NEWS & UPDATES

By Greg Aragon / McGraw-Hill Construction

There is a good reason why Fresno-based Harris Construction has been around for more than 90 years.

“The secret to our longevity is in the way we transition from one generation to the next,” says Tim Marsh, Harris president. He adds that throughout the years when the company reigns were passed down to new leadership, one concept always remained the same: “We focus on our market, which is the Fresno area, and we put all of our energy there.

“Our Fresno office is not just one office; it’s the only office. By keeping it in Fresno, we have better understanding of the business and the culture of the area.” advertisement

Marsh adds that this focus has kept Harris competitive in Central California since 1914. And judging by current numbers, the company of 150 employees seems to be doing fine.

The privately-held company’s revenue for 2007 is projected to be more than $110 million, slightly surpassing last year’s figure.

Currently, the company has about 20 projects, totaling around 1 million sq ft, underway within a 60-mi radius of Fresno. These jobs are worth more than $150 million combined, says Marsh.

He says recent slowing in residential housing construction has put more energy into markets that his company specializes in, such as schools, food processing plants and other factories.

Current projects highlighting Harris’s work in the Fresno/Modesto region include a new $125 million school, $64.5 million hospital expansion, $50 million ethanol plant, and a $30 million renovation to a historic building.

Totaling 530,000 sq ft, the new Third Education Center project in Clovis, 10 mi northeast of Fresno, consists of an intermediate school, high school, special education facilities and other services on 101 acres.

The project, designed by Fresno-based Darden Architects Inc., broke ground in 2005 and is officially opening for classes this month.

“To my knowledge, this is one of the largest school projects of its kind to be done on a multi-prime,” says Marsh, whose company served as construction manager. “It actually had 65 prime contractors and was finished on time and within budget.”

He says coordinating all the primes required a large staff and a lot of pre-planning. “We probably worked with the school district nearly a year before the first hole was dug,” Marsh adds.

Another interesting project is the Porterville Developmental Centers Secure Treatment Program expansion in Porterville, 60 mi southeast of Fresno. Sacramento based-Vanir Construction Management Inc. is construction manager, Harris is the general contractor and Carter & Burgess Inc. is serving as the architect

Work includes the construction of six single-story residences, a single-story Protective Services building, and a recreation complex. The work also calls for a new swimming pool, fencing, landscaping, generators, security systems and water well.

“We are going to be working into the winter on this one, so our goal is to get as much of the roofs up as possible,” Marsh says. “We are working up in the foothills, so if we get a lot of rain, it could be problematic.”

Construction broke ground in November and is scheduled for completion in June. On the environmental side of things, Harris is building the Cilion Ethanol Plant in the city of Keyes, 10 mi north of Modesto. Modesto-based RB Welty and Associates is the designer.

The work entails the construction of 20,000-sq-ft of buildings on a 13-acre site. Construction began in February and is scheduled to be complete in January.

Harris will begin construction on another $50 million ethanol plant at the end of the year, with construction lasting about one year, Marsh says. It will be located in the unincorporated town of Famoso, about 50 mi south of Fresno.

“Not only will these plants greatly help our energy crisis, but they are also being built by local labor, so it will be a good shot in the arm for the local economy,” Marsh adds.

To add a little history to its portfolio, Harris will serve as construction manager on a massive renovation to the Old Administration Building on the campus of Fresno City College. Designed by E.L.S. Architecture of Berkeley, the 100,000-sq-ft project should break ground in early fall.

Built in 1916, the two-story, unreinforced brick masonry structure was the first permanent structure at the college. It has sat vacant since 1975.

“We’re taking an 91-year-old historic building that was abandoned and redoing it and making it a first-class modern building, while keeping the historic significance intact,” Marsh says.

By Joe Florkowski / McGraw-Hill Construction

Architects in California say factors such as building information modeling, green building and industry consolidation are changing the way they do business.

Design firms are finding they will need to offer more service, experience and increase in size to thrive in California. That service and experience may come either through hiring LEED-accredited professionals for green projects or by dipping a toe in the still uncharted waters of BIM.

For instance, Irvine-based Ware Malcomb has placed a big emphasis on having its project management teams become LEED-accredited, says CEO Larry Armstrong. At the same time, Ware Malcomb is preparing its staff to do BIM projects later this year, he adds.

“(BIM) is a freight train and it’s coming,” Armstrong says.

Peter Devereaux, president of Los Angeles-based Harley Ellis Devereaux, calls BIM “the wave of the future and it will transform our industry.”

BIM will first be done by large firms and eventually will force the industry to consolidate, he says.

Because of the investment required in BIM, design firms will need to merge to bring together the architecture, engineering and expertise to deliver such projects.

Ed Darden, principal with Fresno-based Darden Architects, agrees that the increased use of tools like BIM will make it harder for the little guy to be a factor in design. “It’s sad there isn’t room for the little guy, but it’s better in the long run for the profession,” Darden says.

BIM also means that design firms will be looking for more experienced, licensed architects and that will mean less opportunities for the drafters and novice architects, Darden adds.

“Everywhere you will see people trying to hire licensed experienced architects,” Darden says. “With BIM, there is no room at the bottom.”

Finding experienced and qualified architects is a concern for Kit Ratcliff, president of Emeryville-based Ratcliff.

There has been a 50% falloff in the last 10 years in U.S. licensed architects, Ratcliff says. “We are running out of architects,” he adds.

And the architect shortage is coming at a time when architects need more experience to design using tools such as BIM, he says.

“Who is going to design these high-performance buildings?” Ratcliff adds.

Experience is also going to be a factor in how firms design buildings, Devereaux says.

Architects will need to start designing buildings that go beyond simply the interior and exterior, he adds. He says that experience-based design means architects will need to design a retail store as if they were a retailer or design a hospital as if they were a patient in the hospital.

Devereaux says that in the past design was often driven by cost, to give the owner the most space for the least amount of cost.

Now designers need to start thinking like their clients and designing with a clients’ need in mind, he adds.

“We have to provide an environment for the end user that exceeds their expectations,” says Devereaux.

And designers are finding that in order to meet their clients’ requirements, they must design more green projects.

Green building is not only on the mind of designers and builders, but now has reached the owners, says Ware Malcomb’s Armstrong.

“We appear to have reached a tipping point in corporate America,” he adds.

In the Bay Area, a majority of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill’s clients are pursuing sustainability, says Carrie Byles, managing partner in the San Francisco office.

One of the benefits of pursuing gold LEED certification in San Francisco is that you can move through the permit process faster, she says.

However, because so many projects are seeking gold LEED certification, it may ultimately end up not being that much faster than going through the regular permit process, she adds.

What will be interesting is how buildings will be built using a combination of BIM and green building techniques, she says.

“These tools are helping us create sustainable buildings,” Byles says. “When you are trying to prove your building is green, you can back it up with BIM.”

Now that green building is here and everyone is aware of it, those firms who can provide sustainable services will gain a competitive advantage, says Devereaux.

“Sustainable design will be one more added incentive for firms to come together as full service,” he adds.

