FRESNO DESK - Fresno city councilman Dan Ronquillo(D) and area congressman, Cal Dooley(D) have their eye on taking over about 1000 acres of private property within the City which they say is needed for a job program they have in mind.
Ronquillo, sits on the Fresno Redevelopment Agency. He told reporters he is confident that the Clinton administration will approve a multi-million expenditure for construction of such a Fresno City Hall building project that Ronquillo is calling the Roeding Business Park.
If the Clinton administration Economic Development Administration goes for the Ronquillo deal, it will only haappen if and when Ronquillo's requested federal involvement is approved by City Hall and the City Council authorizes the condemnation of 1000 acres of private property and the expenditure of an estimated overall cost of the project at or above
$6 million for construction of roads, storm drains, water and sewer improvements and traffic signals associated with the 250-acre first phase.
Councilman Dan Ronquillo called a press conference on Monday attended by Dooley in which he told reporters, 'It looks positive, and we have every reason to believe Washington will approve it.'
However, Ronquillo indicated the Roeding Business Park had not even been marketed to potential customers, Ronquillo said '...The business park can be marketed in earnest once the improvements are made.'
Dooley said he is confident the construction of Roeding Business Park could result in more jobs.
Ronquillo pointed out that the Clinton administration may approve the deal in view of evidence of need based on '...Fresno's double-digit unemployment rate.'
Ronquillo pledged the first phase of the works project West of Teilman Avenue and north of Highway 180 '...could create up to 5,400 jobs.'
Dan Fitzpatrick, director of the Fresno Redevelopment Agency, however, told reporters the only maketing activity going on is '...[P]reliminary discussions with existing businesses in the area about potential expansions.'
Neither, Ronquillo nor Dooley offered any explanation for how 'preliminary discussions with exisiting businesses' resulted in a robust estimate of '5,400 jobs' being added to the Fresno labor market from the proposed project. Sources tell the DR that 5,400 expanded jobs would require $24 million in new business revenue just to cover wages and benefits alone.
It is comendable that the Fresno City Council is looking for solutions. Fresno's double-digit unemployment rate is an economic indicator
that Fresno's economic base is being eroded.
Indications are clear that Fresno area small manufacturers have experienced sharply shrinking markets and increasing production costs.
This sitiation is widely acknowledged in the California business community as a result of a combination of previous poor City planning and failed urban renewal projects and changing regional shopping and marketing practices, combined with changing weather patterns. Then all this is further worsened by the Clinton administration's foreign-trade imbalance dynamics under NAFTA and GATT trade agreements.
Many economists expect the U.S. trade deficit with Asia to explode this
year with a flood of imports cheapened by currency devaluations and a fall
in U.S. exports in the face of an Asian economic slowdown.
The Ronquillo-Dooley Roeding Business Park is going nowhere. It is the Fresno City Hall moral equivalent of re-arranging the deck-chairs on the Titanic.
Fresno City Hall Series
