From: PAULA MORADIAN
To: Mike Karbassi
Cc: Clerk
Date: Sunday, November 16, 2025 8:32:14 PM
External Email: Use caution with links and attachments
Mike Karbassi
City Council President
Fresno City Hall
2600 Fresno Street
Fresno, California 93721
Dear Mr. Karbassi,
On November 6, 2025 at the City Council meeting, the Ministerial Language that we fought so hard to have removed from the Text
Amendment and was supported by the Planning
Commission and the City Council in prior votes is back in. We observed dialogue between you and another council member who clearly had discussed this before the meeting that day.
It was dizzying to stay on track with what was happening as another council member asked questions regarding clarification of what had been changed before another vote was taken.
Todd Stermer was also asked about the order of what was to be voted on first.
Mike, WHY did you vote against your constituents regarding the adding back of Ministerial in the text amendment??
Our community, as well as the rest of the city of Fresno MUST have a voice in the process! You stated as it related to the rezone of the Herndon/Prospect property, "I believe that this rezone was done in a process that ultimately skirted by within the minimal standard of what is technically legal, but left residents feeling blindsided, which is not how the
City of Fresno should conduct business". Your words do not align with your actions. We were blindsided November 6th by the hastily taken vote!
I respectfully ask you to remove Ministerial from the Text Amendment as well as the parcels that are in the airport sphere of influence that do not qualify to be built on as per the text amendment.
Respectfully,
Paula Moradian
Attention: Office of the City Clerk
We want this to be a part of the record for the meeting on Thursday, November 20th, for the
Text Amendment P24-00794.
From: Dennis
To: Clerk; Mike Karbassi
Subject: Letter for Council meeting
Date: Tuesday, November 18, 2025 2:48:07 PM
Attachments: Mike.docx
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Please add this to documents for Council meeting 11/20/25 Agenda item 2J ID 25- 1566
Clerk@
fresno.gov
Agenda date 11/20/2025
Agenda item 10251566
Mr. Karbassi,
On 11/6/25, in a stunning turn of events, you gave away something we had fought VERY HARD for over the past YEAR. This text amendment came up exactly one year ago during the holiday season. We did not get answers to our questions at that time. You continue to ignore many of those questions.
We prevailed on this issue at the Planning Commission in early March 2025. You then left a phone message for one of our neighbors saying you did not expect this to come before the Council until May.
Yet, as president responsible for the agenda, it was constantly scheduled and rescheduled (twice in one day on March 27) resulting in a tremendous amount of work preparing and advising the concerned citizens of the changes (often at the last minute). The matter was finally heard on June 12 th. You voted
with the wishes of the constituents you pledged to REPRESENT.
Then nothing happens for FOUR MONTHS! This is per the usual City of Fresno operating procedure which puts off every important decision that they want to slip by the public until the holiday season. This flies in the face of democracy and honest representative government.
The ministerial language was previously removed from the mixed use text amendment in 2022.
Obviously enough citizens objected to it. The very next year, Planning and the Council come back with this text amendment with ministerial approval included.
Ministerial approval is a dream for developers. They are so well connected in Fresno that they do not even have to show up at the meetings to get what they want. Ministerial approval is not required for the Pro-Housing Designation, that the Administration is so eager to obtain no matter how many taxpaying, law abiding, homeowners, and contributing community members the City has to step on to do it. Like the state officials making these policies, this ADMINISTRATION will not have to live with the consequences of their decisions. We will have to deal with them.
We elected YOU to represent US. The power that some of you are so willing to relegate to unelected staff members belongs to the PEOPLE.
You traded away ministerial for nothing. If a builder is allowed to build multi stories in RM-3 they WILL.
Mr. Huelskamp repeatedly said that he needed four stories “to pencil out”. Mr. Arias said this during the discussion on 11/6/25. We have repeatedly been told by Planning that the vacant office land was needed to provide enough housing. The vacant offices alone could not do it. Now we can just leave it up to the developers to decide.
Councilman Esparza is correct on the appeal problem. The so called “off ramps” that were discussed so much, offer nothing to the citizens except to fool them into thinking that something could be successfully appealed. Your constituents have learned this the hard way.
We have SHOWED UP CONSISTENTLY in spite of the efforts to make this as difficult as possible. The recruited community activists whose organizations benefit from our tax dollars obviously have help with their letters and speeches. You showed more empathy later in the meeting to the guy who said his generation cannot get a house than you ever have with your constituents. He didn’t even have to give his name or address that we could hear.
We would not have a house either if we spent hours sitting at City Hall at his age. Again when they speak of the worst inflation in 50 years that was when our generation was coming of age. Most of the original owners in our neighborhood paid 10-12% interest, or more, even with a substantial down payment on our loans. Even though houses were less, wages were as well. No $22 per hour minimum for us.
State policies and social engineering are increasing the cost of obtaining and maintaining housing for everyone.
The representative for the Council for Leadership and Accountability brought up the Housing element. I prefaced my speech by saying that document is in violation of state law. State law requires local government to make a diligent effort to contact all socio-economic groups. This was not done. The people who attended these meetings amounted to .00012% of the county population and did not represent our socio-economic group. The recruited speaker opened the door for this and addressed it. It should have been discussed and explained.
The Planning Commission denied this and no Project Review Committee approved this text amendment.
One Committee posed questions about ministerial, open space, and where this high density housing would occur.
We have asked to have the Brawley/Beechwood property removed due to its location on the only working feeder street into 2 subdivisions and the school. This has never been addressed. Mr. Kalashian brought up the FAA and ALUC rules. You seemed to be well aware of it and promised us the documentation. It took 3 weeks to get that and was received less than 24 hours before the last meeting.
It should be discussed as to why any property within the airport sphere of influence is even on the text amendment map because the property cannot have high density multifamily multi story residential.
They should be removed from the map and it should be acknowledged in the text amendment that these properties do not qualify.
If they are on the map there is a suggestion that they qualify. YOU have removed our right to participate in the process by approving ministerial against our VEHEMENT disapproval and the fake so called “off ramp” will do nothing. You did this right after we said we did not trust the City and you reinforced that.
Again we, and the constituents that have expressed their opposition, ask that you remove the ministerial approval, and remove the Brawley/Beechwood property from the map.
Respectfully submitted,
Dennis and Debbie Nard