By Robert Carlsen / McGraw-Hill Construction

Because of some significant contracting changes instituted by local governments in the past few years, minority-owned construction firms are finding previously closed doors now opening a little wider.

In fact, one San Francisco-based company has found that taking advantage of government support and doing good work can equal success.

Miguel Galarza, president and owner of Yerba Buena Engineering & Construction, Inc., was honored earlier this year with the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2006 Minority Small Business Person of the Year Award.

Yerba Buena Engineering provides general engineering and construction services with a focus on roads, pipelines and other infrastructure. Galarza, a native of San Francisco’s Mission District, started the company in 2002 with six employees and $350,000 in sales. Today, he employs 35 and expects to generate $14.9 million in sales for 2007.

In 2003, Galarza entered SBA’s 8(a) program, a business development program created to help small disadvantaged businesses compete in the economy and access the federal procurement market. Since then, he’s landed federal contracts from the U.S. Navy, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Air Force, National Park Service, Department of Veterans Affairs and the General Services Administration.

In addition to city contracts, Yerba Buena Engineering was recently involved in stabilizing the landslide-prone cliffs at Devil’s Slide on Highway 1 for Caltrans.

Galarza got his business smarts by utilizing Caltrans’ Calmentor program six to seven years ago. Calmentor is a local program created from a partnership between Caltrans and the private consulting industry to promote and increase the participation of small businesses on Caltrans professional architectural and engineering contracts. Galarza was teamed with San Francisco-based engineering contractor Gordon N. Ball Inc.

As chairman of the Associated General Contractors’ San Francisco district, Galarza says he is working to expand Caltrans’ Calmentor program statewide.

“You really learn how to be a contractor,” he says. “You learn how to deal with certain city agencies, how to negotiate. Our goal is to create an environment whereby larger primes would share their knowledge with those minority contractors just getting started.”

Galarza is putting his volunteer time where his mouth is because he sees the trades lagging behind in new recruits. “There’s a brain drain, and look who’s coming into the industry – Hispanics, Asians, African Americans,” he says. “Somebody has to step up and train them. This mentoring program is a benefit to local governments who need the competition for projects.”

When Galarza started Yerba Buena Construction, he set up shop in the Hunters Point area.

“Bayview-Hunters Point had been talked about for years as a key redevelopment focus,” he says. “That is where the future was and we wanted to be in the right place at the right time.”

Tetra Tech is leading the base-wide cleanup while Lennar Urban is leading an infrastructure phase for the former Hunters Point shipyard at Parcel A prime. Yerba Buena has been very successful biding on and performing work in the area. Galarza also applied for the federal SBA HUBZone or Historical Underutilized Business Zone race-neutral program that helps connects businesses in economically distressed areas with hires from the community (up to 35% of the company’s staff must live in that area). These firms receive a 10% price evaluation pricing advantage, he says.

Besides running his business, Galarza serves on the board of directors for the San Francisco Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. He’s helped high school students learn about career paths in the construction and engineering fields. He’s also a volunteer instructor at California State University, East Bay, for disadvantaged businesses that want to learn how to manage, estimate and operate a small company. In past years, Galarza has been honored by the U.S. departments of defense and transportation, the San Francisco Human Rights Commission and the California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

McGraw-Hill Construction

According to McGraw-Hill Construction’s new report, Construction In-Sight: California, the state’s economy, the nation’s largest, will barely grow and its construction market will actually decline this year. Both are the result of a sharp pullback in the housing market, which is dampening overall activity.

One of the reasons for the state’s housing decline lies with its historically high home prices, which moved even higher over the past few years. These elevated home prices pushed more than half of the state’s new mortgage originations into adjustable rates, making California the state with the highest percent of adjustable rate mortgages.

High home prices also forced an unusually large number of California households into sub-prime mortgages, which have higher interest rates than mortgages in the primary mortgage market because they are loaned to households with weak credit histories or households that have low incomes relative to the loans they are assuming – and therefore considered to be higher risk.

Now, softer job growth, increasing rates on adjustable mortgages, and declining home prices have combined to push a large share of households holding these mortgages into default. Without a doubt, the housing market is the Achilles’ heel of the California economy, according to MHC.

In 2006, California construction starts declined for the first time since 1995. The value of total construction starts (including residential, nonresidential, and nonbuilding construction) fell 8% to $66.6 billion in 2006. This year, construction will decline by another 2% to $65.0 billion. Even with these declines, however, the value of construction starts in current dollars remains 23% higher than in 2000.

Furthermore, only one of the three major segments of the construction industry is declining. California’s housing starts plummeted 23% in 2006 and will decline 9% in 2007. By contrast, nonresidential construction starts advanced 11% in 2006 and will grow 3% in 2007. Similarly, nonbuilding construction starts (public works and utilities) climbed 22% in 2006 and will gain 7% in 2007.

Several factors are limiting the impact of the housing downturn on these other sectors. Most importantly, the recent passage of several state and local referenda aimed at repairing and rebuilding California’s infrastructure should provide classic “pump priming” to keep the state’s construction market – and overall economy – moving forward despite the slowdown in housing. The largest referenda, Propositions 1A-1E, passed in November 2006, included $19.9 billion in capital spending for roads and transit (Prop 1B), $10.9 billion in funding for schools and colleges (1D), and $4.1 billion in funding for repairing and strengthening the levee system around Sacramento (1E).

In addition to these new sources of funding, California has set forth several key initiatives that will keep construction on the upswing. In 1998, for example, California passed a law requiring hospitals to meet certain seismic standards to minimize damage from an earthquake. Because replacement has often been more cost-effective than upgrading existing facilities, many of the state’s largest hospitals have actually been replaced since the regulations took effect.

California has also undertaken a number of very strong measures to support green building. Back in 2004, the governor issued the first of several measures (Executive Order S-20-4), which required all new and renovated state-owned facilities to achieve the silver level of the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Green Building rating System.

In 2006, California’s state legislature supported the governor’s actions with the Global Warming Solutions Act (AB32), which mandated a reduction the state’s greenhouse-gas emissions to 1990 target levels by 2020. And in January 2007, the “Million Solar Roofs initiative” went into effect providing $3 billion in subsidies for the purchase of solar-powered panels over the next ten years. The bill also mandated increases in the amount of renewable power sold by utilities, provided fiscal incentives for solar customers, and made solar panels a standard option for all new homes.

Despite the woes in its housing market, California will remain the nation’s largest construction market in 2007 and will continue to be an innovator in environmental design and commitment. Even in the down times, California is proving itself to be a leader among leaders.

By Gary Gentile / The Fresno Bee

California employers added a total of 21,000 jobs in August, although construction jobs fell sharply as troubles in the housing market kept growing, the state reported Friday.

Government jobs led the growth and helped the state recover from a revised loss of 14,000 jobs in July, the Employment Development Department said.

But the 12,100 government jobs gained in August were mostly offset by the loss of 6,600 construction jobs and 2,500 financial service positions attributed to weakness in the housing sector and layoffs by mortgage lenders.

