Economic Development Corporation- Fresno County

906 N Street, Suite 120
Fresno, CA 93721
559.476.2500 or 800.373.7661
Fax 559.233.2156

Economic Development Services

Fresno County

Economic Development Corporation serving Fresno County is operated as a 501 (c)(6) non-profit under contract with several government agencies to implement economic development- related services that promote the vitality of the economy for Fresno County. The EDC is charged with three primary missions:

Program: Business Expansion, Attraction, Retention (BEAR)

Services:

  • Recruit targeted business and industries
  • Provide site location assistance to businesses
  • Point of contact for referrals from the California Business, Transportation and housing (CalBis)
  • Maintain inventory of existing industrial sites (GIs sites directory)
  • Special purpose grants and funding (contingent upon availability of funds)

Program: Business Formation and Collaboration of Strategic Services

Services:

  • Foster collaborative efforts that promote existing programs and leverage strategic services for the businesses of Fresno County.

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City of Fresno

The Economic Development Department's goal is to improve the economic well being of the community through efforts that entail job creation, job retention, tax base enhancements and quality of life.

Program: Business Attraction, Retention and Expansion

Services:

  • Permitting and special needs assistance
  • Community development and capacity building
  • Administration and marketing of Fresno's Incentive Zones:
  • Empowerment Zone
  • Enterprise Zone
  • Foreign Trade Zone
  • Municipal Restoration Zone
  • HUB Zone
  • Recycling Market Development Zone

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City of Kingsburg

The Economic Development Committee is comprised of a cross cut of community business leaders who influence, support and provide direction regarding the economic efforts of the City of Kingsburg.

Program: Business, Attraction, Retention, & Growth

Services:

  • Recruit targeted businesses and industries
  • Provide site location assistance to businesses
  • Maintain inventory of available local sites
  • Provide assistance to existing businesses

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General Information

The County of Fresno provides governmental services to unincorporated and incorporated area residents. The County provides a wide variety of services including law enforcement, health, public assistance and employment services, road construction and maintenance, and land use planning. The Fresno County General Plan sets out a vision reflected in goals, policies, programs and diagrams for Fresno County for the period of 2000 to 2020 and beyond. This plan carries forward major policies that have been in place since the mid- 1970s, but expands and strengthens them to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

The County sees its primary role to be the protector of prime agricultural lands, open space, recreational opportunities, and environmental quality, and the coordinator of countywide efforts to promote economic development.

As part of its economic development element, the plan seeks to promote job growth and reduce unemployment through the enhancement and expansion of its traditional agricultural base, through the diversification of its economic base and its support for labor force preparedness.

Through the Fresno County Economic Development Strategy, the long and short-term objective of the County is to work with cities, the private sector, and other organizations to create good jobs at a faster rate than population growth to bring Fresno County in line with the rest of California in terms of employment rates and wage levels.

The County implements an Economic Development Strategy through the EDC and the County as part of its General Plan.

Program: Business Attraction and Retention

Services:

  • Site Selection
  • Permit Assistance
  • Fostering collaboration between agencies
  • Enahancin economic, environmental and social quality of life
  • Continuous improvement in communications, accountability and service
  • Supporting cities in achieving of the Recyclin Market Development Zone (RMDZ)

Program: CalWorks Employment Services

Services:

  • Single point of contact for Job Placements
  • Liaison for coordination of employment services with partner agency's throughout
  • Fresno County
  • Training Subsidies
  • Business tax credits and savings
  • Applicant screening
  • On-the-Job training
  • Employee recruitment assistance
  • Business retention assistance
  • Wage & Labor Market Information
  • Skills upgrade training
  • Job Retention

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City of Clovis

City of Clovis provides government services to an incorporated area of over 16 square miles with a population in excess of 70,000 located in the northeast quadrant of the Clovis-Fresno metropolitan area. The City Council adopted the City of Clovis Economic Development Strategy in 1998. This Strategy provides for goals and objectives to develop and implement policies, programs and activities that will stimulate business activity, facilitate the expansion of existing businesses, and encourage the location of new businesses in order to create new jobs, expand Clovis' economic base and enhance the quality of life for the citizens of Clovis. The City is also spearheading a drive to become the Valley's first technopolis and toward that end, has a fully developed research and technology park.

