Board approves resolution of necessity to acquire land for Avenue 280 widening

The Tulare County Board of Supervisors on a 4-0 vote adopted a resolution of necessity authorizing the county to pursue eminent-domain acquisition of strips of land along Avenue 280 needed for a widening project between the City of Visalia and the City of Farmersville.

The vote came after a staff presentation from Reed Chenkie of the county’s Resource Management Agency, a 15-minute statement by property counsel Daniel Evans on behalf of the Miller family, and brief board discussion. The board vote was 4–0 with one supervisor not in attendance; the motion to adopt the resolution was made by Supervisor Dennis Townsend and seconded by Supervisor Amy Shuckling.

The county described the project as a roughly 2.5-mile stretch of Avenue 280 (between Lovers Lane and Virginia Avenue) to be widened from a two-lane undivided road to a four-lane divided roadway with a median, turn lanes, upgraded intersections, multimodal accommodations, drainage…