"If you take government out of the mix, the job report doesn't look all that good," said Stephen Levy, senior economist of the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy.

The August drop in construction jobs follows a loss of 7,800 positions in the sector in July.

August's numbers don't include coming cutbacks announced by giant mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp., which said it will eliminate as many as 12,000 jobs nationwide in the coming months.

"This theme is going to play out over the next year and a half," said Ryan Ratcliff, an economist at the Anderson Forecast at the University of California, Los Angeles. "We're just seeing the tip of the iceberg."

The state's unemployment rate was 5.5 percent in August. The figure was up from 5.3 percent in July as more people entered the job market. The unemployment rate a year ago was 4.9 percent.

Nationally, employers cut 4,000 jobs in August in the first decline in jobs since August, 2003.

Job losses across the country in construction, manufacturing, transportation and government swamped gains in education and health care, leisure and hospitality and retail.

The national unemployment rate held steady at 4.6 percent, mainly because thousands of people left the job market.

On an annual basis, employment in California was up a modest 1.1 percent from August of last year, with government jobs against showing the strongest growth and construction jobs showing the biggest losses.

All told, 996,000 Californians were seeking jobs last month, up 36,000 from July and 126,000 from the year-ago period, the state said.

Of those looking for work, 388,100 were laid off, 123,200 left their jobs voluntarily, and the rest were new to the labor market.

Economists said they were worried that weakness in employment will eventually put the brakes on the state economy.

"The housing market correction can cause the economy to slow," Levy said. "It would have to spill over into consumer behavior, retail sales, to cause the economy to go negative."

The Fresno Bee

Construction of new homes fell in August to the slowest pace in 12 years as troubles in the housing industry continued to intensify.

The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that construction of new homes fell by 2.6 percent in August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.331 million units.

The housing industry is experiencing its steepest downturn in 16 years with analysts forecasting weak prices and further declines in sales for months to come, given rising mortgage defaults which are dumping even more homes on an already glutted market.

On Tuesday, the National Association of Home Builders reported that its index of builder confidence fell in September to 20, tying the lowest level on record.

By E.J. Schultz / The Fresno Bee

SACRAMENTO -- And you thought traffic was bad today. Just wait until 2050.

By then, the San Joaquin Valley's population will more than double, according to a population forecast released Monday by the state Department of Finance.

Nearly 2 million people will call Fresno County home and Tulare County is projected to pass the 1 million mark.

The growth, fueled mostly by a Hispanic baby boom, has been predicted for a while. But the region is still not prepared, experts say.

"It's scary," said Joseph Penbera, a California State University, Fresno, economist who has long studied Valley growth.

"Put twice as many cars on Route 99," he said. "Put twice as many kids in classes. Put twice as many people in hospitals."

Overall, the region's population will grow from 3.9 million to 9.4 million by 2050, which is almost as many people as live in Los Angeles County today.

Five of the Valley's eight counties will eclipse the 1 million mark, led by Kern County with 2.1 million people and Fresno County with 1.9 million, according to the forecast.

Hispanics will constitute a majority in every Valley county except San Joaquin County. In Tulare County, Hispanics will account for 72% of the population by 2050.

As of the 2000 census, Tulare County was the only Valley county with a Hispanic majority -- at 51%.

Yet, Hispanics hold just 13% of the elected positions in the Central Valley -- from Redding to Bakersfield -- according to a forthcoming report by the Great Valley Center.

Hispanic representation is growing but is still sparse, especially in Madera County, where Hispanics hold fewer than five elected positions, according to the report.

"This is an opportunity and, really, a call to action for the Latino community," said Carol Whiteside, president of the center, a nonprofit that advocates for the region. "The future will really be theirs to govern and control."

Apathy is a major problem, said Ray Leon, Fresno chairman of the Mexican-American Political Association.

"I think a lot of people are disillusioned with their political leaders and, to some extent, feel like the system doesn't work for them anyways," he said.

But the recent immigration debate is spurring a renewed political interest in the Hispanic community that Leon said could translate into more political candidates.

Statewide, Hispanic growth actually has slowed from previous projections.

Three years ago, the Finance Department anticipated a statewide Hispanic majority by 2038. Monday's report pushes that back to 2042.

Mary Heim, the department's head demographer, said the delay was due to slightly lower fertility rates among Hispanics and a longer life expectancy for all ethnic groups, which led the department to forecast a higher white population in coming years.

Overall, the state will reach 60 million people by 2050, an increase of 25 million people since the 2000 census.

Los Angeles County will lead all counties in 2050 with 13 million people.

Riverside County will jump to second place, at 4.7 million people, ahead of San Diego and Orange counties, according to the report.

Fresno County -- which today is home to 917,515 people -- is expected to hold its spot as the 10th most-populated county, but the seven other Valley counties will all jump up at least one spot.

Tulare County, population 429,006, will pass 1 million sometime between 2040 and 2050.

And Madera County will post the third-highest growth rate in the state, swelling from 148,721 people to 413,569.

Valley officials have seen the growth coming for years and have started to prepare, forming such groups as the Regional Jobs Initiative -- to spur the economy -- and the San Joaquin Valley Blueprint effort, aimed at forging consensus on what the Valley should look like in 2050.

But most agree there is a ton of work left.

For instance, there still is at least a $2 billion gap in what is needed to upgrade Highway 99, the region's primary north-south corridor, said Ashley Swearengin, chief operating officer of the Regional Jobs Initiative.

Penbera, a Gottschalks board member, said the Valley needs a major east-west highway so goods could be shipped to the coast -- and even over the Sierra to eastern cities.

As it is now, he said, "it's hard to get in and out of a place like this."

The reporter can be reached at eschultz@fresnobee.com or(916) 326-5541.

Editorial from The Fresno Bee

Conventional wisdom says that 25% of voters will automatically reject anything that has to do with taxes. Fresno County voters turned that conventional wisdom on its ear Tuesday, when the extension of Measure C won a stunning 77% of the vote. It's a very satisfying victory for the county and its people — and especially for the generations to come.

The result is testimony not only to the foresight of county voters, but to the skill and perseverance of the committee that drafted the half-cent sales tax extension for transportation needs. They crafted a compromise that satisfied no one perfectly, but contained a balance of spending priorities that at least begin to meet a wide and diverse range of transportation needs.

There was little organized opposition. The Clovis Chamber of Commerce argued that a larger share of the money raised by the tax — as much as $1.7 billion over 20 years — should be given to the cities for local street construction and repairs. Anti-tax advocates — the "25-percenters," er, make that "23-percenters" — opposed the measure but weren't very vocal about it.

It didn't matter. The measure is balanced and prudent, and the voters saw that.

One of the best things about the extension of Measure C is that Fresno County will remain a "self-help county," eligible for considerable matching funds from the state and federal governments. That money — essentially our tax dollars being returned for use here — will dramatically leverage the local revenues from the sales tax.

Voters in Madera County will share in that returned money, after passing their own 1/2-cent sales tax, Measure T, with an impressive 72.7% "yes" vote.