Program: Retention, Expansion and Attraction Program (REAP)

Services:

  • Recruit targeted business and industries
  • Site visitations to existing businesses
  • Business Ombudsman
  • Business recognition and appreciation reception, dinner and award
  • Red flag response to business closures
  • Encourage business start-up
  • Business workshops through the Central Valley Business Incubator
  • Provide site location assistance to businesses
  • Point of contact for referrals from the Fresno EDC
  • Maintain inventory of existing industrial and commercial sites on City web site (GIS)
  • Provide customized funding for projects
  • Facilitate collaboration between agencies and various City departments

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The City of Orange Cove

The City of Orange Cove is working to improve jobs and promote community revitalization in an effort to improve the quality of life for all Orange Cove citizens. Agriculture makes up the greater part of the economy. Orange Cove is one of 40 Renewal Communities designed to promote economic development and create affordable housing.

Program: Orange Cove Renewal Community

Services:

  • Renewal Community Employment Credit
  • Increased Section 179 Deduction
  • Commercial Revitalization Deduction
  • Zero Percent Capital Gains for RC Asset
  • Qualified Zone Academy Bonds
  • New Markets Tax Credits
  • Low-Income Housing Tax Credit
  • Matching Grants
  • New Market Tax Credits
  • Low-Income Housing Tax Credit
  • Site Location Information
  • Technical Assistance

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City of San Joaquin

The City is a general law city. A farming community with cotton being the major commodity, the City is working to achieve sustainable community development through the Economic Development Department.

Program: Business Attraction and Retention

Services:

  • Provide information to industrial, commercial, and retail representatives not currently located in the City of San Joaquin
  • Permit assistance
  • Technical assistance
  • Referrals to resources and agencies
  • Utilities
  • Transportation

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Six Cities Economic Development Authority

The Six Cities consortiumis a single contact point from which coordinated regional economic development activities occur. The Five Cities EDA is comprised of a City Council representative from each of the six cities: Fowler, Parlier, Reedley, Sanger, Kingsburg and Selma as well as a three-member team from the Economic Development Corporation sewing Fresno County. The role of the Five Cities EDA is to facilitate the key components for business attraction, expansion, and retention, which in turn enhance job creation and economic vitality of the entire region.

Program: Business Attraction, Retention and Expansion

Services:

  • Marketing Data
  • Real Estate Information
  • Permitting Process
  • Utility Analysis
  • Assistance with Hiring and Workforce Training
  • Finance sourcing
  • Manufacturers Investment Credit (MIC)
  • Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC)
  • Welfare to Work (WTW)
  • Foreign Trade zone (FTZ)
  • Recycling Market Development Zone (RMDZ)

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1-5 Business Development Corridor, Inc.

The I-5 BDC is a non-profit corporation established in 1993. Today it's members are the cities of Kerman, Coalinga, Huron, unincorporated communities of Biola and Tranquillity, and Fresno County all are members of I-5. It was created as a rural partnership to formulate, manage, and oversee the implementation of an economic development strategy for the region. The 1-5 BDC's goal is to develop the western Fresno County area to become a center for the processing and distribution of food and fiber products grown within the 1-5 BDC area.

Program: Recycling Market Development Zone

Services:

  • Low-interest loans at below-market rates
  • Grants and research assistance
  • Assistance through the land use, environmental or regulatory permitting process
  • Site location and negotiation assistance
  • Job training assistance
  • Help with feedstock identification
  • Technical information and comprehensive staff support
  • Assistance with marketing services, trends and public relations opportunities
  • Information on Fresno County demographics

Program: Community and Economic Development

Services:

  • Work with the communities of Biola and Tranquility to develop community plans for
  • the next five years, including blighted areas with potential for economic development
  • Revolving loan fund for local area businesses
  • Work with communities to develop "Certified Communities" action plans for long-range economic development. Project will include:
  • Marketing Data
  • Real Estate information
  • Permitting Assistance
  • Asset Inventories
  • First Impressions Program
  • Mock Company Visits
  • Community Team Training

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The Council of Fresno County Governments

COG is a voluntary association of local governments, one of 25 in California and more than 500 nationwide established to provide a "cooperative body" for the discussion and resolution of issues which go beyond the individual boundaries of local jurisdictions. Subsequent federal and state laws encouraged such efforts, and the Fresno COG (15 incorporated cities and Fresno County) was formally established in 1969. In general, Fresno COG fosters communications and coordination, undertakes comprehensive regional planning with an emphasis on transportation, provides for citizen involvement in the planning process and supplies technical services to its member agencies.

In all of these areas, Fresno COG serves as a consensus builder to develop an acceptable approach on how to handle problems that do not respect physical or jurisdictional boundaries.

Program: Fresno COG "One Voice" Lobbying Effort

Services:

  • Fresno COG annually undertakes a "One Voice" lobbying effort in Washington D.C.
  • This annual effort brings together a coalition of elected officials, public administrators and regional stakeholders who meet with congressional office holders and relevant federal staff in an effort to obtain federal earmark funding for projects of regional significance. COG continues to expand this lobbying effort to Sacramento.

Program: Regional Transportation Planning Program

Services:

  • One of COG'S primary functions is serving as the state-designated Regional Transportation Planning Agency (RTPA) and the federally designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for Fresno County. In both of these roles, COG is statutorily responsible for developing a long-range multi-modal regional transportation vision for Fresno County. As part of this planning effort, COG is required to develop a fiscally constrained regional transportation plan that identifies the long-range transportation investments that will be required in order to ensure the mobility of people and goods within Fresno County over the next 25 years.

Program: Regional Transportation Programming Program

Services:

  • Acting in its capacity as an RTPA and MPO, COG has direct responsibility for determining how state and federal transportation funding is spent within the Fresno County region. As part of this process, COG is responsible for programming specific federal-aid programs, Regional Surface Transportation Program (RSTP) and Congestion Mitigation & Air Quality Program (CMAQ), and State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) funds.
  • COG is also the state-designated administrator for Transportation Development Act funds, which contain two funding sources. The Local Transportation Fund (LTF), derived from a portion of th state sales tax that comes back to local governments for funding of bicycle and pedestrian facilities, public transportation or streets and roads, and the State Transit Assistance Fund (STA) that is derived from a portion of the motor vehicle fuel sales tax that supports public transportation services. Both funds are apportioned to member agencies on a population basis, although some of the STA funds are apportioned directly to transit operators based on their farebox recovery.

Program: Regional Traffic Modeling

In its role as the RTPA and MPO for the Fresno County region, COG is required to develop and maintain a microcomputer-based traffic simulation model that represents Fresno County. Transportation modeling or travel demand forecasting, estimates the amount of travel on the regional transportation system by utilizing existing local general plan land use information in combination with relevant U.S. Census generated socio-economic data. The Regional Traffic Model results identify likely regional travel patterns and help guide long-term regional transportation investments. Fresno County Measure "C" Expenditure Plan

In its role as the state designated Regional Transportation Planning Agency for Fresno County, Fresno COG is responsible for developing the Expenditure Plan for revenues derived from Measure "C", Fresno County's existing 1/2 cent sales tax for transportation purposes. The existing plan was originally developed in 1986 and is updated every two years. Over its twenty-year life Measure C, recently approved in 2006 by voters, is expected to generate almost $696.7 million in revenues for transportation projects. COG was responsible for developing the expenditure plan for the "extension" of Measure C.

Program: Freeway Service Patrol

In a joint project with CalTrans and the California Highway Patrol, Fresno COG is implementing a Freeway Service Patrol along Freeways 41, 99, 180 and 168 through Fresno. A private tow truck company is under contract to provide patrol service Monday through Friday, during morning and evening commute hours. It will either provide free on-the-spot quick fixes to stranded motorists to put the motorist back on the road, or tow the vehicle to a designated location off the freeway. The prompt clearing of the freeway keeps traffic moving smoothly, reduces secondary accidents and improves air quality.

