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Board withdraws Traver Community Plan amendment and zone change after local schools and residents raise capacity concerns
Summary
Tulare County’s Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to withdraw a proposed General Plan amendment and zone change for the Traver Community Plan update after speakers from local school districts and residents raised concerns about student impacts, water and infrastructure capacity.
The Tulare County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to accept staff’s request to withdraw General Plan Amendment GPA 25-003 and Zone Change PZC 25-002 related to the Traver Community Plan update.
Assistant director Aaron Bach of the Resource Management Agency presented the staff report and said the item before the board was a request to withdraw both the general plan amendment and the zone change. After staff presentation, several education officials and local residents spoke during public comment, urging the county to consider the plan’s impacts on school capacity, water and infrastructure before proceeding.
Rufino Ucillo, assistant superintendent at Kingsburg Joint Union High School District, told the board the district’s grade spans average fewer than 300 students and that the plan included an estimated 328 additional students who would feed into the high school. "This will highly impact these specific 328 kiddos that are being proposed with this plan," Ucillo said, adding that the district’s developer fee study projected only about 100 new students locally over the next five years and that developer fees would not cover the larger projected demand.
A Kingsburg High School board member (public speaker identified in the record without a full name) and Traver Joint Elementary School Superintendent Steve Ramirez described Traver’s limited facilities and infrastructure. Ramirez said his district currently serves about 230 students and that space is already constrained; he noted a site proposal in the planning materials allocating eight acres for a new school but said eight acres would not be sufficient for a complete new campus and that construction and state approvals would take years. Ramirez also raised concerns about sewer and water capacity and the community’s lack of sidewalks and other basic infrastructure.
After public comment the board approved the withdrawal. Supervisor McCarrie moved to withdraw the items; Supervisor Townsend seconded. The motion passed 5-0.
Board members did not take new action on the Traver plan at the meeting; the items are recorded as withdrawn per staff request.