Measure R, Tulare County's 1/2-cent sales tax for transportation, appeared to have passed — barely — with 66.74% of the vote, but there were an estimated 15,500 absentee ballots still to be processed on Election Night.

Similar measures in Kern and Merced counties fell well short of the two-thirds bar. Voters there apparently decided that subsidizing taxpayers in the Bay Area and Southern California is the wisest use of their tax dollars. Too bad.

But good for the voters of Fresno and Madera counties. They get it, and because of that, they'll also be getting a generation's worth of improved transportation. We're going to need it.

By Sanford Nax / The Fresno Bee

Community college campuses in the central San Joaquin Valley are planning to take a hard look at their programs to ensure they better prepare students for 21st-century jobs because of a renewed state focus.

A larger share of the spotlight — and funding — is being shined on two-year colleges, thanks in large part to Gov. Schwarzenegger, who attended community college in Santa Monica and later received his bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin.

Proposed state Proposition 1D would put $10.4 billion into public school construction and modernization and improvements to community college as well as state university campuses.

As a result, the State Center Community College District, which administers programs at Fresno City College, Reedley College and other campuses, figures it can play a larger role in training tomorrow's workers.

"Help us chart a new course," Chancellor Tom Crow told about 220 people who attended a work force development summit sponsored Thursday by the community college district.

Dozens of business and education leaders gathered in groups to brainstorm ways to make curriculums more current and productive. Suggestions ranged from establishing closer partnerships with high schools to increasing math skills to job shadowing and establishing more internships.

The results will be summarized and considered as part of the reforms.

"We are taking this very seriously," said Teresa Patterson, the district's executive director of public and legislative relations. "Work force development is the No. 1 priority for the board of trustees."

It can't happen fast enough, said Phyllis Eisen, vice president of the Manufacturing Institute of the National Association of Manufacturers in Washington, D.C.

Technological advances, global competition and the pending retirement of millions of skilled baby boomers could create a gap that business and schools must bridge.

"There is no longer time for business to sit back and say [to schools], 'Can you do it for us?' You have to go out and get your hands dirty," Eisen told the Fresno audience.

Through surveys, the national association determined that 90% of its 250,000 members have trouble finding qualified workers, and that thousands of jobs across the country are unfilled.

As a result, the national association started a campaign called "Dream It, Do It," an initiative to train workers for specific jobs. The belief is that businesses will expand into areas with trained workers.

A pilot program in Kansas City helped contribute to a 35% increase in enrollment in the manufacturing curriculum of a local technical college and four new businesses, Eisen said. The Dream It campaign now is spreading across the country. Fresno would be an ideal place for one, she hinted, because manufacturers in the area have a hard time finding qualified workers.

"Manufacturing has become sexy to go into," she said, explaining that many people had the wrong impression that such jobs are dirty, have low pay and are unglamorous.

Because immigrants will make up much of the work force, businesses have to do a better job of accommodating a diverse work force, Eisen said.

"There is a great deal of conflict in how to deal with that," she said. "There could be 100 different languages spoken on the factory floor."

Another speaker, Dan Walters of The Sacramento Bee, talked about how community colleges tired of the "kick me" sign on their backs and protested cuts in funding during the Gray Davis administration. Now, they have the support of a governor who is a graduate of a vocational school in Austria.

"He is putting our money where his mouth is. Community colleges are finally getting the attention they deserve," Walters said, adding that Schwarzenegger is the first governor since Pat Brown to support community colleges.

The reporter can be reached at snax@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6495.

By Jeff St. John / The Fresno Bee

(Updated Tuesday, July 18, 2006, 4:11 AM)

Construction crews began work Monday on a new California State University, Fresno center meant to provide a place where students, professors and industry members can learn together about the most recent advances in the construction field.

The Center for Construction Excellence, expected to open in fall 2007, is being built as a partnership between Fresno State's College of Engineering and the Construction Industry Partnership of the Regional Jobs Initiative, a group working to improve job growth in the Fresno area.

Built with about $240,000 in labor and materials donated by Fresno-area construction companies, the new center will be "a way to couple the construction industry to academia, with students being the true beneficiaries," said Albert Hoff, interim dean of the College of Engineering.

The center will showcase cutting-edge construction methods and provide students with an opportunity to study with — and perhaps eventually land jobs with — regional construction businesses, he said.

A centerpiece of the new center will be a classroom in the Marion A. Grosse Industrial Technology Building, Hoff said. The room will be built in a cutaway style, with features such as heating, air conditioning, plumbing and electrical systems open to view and labeled for students, he said.

In a newly built exterior area, construction models mounted on rolling platforms will provide students with physical examples of construction materials and how they're used, Hoff said.

Beyond the 250 to 300 students enrolled in the College of Engineering's construction management program, the center also will serve as a place for construction professionals to pursue continuing education, said Doug Reitz, project executive for Harris Construction Co. Inc. of Fresno and co-chairman of the RJI's construction cluster.

The idea of such a "center of excellence" isn't new to Fresno, said Ashley Swearengin, chief operating officer of the Regional Jobs Initiative.

One model that already exists is Fresno State's International Center for Water Technology, a facility housing research and testing labs for manufacturers of equipment related to the management, recycling, distribution and conservation of water and energy, Swearengin said.

"That's where we first learned about the importance of research partnerships between industry and business," she said.

The RJI is seeking a federal grant to put together a proposal for funding of a manufacturing center of excellence to serve central San Joaquin Valley manufacturers, she said.

RJI members also are looking into the possibility of such a center to serve the logistics and distribution industry, she said.

The reporter can be reached at jeffstjohn@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6637.

By Sanford Nax / The Fresno Bee

Unemployment in Fresno County dropped last month to its lowest level for April in 16 years — despite higher energy costs and interest rates that threaten to derail a chugging economy.

The jobless rate fell to 8.8%, down from 9.4% in the same month last year, thanks to gains in construction, government and farm jobs, according to statistics released Friday by the state. Unemployment rates are compared with figures from previous years to avoid the effects of seasonal variation.

Tulare County reported an April jobless rate of 9.2%, slightly below 9.4% a year previously. Madera County's rate was 8.1%, which compares with 8.7% in April 2005.

How long the jobless rate will stay low — by central San Joaquin Valley standards — will depend on the economy. Sean M. Snaith, an economist at University of the Pacific in Stockton, said the expansion that characterized the past few years is beginning to wane.

"High energy costs and rising interest rates are working to put the brakes on the California economy," he said. "This deceleration should be slow and steady, but another jump in energy prices or interest rates could put the economy into a tailspin."

Rising interest rates are helping moderate housing sales and are contributing to an increasing supply of homes for sale, he said. "Supply is catching up with demand, and in some cases inventory is getting uncomfortable. Clearly, we are past the peak years."

Still, construction remains a large employer, accounting for 22,200 jobs last month in Fresno County, according to the state Employment Development Department.

Those numbers have been unchanged for two months but represent a 7.8% increase from a year ago. Snaith said he expects employment levels in construction to remain stable or decline slightly in some regions after builders deplete their backlog of houses.

