VISALIA – Needed housing developments in two communities can move forward after the city of Visalia and county of Tulare reached an agreement on sewer capacity in the city and neighboring community of Goshen.

On Nov. 7, the city issued a letter to the Goshen Community Services District (CSD) tentatively accepting its request to nearly double its allotted sewer capacity. In the letter, Visalia Public Works Director Nick Bartsch said the preliminary findings of the city’s short-term sewer study indicated “the City believes it has adequate capacity to accept the proposed increase.”

On Nov. 7, the city issued a letter to the Goshen Community Services District (CSD) tentatively accepting its request to nearly double its allotted sewer capacity. In the letter, Visalia Public Works Director Nick Bartsch said the preliminary findings of the city’s short-term sewer study indicated “the City believes it has adequate capacity to accept the proposed increase.”

While Goshen CSD operates its own sewer system, it has purchased capacity from Visalia’s wastewater treatment plant since 1995. The CSD has purchased an average of 360,000 gallons of wastewater, 1,180 pounds of biological oxygen demand (BOD) and 950 pounds of solids per day since 2007. That amount will increase to 563,000 gallons per day, 1,750 pounds of BOD and 1,460 pounds of solids per day pending final approval by the Visalia City Council at its Dec. 18 meeting.

Goshen CSD Manager Manuel Fleming said the additional capacity will allow the unincorporated community to provide sewer hookups for new developments, including a 300-unit subdivision by San Joaquin Valley Homes, the last two phases of a 400-unit subdivision by Smee Homes and a new Fowler Packing facility.

“We have already issued conditional ‘will-serve’ letters for San Joaquin Homes and Fowler Packing and plan on issuing three more at our meeting Thursday, Nov. 16,” Fleming said.

A day after the city granted tentative approval of the additional sewer capacity, county supervisors Dennis Townsend and Pete Vander Poel reversed their no votes on three Visalia annexations a month ago to help the projects slide through with unanimous approval at the Nov. 8 meeting of the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO). The independent regulatory commission was created by the California Legislature to control the boundaries of cities and most special districts. The five-member commission typically meets monthly to hear annexation requests by Tulare County cities and special districts.

“I think we needed better communication,” said Visalia city councilmember Liz Wynn, who represents the city on LAFCO. “We’re not trying to hold back Goshen.”

The approvals mean the city can move forward on three projects totaling more than 600 homes, part of 4,500 residential units which have been waiting for approval, including the large Carlton Acres project, a 3,200-home development planned with a new northside Costco that may or may not be going forward. The county has also agreed to share a 20-year study plan of development around Goshen so that the city can plan incremental improvements to the sewer system to accommodate growth, according to city officials.

The back-to-back decisions earlier this month are putting an end to a stalemate between the city and county over Visalia’s sewer capacity. The city first raised the issue in May, when Visalia sent a letter to the Goshen CSD suggesting new development projects in Goshen be put on hold while the City waited for its short-term study to determine how much capacity for solids its sewer system can handle now.

Last month, three developments totaling over 600 homes were denied approval to be annexed into the city limits when Townsend and Vander Poel voted to deny them at the Oct. 4 LAFCO meeting.

“If it’s OK for Visalia to hook-up new development, why not others?,” Vander Poel asked after the meeting. “Why does Visalia want to jump the gun allowing new development outside their boundaries until this study is done?”

The denial surprised city officials, as annexations are typically considered routine approvals because they have already gone through environmental and planning processes by cities before going to the commission for final approval.

The back and forth eventually led Visalia Mayor Brian Poochigian and Vice Mayor Brett Taylor to sit down with Townsend and Vander Poel at an Oct. 19 meeting organized by the Building Industry Association of Tulare/Kings Counties, Inc., a non-profit organization representing residential builders, developers and subcontractors. The meeting seems to have worked as thousands of new home builds should begin moving forward to alleviate the housing shortage in Tulare County.

“Obviously, we want Goshen projects, they help Visalia,” Poochigian said after the meeting. “That’s a lot of workforce housing that goes right next to the industrial park out there. It’s all positive stuff. We just want to make sure that we have capacity for services.”