberry,
January 17, 2024 – The Clovis City Council met Tuesday, January 16, 2024 with a short agenda.
After approving the previous meeting’s minutes and other administrative, finance, and general services items, the meeting went into the public hearing phase.
The item that requested the city add 155 acres of land on Shepherd between North Sunnyside and North Fowler Avenues to its sphere of influence, and other things associated with development of that property, was continued to a later date at the recommendation of George Gonzales, Senior Planner.
Thad Avery, City Engineer, asked the council to enter into a cooperative agreement with the County of Fresno for the exchange of real property, specifically the Clovis Library, for a plot of land in Landmark Square where Fresno County will construct a new library.
Paul Armendariz, Assistant Public Utilities Director, requested the council deny the County of Fresno’s request to connect an area of the county outside Clovis’ sphere of influence to the Clovis city water system. Among other reasons, he stated allowing this would not only be expensive for the city, it could set a precedent that might be damaging in the future.
The final item on the agenda was a report on the results of the National Community Survey presented by Chad McCollum, Economic Development, Housing, and Communications Director.
The two hundred question survey was sent to a representative sample of 3,000 households in Clovis in 2023, with 394 surveys returned, for a 13% response rate.
The National Community Survey is on the livability of Clovis and is sent out every two years.
When compared to cities that are statistically similar to Clovis, Clovis was on top in over 30 categories. The two main areas of concern are crime and affordable housing.
While 84% of respondents had an overall feeling of safety, and 83% rated police services as excellent or good, only 73% rated crime prevention efforts that way.
Regarding the availability of affordable housing, 73% of respondents felt it was either a major or moderate problem, 47% said it was essential that the city provide more affordable housing, while 24% felt this was very important.
The survey results can be found at www.cityofclovis.com/wp-content/uploads/The-National-Community-Survey-for-Clovis-California-2023.pdf
The next Clovis City Council meeting is scheduled for February 5, 2024, at 6:00 pm in the Council Chamber.