In Clovis, a surging demand in commercial construction is helping offset a dip in residential activity, said Connie Combs, senior planner.

And at least one residential builder is not slowing down at all.

"We haven't changed our prognostications in terms of going forward," said Alan Newman, vice president of Beazer Homes in Fresno.

Publicly held home-building companies such as Beazer focus on production and are less affected by real estate cycles. Beazer has four subdivisions in Fresno and Madera and is getting ready to debut two more, including one at Ashlan and Cornelia avenues that will feature smaller lots — and prices starting in the $220,000 range.

Beazer expects to build about 275 homes in the central San Joaquin Valley this fiscal year, its first in the Fresno area. The division employs 49 people and is looking to hire more.

"This is the best startup Beazer ever had," Newman said of the company's first year in Fresno.

Construction is one of the industries the Workforce Investment Board trains displaced workers for.

"The need for roofers is incredible," said Pam Lassetter, assistant director.

Health care, information services, manufacturing, auto technicians and trucking/logistics also are searching for workers. The Workforce Investment Board is halfway through surveying the six industries and has found at least 1,000 jobs that have not been filled.

Still, 20,000 people per year pass through the agency's one-stop centers looking for work.

"There has been no difference in the number of people coming in seeking work," Lassetter said.

The reporter can be reached at snax@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6495.

By E.J. Schultz / The Fresno Bee

Three years left, 8,800 jobs down and 20,500 jobs to go.

By the simplest of measures, that's the challenge facing the Regional Jobs Initiative as it enters the third year of a five-year plan to double normal job growth in the region in several key industries. At the current pace, the RJI would fall short of its goal by about 25%.

But leaders say they aren't daunted by the task.

"I feel like we're on this great huge 747 that's barreling down the runway and we have picked up so much steam," says Ashley Swearengin, RJI chief operating officer. "The passengers are all on board. We're all buckled in. I mean, it's like all systems are go, and we're just about to take off."

While the RJI was launched two years ago, leaders have said all along that the real job ascent won't occur until the latter stages of the five-year plan, making this year a critical turning point.

The early focus has been on changing the mindset of a community whose economic development strategy has largely relied on touting Fresno's cheap appeal to lure businesses from other cities.

The RJI, a mostly volunteer effort with little public funding, seeks to turn that approach on its head, embracing the "cluster theory" of economic development. The theory asserts that regional economies grow when businesses in the same industries work in concert.

By sharing training costs and knowledge, and lobbying together to overturn unfriendly laws, businesses can gain competitive advantage over those in other regions, goes the thinking.

On the teamwork front, the RJI claims unquestioned success. More than 1,000 people are involved, from labor union leaders to industry executives and government officials.

"What has changed," says RJI co-chairman Pete Weber, "is the degree of collaboration that is occurring in our community."

Such an all-hands-on-deck approach could be the only way out of the region's decades-long slump of chronic unemployment and high poverty.

The woes are well documented and came to light again nationally last year when the Brookings Institution ranked Fresno first in concentrated poverty among America's large cities.

Some measurements indicate the tide may be turning, however slightly.

Fresno County's annual jobless rate last year was 9%, down from 10.4% the year before, according to preliminary state figures. One of the RJI's goals is to reduce unemployment to between 7% and 8%.

December's jobless rate dropped to 8.5% from 10.1% the year before, the 22nd-best improvement for a region in the nation, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

The job growth has been uneven, however, with most of it occurring in construction. And that growth is mostly due to free-market forces, such as the long-running housing boom.

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The RJI wants to lure more jobs in more categories.

It seeks to more than double the rate of job growth from 2004 to 2008 in Fresno and Madera counties in seven target industries, or "clusters": construction, health care, tourism, information processing, durable goods manufacturing, water technology and logistics. This would result in 15,500 new jobs beyond normal growth. Three clusters have been added that have no specific job goals: food processing, software and innovative energy.

Two years in, employment in the seven targeted industries stands at 114,100 with growth averaging 4,400 jobs a year, according to RJI estimates based on state data. That pace must quicken to 6,833 jobs a year for the next three years for the RJI to reach its goal, a tall task considering some economists are predicting a general slowdown in the nation's economy.

The growth also must become more balanced.

To date, construction has accounted for about half the growth, while health care and logistics are well behind the targeted pace.

The job picture could improve next month, however, when the state revises its 2005 figures.

The plan also counts on 14,500 jobs coming from a "multiplier effect." This means jobs created in the clusters will lead to other growth. For example, expansion by a manufacturer could lead to more work for a supplier or for a restaurant next door to the plant.

The multiplier jobs plus the 15,500 cluster jobs equal 30,000 net new jobs in five years — the statistic most often cited as the goal of the RJI plan.

It's too early to measure the multiplier, RJI leaders say. For that matter, they say it's too early to take much credit for the any job gains. They concede, for instance, that construction job growth is mostly a result of the housing boom.

But they point to falling jobless rates as evidence that the Valley's economy is improving and that their plan might be having some impact.

"I think there are indicators that would give us cause to feel encouraged," Weber said.

Critics want more immediate proof the initiative is working.

"Prove, tell me where you guys are responsible for 200 jobs in Fresno County and if you are, where's the proof?" asks Fresno County Supervisor Bob Waterston.

Waterston says that the RJI duplicates efforts of other groups. To prove his point, he compiled a list of more than 35 organizations in the county that he says are in the economic development business, from One By One Leadership, a faith-based nonprofit, to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's office of rural development.

"It's just another group," he says of the RJI. "Another acronym that comes up on the radar."

Some other elected officials disagree.

"I think the RJI is an excellent umbrella group and they've got most of the players under it," says Fresno City Council member Brian Calhoun.

Fresno Mayor Alan Autry, whose administration formed the RJI, says: "The Regional Jobs Initiative brings all of these groups together as one region. That is absolutely essential."

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Ambitious and far-reaching, the RJI plan relies on the input of many players.

Here's how it works:

Government and business leaders meet regularly to discuss how they can combine efforts. Industry representatives lead regular cluster meetings. The manufacturing group, for example, is led by Ray Dunn, retired president of pump-maker Weir Floway Pumps, and David White of California Manufacturing and Engineering Co., a maker of aerial work platforms. Discussions are wide-ranging, with business leaders brainstorming on how to increase training, form marketing partnerships or team up on industry research.

Separately, six groups known as community task forces meet to address business climate issues. For example, a livability task force, comprising leaders of nonprofit organizations, cultural institutions, governments and businesses, is developing a livability scorecard to track air quality, commute time and other quality-of-life gauges. The first release is scheduled later in the month.

A technology task force, meanwhile, is working to form a nonprofit partnership to sell voice, data and video services in the region. As part of the project, the group is trying to bring free wireless Internet access to downtown Fresno.

Most of those working on the RJI volunteer their time.

For fiscal year 2005-06 the RJI received $115,000 from local governments: $75,000 from the city of Fresno, $15,000 from the city of Clovis and $25,000 from Fresno County, according to the RJI. Last fiscal year, the RJI was awarded $198,000 from the federal government, though RJI leaders said they won't have access to that money until this year.

