Visalia City Council Special Meeting Summary – December 2, 2025
Visalia City Council Special Meeting Summary – December 2, 2025
The Visalia City Council held a special meeting on Tuesday, December 2, 2025, beginning with a work session at 4:30 PM, followed by a closed session at 5:13 PM, and a regular session at 6:00 PM in the City Council Chambers. The meeting included presentations on traffic operations and park impact fees, and unanimous approval of a consent calendar, the Sanitary Sewer System Master Plan, and a Zoning Text Amendment related to the 6th Cycle Housing Element.
Consent Calendar
- Authorization to read ordinances by title only. (Item 25-0427) – Approved.
- Award Design Contract to Peters Engineering, Inc. for the SB 1 Street Rehabilitation – Center & Acequia project in the amount of $699,120. (Item 25-0475) – Approved.
- Record Final Map for Belissa Phase 1 subdivision (147 lots) at northwest corner of North Demaree Street and West Pratt Avenue, and formation of Landscape and Lighting Assessment District No. 25-09. (Item 25-0505) – Approved.
- NEOGOV Software Agreement – Three-year sole source contract renewal not to exceed $246,924.47. (Item 25-0536) – Approved. All consent items were approved by a 5-0 vote.
Public Comments & Testimony
- General public comment (regular session): Warren Coddle (spelled Cottle in transcript) of Visalia expressed frustration about two incidents where city-owned trees fell onto his vehicles, causing $2,000 in deductibles. He stated that a claim to the city was denied without reason. Council directed Parks and Recreation staff to meet with him to gather additional information.
- Public hearing on Zoning Text Amendment: No members of the public spoke during the public hearing.
Discussion Items
- Work Session – Traffic Operations Division Presentation (Item 25-0532): Public Works Director Nick Bartsch, Public Works Manager Danny Galindo, and Traffic Operations Supervisor Tony Pires presented the division’s annual tasks and accomplishments, including maintenance of 137 traffic signals, 4,000 streetlights, 20,000 signs, and 1 million square feet of pavement markings. They highlighted preventive maintenance, video detection upgrades, and issues with wire theft. Council thanked staff; no formal action was taken.
- Work Session – Park & Recreational Facilities Impact Fee Fund Overview (Item 25-0546): Finance Director Renee Nagel and Parks and Recreation Director Jason Glick presented the park impact fee program, showing an 18-project, $73.3 million capital plan with a projected $44.5 million deficit over five years. They discussed funding shortfalls for specific parks (inclusive park, Pearlwood, Elliott property, aquatic center) and potential revenue options: increasing the park impact fee (after master plan completion in spring 2027), increasing the Transit Occupancy Tax (TOT), a sales tax measure (requires voter approval), a utility users tax, or a cannabis retail sales tax. Council expressed interest in TOT and sales tax increases, and concerns about adding new projects before completing existing ones. No formal action was taken; staff will return with more information.
- Regular Item – Sanitary Sewer Master Plan Adoption (Item 25-0496): Associate Engineer Katherine Woodfull-Fuget presented the plan, noting one substantial comment from the Visalia Country Club regarding potential impacts from a proposed trunk line replacement on Ranch Street. Staff clarified the master plan is a guidance document and impacts will be minimized. Council adopted the plan unanimously (5-0).
- Regular Item – Zoning Text Amendment No. 2025-04 – First Reading (Item 25-0520): Principal Planner Brandon Smith presented amendments to implement three Housing Element programs: Missing Middle Housing (renaming R15 to R1, eliminating some conditional use permits, adjusting setbacks), Planning for Large Sites (creating an overlay district to streamline parcel maps on sites over 10 acres), and Emergency Shelters (creating an overlay district on both sides of State Route 198, as recommended by the Planning Commission, to comply with AB 2339). Council members noted state mandates and concerns about loss of local control but supported the amendment to avoid litigation. The first reading was approved unanimously (5-0).
Key Outcomes
- Consent Calendar approved unanimously (5-0) as listed.
- Sanitary Sewer System Master Plan adopted unanimously (5-0).