Program: Abandoned Vehicle Abatement Program

The Council of Fresno County Governments Policy Board also functions separately as the Abandoned Vehicle Abatement (AVA) Service Authority for Fresno County. The AVA program provides for the removal of a vehicle from public or private property, by towing or other means, after the vehicle has been determined to be abandoned and is a visual blight or a safety hazard to the community. Ordinances in each jurisdiction are adopted to guide the removal decision. A $1 fee imposed on registered vehicles in the county funds the program. The funds are divided among the cities and the county in the following manner: one-half of the funds are disbursed based on population and the other half are disbursed based on the number of abatements.

Program: Central Vallev Rideshare

Services:

  • COG is the home of Central Valley Rideshare, which provides free computer matching for those citizens interested in carpooling or vanpooling within Fresno County. The program assists employers in setting up rideshare and other commute alternative programs for employees and supports and promotes transportation options such as transit, bicycling and telecommuting.

Program: San Joaquin Vallev COG Directors Association

Services:

  • Fresno COG also participates in the San Joaquin Valley COG Directors Association.
  • The purpose of the association is to bring together the COG directors from each of the eight counties (San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced, Madera, Fresno, Kings. Tulare, Kern) that comprise the San Joaquin Valley Air Basin to discuss issues that cross-jurisdictional boundaries and affect not only Fresno County, but the rest of the San Joaquin Valley. These issues include air quality, highways, streets and roads, aviation, rail, and goods movement.

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Fresno Metropolitan Flood Control District

Fresno Metropolitan Flood Control District provides urban drainage and flood control services to the Fresno/Clovis Metropolitan Area. The District is committed to long-term economic growth of the region through the cost effective construction of urban drainage systems, protection of property from flooding, and commitment to maximized public benefit through multiple uses of District Facilities

Program: Design and Construction of an urban drainage and flood control system

Services:

  • Advanced planning of urban infrastructure
  • Construction of storm drainage facilities
  • Protection of agricultural resources from flooding
  • Timely provision of needed services through equitable financing of public projects
  • Augmentation of public open space and recreational resources through joint use of District facilities
  • Conservation of groundwater and environmental resources
  • Coordinate with local businesses and resource agencies to implement a comprehensive clean storm water program
  • Program: Economic Development
  • Services: Providing information to industrial and commercial representatives for the purpose of recruiting new business
  • Annually allocating a budget reserve to be used for high priority economic development projects
  • Participating as a partner and financially supporting the Economic Development
  • Corporation serving Fresno County.

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Pacific Gas and Electric

Pacific Gas and Electric provides electric and gas service to all customers in Fresno County. The economic development mission at PG&E is to attract new companies and retain major businesses in California. Strengthening the economic base of our service territory is crucial for the long-term success of a utility distribution company like PG&E. Through partnerships with local economic development organizations in the communities served, PG&E provides a variety of services and resources to our partner organizations to promote and enhance Fresno County as a business location.

Program: Business Attraction and Retention

Services:

  • Rates and reliability
  • Marketing
  • Rate incentives
  • Project planning and implementation
  • Red Teams
  • Local Economic Development Grant Program

SBC, one of California's largest private employers and the state's largest telecommunications company maintains a regional hub operation in the City of Fresno. SBC provides a full range of telecommunication services that are key to local economic development including local, toll and long-distance telephone service, wireless service, network access, high-speed data transmission, coin-operated telephones, directory advertising and Internet access.

Program: Business Attraction and Retention

Services:

  • Fully integrated, end-to-end planning and implementation of business, government, and residential communications technology and solutions.
  • Broadband services including ISDN, DSL, TI, DS3, 0C31121481192
  • GigaMAN service
  • 2417 network monitoring with all switching offices built to Seismic Zone 4 specifications and equipped with backup emergency power.

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