Most of the public money is used to help pay for two full-time and two part-time staff members who work out of the Office of Community and Economic Development at California State University, Fresno.

RJI co-chairman Weber, a retired corporate executive, volunteers his time, as does fellow co-chairman Ken Newby, whose full-time job is running the Fresno office of accounting firm Deloitte & Touche. Swearengin, who works for the RJI full time, is on loan from Fresno State. Deb Nankivell, paid CEO of the Fresno Business Council, also contributes to the RJI.

At more than 200 pages, the RJI's plan includes 40 major initiatives, from gaining interstate designation for Highway 99 to establishing a regional health-care training institute.

To date, success has been varied.

RJI leaders are pleased with the progress of one key front: improving employee training programs.

At the root of many of the region's woes is an undereducated and ill-prepared work force, many industry leaders have said. And there lies the cruelest of ironies. The central San Joaquin Valley is home to some of the nation's highest jobless rates, yet countless jobs go unfilled.

"There's a perception out there that we don't have a qualified, competitive work force," says Pam Lassetter, assistant director of the Fresno County Workforce Investment Board, which uses federal money to help county residents find work and enroll in training.

The RJI seeks to close the training gap by helping the work force board target training toward high-growth industries.

The board recently identified the 10 fastest-growing health-care professions through interviewing officials at major local hospitals, Lassetter says. The information was used to secure a $400,000 federal grant that community colleges will use to add and expand programs.

West Hills Community College is using its $190,000 share of the grant to train medical technicians, says Carole Goldsmith, the college's director of work force development. The college also is working with Fresno City College on a program to let licensed vocational nurses become registered nurses after two semesters of training.

Twelve students began the nursing program in January at West Hills' Lemoore campus. Leanora Blazich is one of them. After working at naval hospitals and health clinics for seven years, Blazich came off active duty in late 2004. Her husband is still in the Navy, and she lives at the Lemoore Naval Air Station.

Already a licensed vocational nurse, she searched for programs to upgrade to a registered nurse. But the closest ones were at least 45 minutes away — an impossible commute considering she takes care of a 4-year-old daughter and a 12-year-old stepson, she said.

Then she found out about the West Hills program. She expects to graduate in December.

"I'm so lucky that this opened up," she says. "It's really been a godsend."

Another RJI priority is to bring more state government attention to the region.

After the first year of the initiative, leaders said they were frustrated that they couldn't get Gov. Schwarzenegger to create a regional task force.

But the governor responded last year by creating the California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley.

The group includes 18 business and local government leaders and eight state Cabinet secretaries, and has a mission of improving the Valley economy. It's through this partnership the RJI hopes to rally support for interstate designation for Highway 99.

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Progress on other RJI initiatives has been slower.

A business plan for a training institute for health-care professions was to be completed by the end of the first year. But to date, little progress has been made on the project, known as the Valley Training and Education Consortium for Healthcare.

RJI leaders say turnover at major health-care companies has hampered efforts. For example, Corwin Harper, a former senior vice president/manager for Kaiser Permanente's Fresno-area operations who led the health-care cluster, recently left to accept a similar position in Manteca.

Tim Curley, regional vice president of the Hospital Council of Northern and Central California, was recently named his replacement.

"From what I can tell, not much has happened in the last couple years," Curley says of the RJI's health-care initiatives. But he says the RJI "has a big role to play in helping the health-care sector address its work force shortages."

Even when turnover is not a factor, the RJI is challenged to keep its mostly volunteer team motivated.

"The biggest challenge is to continue to put the hours and resources required to do something like this when everybody's got a regular job," says Doug Whipple, a Fresno-area carpenters union representative and co-chairman of the construction cluster.

He credits the RJI with helping bridge historical divides: "It's not the usual deal for trades people, union people to be meeting with business people."

But actual results have been slow, he says.

For instance, one RJI initiative is to get local governments to require that publicly funded construction projects make use of a certain percentage of local workers. But Whipple says the construction cluster — which includes union and nonunion companies — hasn't reached a consensus on a proposal.

A major initiative from the beginning has been to create "centers of excellence" where companies in the same industry could come together to share research. For example, a $2.5million advanced manufacturing center would give companies space to test and calibrate machinery.

But finding money to begin work on the centers has proven tough. The RJI plans to go after federal grants. But with only a few paid staff members, the RJI hasn't had the resources to prepare grant applications, Swearengin said.

The need for the centers is great, says Steve Keyser, director of advanced engineering at the Fresno plant of wheelchair-maker Sunrise Medical. To test equipment, the plant has to ship equipment to laboratories in the Bay Area or elsewhere — a process that drives up costs and delays new product development.

With the local center for excellence, the company could "eliminate the distance factor and chip away at the cost," Keyser says.

As a member of the RJI's manufacturing cluster, he has helped lead the effort to build the center. But he says "it's harder and harder for us to put all the volunteer time into this."

Still, Keyser believes the RJI is making an impact. At first, businesses were skeptical, thinking the initiative was "another one of those flash-in-the-pan ideas," he says. But as time passed, "a lot of people have been surprised to see that this is serious."

The ultimate judges of the RJI's success will be the 38,600 people in Fresno and Madera counties who were unemployed as of December.

People like Robert Coronado.

The 54-year-old Fresno resident lost his job about a year ago. He was working at Vendo Co., a vending machine maker that relocated last year from Fresno to Texas, ending more than 300 area jobs.

Coronado ran the machinery at the Fresno plant, making $15.60 an hour with full benefits. He could have found a similar job at other companies in the area but would've taken a hefty pay cut, he said.

So with the help of the work force board, he enrolled in MCed Career College in Fresno, where he is studying to become an electrocardiogram, or EKG, technician. He will graduate soon. With the demand strong, he expects to find a job right away.

"I won't know till I get there," he says. "But it sounds good."

The reporter can be reached at eschultz@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6637.

A new report, Construction Careers, focuses on occupations in the construction industry. It includes profiles of more than 20 construction jobs, including Brick Masons, Carpenters, Tile Setters, Operating Engineers, Electricians, and Plumbers. These jobs represent trades that typically involve apprenticeship programs and, subsequently, good union wages and benefits. Many Construction Careers profiles also link to short career videos. To view Construction Careers, go on-line to http://www.calmis.ca.gov/file/occmisc/constructioncareers.pdf.

Individual career profiles describe the following aspects of each job:

• Day-to-day tasks
• Skills, knowledge, and abilities required
• Work environment
• California outlook and wages
• Trends
• Training requirements and apprenticeship information
• High school course work recommended
• Information on how to locate local employers
• Advancement opportunities
• Other sources of information
  
  Construction is currently a high-growth industry. In addition to normal labor needs for highway projects and other public works, the new housing boom in Calif~rnia has pushed the need for construction workers to robust levels. New housing adds up to new communities needing improved roads, sewer systems, supermarkets and other business outlets, all of which involves the construction industry and an even higher demand for workers.
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  09.08.2005
  New highway bill retains major TEA-21 programs
  
  

  By Jonathan Menard / Equipment World Online
  
  The new six-year highway and transit funding program President Bush signed into law in August doesn’t differ much from the previous plan that went into effect in 1998, according to a national transportation builders’ group.
  