- Zoning Text Amendment No. 2025-04 (first reading) adopted unanimously (5-0); a second reading will be brought as a consent calendar item.
- No action taken on work session items; staff will return on December 15, 2025, with conceptual designs for Elliott and Pearlwood parks and updated aquatic center estimates.
- The next regular City Council meeting is scheduled for Monday, December 15, 2025, at 7:00 PM.
Meeting Transcript
Okay. Call the meeting to order. Today is Tuesday, December 2nd. This is a Vaisalia City Council work session. Public comments. Citizens are now invited to comment on issues within the jurisdiction of the Visalia City Council and items listed on the closed session agenda. The council asks that you keep your comments concise and positive. Creative criticism presented with appropriate courtesy is welcome. Each speaker will be allowed three minutes, and a timer will notify you when your time is expired. Please begin your comments by stating and spelling your name and providing your city of residence. Do we have any public comments today? Seeing none, we'll move on to our work session action items. First up, presentation by our traffic operations division. Staff report, please. Good afternoon, Council. Nick Barch, Public Works Director. We're excited to bring you an update presentation tonight on our traffic safety division. With me I have Danny Galindo, our public works manager over streets maintenance and fleet, and also Tony Pierce, our traffic operations supervisor. So with that, I will turn it over to staff and uh we'll move on with our presentation. Good afternoon, Council. Danny Glindo, Public Works Manager. Um we're here for the traffic safety division public works uh presentation and uh updates. And with uh traffic safety operation, we have um six employees. We have a traffic operation supervisor, which is Tony Pierce, and then uh I'm gonna let him introduce the rest of his staff, which he uh supervises. So I'll let you take it. Could they wave when you could you wave we when your name's called so we can uh so uh the senior traffic worker is Michael Ficken? Uh we have two uh signal technicians, Juan Ramirez and Luis Adano. Uh utility line locator, Cody Looper. He couldn't be here this evening. Uh part-time traffic safety worker Nick Liz Sadame. The city of Iselia currently has 137 traffic signals, approximately 4,000 street lights, nearly 20,000 regulatory and regulatory and street name signs, an estimated one million square feet of pavement markings and nine to ten thousand annual eight what eight one one USA tickets called in. Annual traffic signal maintenance and repairs, streetlight repairs, regulatory and street sign, street name sign repair and citywide replacement, school zone flasher maintenance and repairs, pavement markings and curb paint maintenance, marking miles of conduits, storm drains, sanitary sewer lines that require 811 USA response. Uh we program the controllers and the timing of the traffic signals, an average of 12 signal pull knockdowns and 13 streetlight knockdowns annually, assisting the streets division with after hours call-outs when needed, and managing over 400 annual CSRs, CSR work orders related to traffic signals, street lights, pavement markings, curb paint, and street signs. Traffic signal maintenance. Preventative maintenance is performed on 10 to 14 intersections intersections each month. Each inspection includes thorough check of the electrical systems and components within the signal cabinets as well as testing and cleaning. We also verify all the vehicle and pedestrian indicator indicators, test pedestrian push buttons, and check vehicle detection systems, including video radar induction loops and EMS preemption. Lastly, we ensure that the signal timing is correct, current and accurate. So those pictures are the inside of a signal cabinet. If you've never seen one of those, there's a quite a bit of equipment in there that keeps the signal operating. So you can see a number of those are hold the cards that include uh hold the programming for our traffic signals. Um we also have uh video detection, is that top unit in black that kind of hides in the shadow? Um, but there's a lot that goes into those, so any time one of those cabinets is hit, it's a fair amount of work to uh obviously replace and correct. So if you're ever interested in taking a look at one of those, let us know. Um we'll go into a few more pictures uh for some of the video detection stuff, but a lot of equipment that costs a lot of money. So that's we appreciate all the approvals that you've given us to uh keep some of those in stock and also to keep our our signals operating. They do seem to be targets. They're not yellow like a fire hydrant, but we do lose a couple a year, it seems like it seems like it's the same ones too. You can pick the intersections of the ones that get hit. Also with the EMS uh uh preemption, we were talking about it before.
openpublica.com