1 P.O. Box 3357
Bakersfield, CA 93385
November 18, 2024
VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL
[email protected]
Visalia City Council
707 W. Acequia
Visalia, CA 93291
And
Sam’s Club/Walmart
Bentonville, Arkansas
Re: Appeal of the Planning Commission's approval of Conditional Use Permit No. 2024- 17: (APNs: 121-620-004, 005, 006, 007, 008, 013, 014).
Dear Walmart Developers and Visalia City Planners:
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the proposed Visalia Sam’s Club warehouse/retail outlet project that is located on the Southwest corner of Mooney Boulevard and West Visalia Parkway. The project includes a car wash and a 28 pump gas station. It will undoubtedly be serviced by noisy air polluting diesel trucks. A fact noted by concerned neighbors. If the City of Visalia is serious about promoting cleaner air and community tranquility they should stipulate mitigation measures that call for EV battery recharging stations for electrified cars and trucks.
The 172,000 square foot retail building, car wash and fuel dispensing service station development offers a great opportunity to provide much needed electric vehicles (EV) charging stations for the driving public and the fleet of trucks that will service the facility.
GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS (GHG)
We believe the approval process has not adequately addressed Global warming. Which is the most serious issue that we as a species will ever have to face. Dr. James Hansen, Director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies writes, “The stakes, for all life on the planet, surpass those of any previous crisis. The greatest danger is continued ignorance and denial, which could make tragic consequences unavoidable.”
2 The City should require a number of feasible GHG mitigation measures. These might include:
In order to encourage the use of non-polluting electric vehicles, the City should require parking lots for this project to include dedicated EV parking and operational charging facilities. Including level 3 fast charging stations.
The project should also incorporate heavy duty EV truck charging stations. The investment in charging infrastructure facilities will promote and speed the transition to the clean energy trucking fleets of the future. The roof tops of retail buildings, car washing facilities and fuel stations should be covered with photovoltaic cells to protect parked vehicles from the valley heat and to generate clean energy for the project.
Customer and employee parking lots should be covered with solar canopies, so as to encourage employees to drive EVs that can be charged while they work; it should include level 2 EV charging facilities.
A requirement that the developer contribute a GHG fee to the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District to be used to fund projects that would reduce GHG emissions elsewhere. This could be built into the criteria pollutant Developer Mitigation Agreement (DMA) as the Air District has suggested in the past.
Planners should implement these measures in order to require sufficient mitigation to substantially reduce the impact of the project on the climate crisis.
Please place the Sierra Club on the distribution list for the Sam’s Club Project to receive any noticing of meetings, hearings, availability of documents, and to receive any environmental documents. We prefer email communications and electronic formatting of documents. Thank you for your consideration and for the opportunity to comment.
Sincerely,
Richard J.Garcia
Sierra Club
Mineral King Group – Chair
P.O. Box 3543
Visalia, Ca. 93278
559-624-0199
[email protected]