  The Safe, Accountable, Flexible and Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users program, which authorizes federal investment in highway improvements, public transportation and highway safety programs for fiscal years 2005-2009, will retain the main programs from its predecessor, the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, according to Dave Bauer, senior vice president of the American Road & Transportation Builders Association.
  
  “For the highway program structure, really, there were no major changes,” Bauer said at a Sept. 7 press conference. “The core highway programs of TEA-21 have been retained. The major difference is the distribution of highway funds from other states.”
  
  The bill ensures all states will see an increase in the funds they receive. Each state’s minimum rate of return on Highway Trust Fund contribution will ramp up from the current 90.5 percent to 92 percent by 2008. All states are also guaranteed a total six-year average highway funding increase of at least 19 percent compared to TEA-21 funding.
  
  States that will gain the most from the new bill are ones that produce and sell a lot of ethanol motor fuel, Bauer said. “Donor states that previously put more money in fuel taxes into the federal fund than they got back in construction grants fought for – and won -- more money for their districts.
  
  SAFETEA-LU does provide some small changes.
  
  “For the first time, it establishes a core safety infrastructure program,” Bauer said. Over the life of the bill, $5.06 billion is provided for infrastructure safety initiatives.
  
  The law also will create a program titled Projects of National and Regional Significance. This will be used to “provide a pot of money to fund some of the large-cost projects so it won’t eat up an individual state’s budget,” Bauer said.
  
  Legislators also slightly altered how the bill will be paid for.
  
  “The highway program is funded in a unique way, different from almost anything the federal government does,” said Bill Buechner, vice president of economics and research for ARTBA. “Because highway funding is paid out of the Highway Trust Fund, there is no need for an appropriations bill.”
  
  The money will therefore be available to distribute to states automatically on Oct. 1 each year. “The states take this new funding, add it to any amount they carried over, and that’s what they then have available to obligate to new highway structure projects,” Buechner said.
  
  “The important thing is that the bills, both TEA-21 and SAFETEA-LU, establish budget firewalls and procedural hurdles that prevent the House and Senate from reducing the obligation ceiling that is set in SAFETEA-LU,” Buechner said. “This has become known as guaranteed funding because it is a level of funding that the appropriations process has to respect.”
  
  Bauer said many of TEA-21’s aspects were too important not to include in SAFETEA-LU. “Clearly this bill builds on the innovative financing mechanisms that were established under previous legislation,” he added.

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  09.05.2005
  Fresno County faces fee friction:
  Proposed levy on new home buildres worries officials in some cities.
  
  

  By George Hostetter / The Fresno Bee
  
  Fresno County may create a historic developer fee that could add thousands of dollars to the cost of a new house in cities as well as unincorporated areas.
  
  County officials say they need the money to pay for buildings vital to providing services to all county residents in one of the state's fastest-growing regions.
  
  But the idea of an imposed fee is sparking harsh words from top officials in some cities, and a bitter fight over its fate may loom.
  
  The Board of Supervisors is expected to review a consultant's report next month that proposes a public facilities impact fee on new residential, commercial and industrial development. It would be the first such fee in county history.
  
  The fee is controversial for two reasons.
  
  The board can impose it on cities regardless of whether their residents or leaders want it. Officials in several cities say this isn't fair.
  
  Critics say it will be passed on to homebuyers, causing more financial pain in a region where the median price of homes in some cities is about $250,000 and rising municipal developer fees are already common.
  
  Supervisor Henry R. Perea says he supports the fee, adding that the board must plan for growth while avoiding a consumer backlash.
  
  "It's a delicate balance," Perea says. "But the payoff for me is if we can show the public that they will get a good return on their money."
  
  Supervisor Susan B. Anderson says a county developer fee is "long overdue."
  
  County Administrator Bart Bohn says critics shouldn't blame the county for considering the fee: "You can't be the bad guy when the public is demanding a level of service higher than what we're giving now."
  
  But officials at some city halls are angry.
  
  Fresno City Council President Mike Dages says the fee is "almost anti-business. ... Basically, what the cities are going to do is subsidize the county budget."
  
  Fresno plans to implement similar developer fees this month to raise hundreds of millions of dollars over the next 20 years for parks, police stations and firehouses.
  
  Selma City Manager D-B Heusser says a county fee added to Selma's developer fees — expected to soon rise to about $12,000 per house — would be devastating: "If our growth stops, the county's growth stops."
  
  The county has authority to impose the fee through its tax-sharing agreements with the cities, says Assistant County Administrator Jeannette Ishii. The agreements for Coalinga, Huron, Mendota, Orange Cove and Selma have expired. Kingsburg's agreement expires Oct. 15.
  
  Ishii says she is confident new agreements will be negotiated with these cities that will permit the county to implement the fee. The county's leverage: Without signed agreements, the cities can't annex new areas.
  
  County officials say there's a simple explanation for the fee.
  
  Many county buildings, says Bohn, are "old, inadequate, obsolete." The county doesn't have the money to build new facilities or expand those it occupies to meet the demands of growth.
  
  Because new residents in cities use county services, Bohn says, it's only fair they help pay for the county's growing need for facilities.
  
  County officials briskly describe the abysmal state of some facilities: an outdated morgue next to an irrigation ditch in west Fresno; cramped and stuffy waiting rooms at welfare offices; district attorneys laboring in tiny cubicles spread throughout downtown Fresno; a dowdy and undersized main library.
  
  Then there is the county's long-held dream of a modern dispatch center big enough for the Sheriff's Department and the Fresno police and fire departments.
  
  Add this to a county with a population fast approaching 1 million and expected to grow by nearly one-third in the next 15 years, and the result is a facilities problem with no easy solution, county officials say.
  
  This was the background in June when the supervisors voted to hire consulting firm MuniFinancial. County officials say the consultant will present several options to the board, perhaps in early October.
  
  But officials also make clear the only option worth serious consideration is a fee applied to cities as well as unincorporated areas. Cities, they say, are where most development occurs, as mandated by the county's 2025 general plan.
  
  County officials say it's too early to estimate the fee's size should the board go that route. But, Ishii says, she is impressed by how Solano County in Northern California handles its developer fee.
  
  Solano County, with slightly more than 400,000 people, is less than half the size of Fresno County. Charlene Ping, a senior management analyst for the county, says fees for single family houses range from $3,558 to $5,932 and raise about $14 million a year.
  
  State law requires that money from such a fee be spent only for portions of expanded or new facilities needed to handle growth. The money can't be spent for remodeling or replacing an existing building.
  
  Ping says the fee is about 15 years old and accepted by most developers and homebuyers: "We don't get very many calls from people with concerns."
  
  There is no shortage of concern among officials in Fresno's cities and the local building industry.
  
  Firebaugh City Manager Jose Antonio Ramirez says his city of about 7,000 people on the county's west side is emerging from a construction lull that saw about 160 housing starts over the past 10 years.
  
  Now, Ramirez says, developers "have found Firebaugh," attracted by its relatively modest $7,753 in fees for a single-family house. He says three projects totaling more than 800 homes have begun.
  
  A county developer fee "would certainly be a hardship right now," Ramirez says.
  
  Developer fees for a single-family house in Clovis range from about $13,000 to about $20,000, depending on the neighborhood's location, says assistant engineer Chris Tange.
  
  City Manager Kathy Millison says a county developer fee added to Clovis' fees "will be a shock to the market."
  
  Michael Prandini, president of the Building Industry Association of the San Joaquin Valley, says developers will pay their fair share but want to make sure the size of a county fee "is reasonable."
  
  Prandini says there's a limit to homebuyers' willingness to bear the burden of new fees: "At what point do you drive housing into Kings County or Tulare County or Madera County?"
  
  According to a Fresno County report, about one-third of the state's 58 counties have public facilities impact fees.
  
  Kings County's board recently approved a developer fee that peaks at slightly less than $2,600 per house, says Deputy County Administrator Mary Gallegos. Criminal justice facilities are at the top of the county's list of needs, she adds.
  
  Tulare County spokesman Eric Coyne says the board has authorized the hiring of a consultant to study a developer fee.
  
  Such a fee also is being discussed by Madera County officials, says County Administrator Stell Manfredi. He describes county government as a "beast" that constantly needs more money because the public constantly demands more services.
  
  "If you want a house for the beast to live in," Manfredi says, "you have to build it."
  
  Fresno County Supervisor Phil Larson says he would oppose a public facilities fee if it might harm voter support for an extension of Measure C, the half-cent sales tax that pays for transportation projects and expires in 2007.
  
  The fee "is something we can do, but I'm not sure the timing is right," Larson says.
  
  Supervisor Anderson dismisses concerns about timing, saying there's "never a good time" to impose a fee.
  
  She adds: "We shouldn't be shortsighted. We are making decisions for the future."
  
  The reporter can be reached at ghostetter@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6272.

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  07.07.2005
  Area may see future gains in economy:
  Economist says income in the Fresno area quadruple by 2030.
  
  

  By Sanford Nax / The Fresno Bee
  
  The Fresno region is in the early stages of an "economic metamorphosis" that will help reduce the area's chronic unemployment, a university forecaster said.
  
  University of the Pacific economist Sean Snaith predicts the Fresno-area economy will double in size by 2030. He expects growth to be modest through next year, before slowing to about 1.5% in 2007.
  
  Personal income in the Fresno area is expected to increase from $23.2 billion in 2005 to $24.4 billion in 2006 and $25.7 billion in 2007. Those percentage increases would be close to the state average. By 2030, personal income in the Fresno area could reach $97.4 billion.
  
  Construction, education and health care are expected to continue as the leading drivers, with construction employment — fueled by population growth — expanding about 3% over the next three years, he said in his California Forecast by University of Pacific's Business Forecasting Center. Last year, 2,100 construction jobs were added in the Fresno area — 3.5 times more than in manufacturing.
  
  Information services, manufacturing and government also are expected to grow.
  
  As a result, the Fresno region can expect the persistent double-digit jobless rate to decline.
  
  "The unemployment rate is expected to fall significantly from about 12% in 2004 to nearly 9% in 2005 — and will remain steady at that level until 2007," Snaith said in the report.
  
  In an interview, the Stockton-based economist said the influx of families from the San Francisco Bay Area and other urban centers will help diversify the economy of the central San Joaquin Valley.
  
  He expects the level of housing starts in 2007 to be 150% more than in 1997.
  
  "It's starting to fundamentally change the region," he said. "[The Valley] is the ag region of the state and that will continue to be the backbone, but economic muscle is being added to the backbone."
  
  Snaith added, "The tip of the spear is construction. New houses are not cheap and people moving in are employed. Each person who buys a home is helping lower unemployment."
  
  The construction boom is evident in area school districts, which are expanding rapidly. In the 2005 fiscal year, single-family building permits in Sanger totaled 1,300 and kindergarten registration was up 139 students from the previous year, said Marc Johnson, superintendent of Sanger Unified School District.
  
  The district is adding about 10 teachers a year. "For us that is fairly significant growth," Johnson said.
  
  Snaith noted that construction is a cyclical industry, but that a slowdown in that job sector does not mean the rest of the economy will suffer unduly. "Construction is not the end game," he said. "Rather, it is the starting point."
  
  New service business and retailers will follow the houses, Snaith said. He noted the changes won't be overnight.
  
  "This is a 25-year forecast, and a lot of it will be glacial rather than interstellar, but you're starting to see it."
  
  His view is shared by Ashley Swearengin, chief operating officer of the Regional Jobs Initiative.
  
  "You're starting to see it in the job numbers," she said. In May, Fresno County's unemployment rate dropped to 8.1%, the lowest for a May in 15 years of recordkeeping.
  
  The once-dormant manufacturing sector has been showing signs of life, adding 1,000 jobs over the past year, the state Employment Development Department reported in June.
  
  "I think we have to continue to press for jobs that are based on an export-oriented industry. Retail and real estate are a shot in the arm, but are not sustainable for the long term, and do not drive gains in per-capita income," Swearengin said.
  
  The Regional Jobs Initiative has an ambitious agenda to create 30,000 jobs beyond normal growth in five years.
  
  "We are trying to accelerate 25 years into five years and 10 years. Poverty is not holding up and taking it easy and waiting 25 years while we get our diversification act together," she said.
  
  Snaith studied 11 metropolitan regions, including San Jose, which still has not recovered from the dot.com crash. Personal income climbed from $74.5 billion in 1999 to $92.9 billion in 2000 — and then plummeted to $85.4 billion in 2001 and $79.6 billion in 2002.
  
  It has since climbed to $86 billion, but Snaith said Silicon Valley may not reach the same employment levels until 2010 to 2015.
  
  "That was a hell of a roller-coaster ride they went on. … It takes awhile to shake off the blows."
  
  Snaith also commented on the prospect of a so-called "housing bubble." He does not believe in a bubble akin to the Internet boom-bust. The real estate market cannot crash like that because a person's house is not simply a financial asset.
  
  Instead, he compares the housing situation to a souffle made from the proper mixture of record-low mortgage rates, low inflation, and innovative loan programs.
  
  "Once any of those ingredients are taken out of the mix, the souffle will begin to deflate," he said. How far and how fast? The answers to those questions have implications not only for the housing market, but also for the overall economies of the U.S. and California.

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  06.21.2005
  Legislation:
  Senate Transport Conferees Propose $290 Billion, Down $5 Billion From Earlier Bill
  
  

  By Tom Ichniowski / McGraw Hill Construction ENR.com
  
  Seeking a compromise with the House on a much-delayed transportation bill, Senate negotiators have proposed that the measure contain $290 billion in total guaranteed funding. That represents a $5-billion reduction from the version that the chamber passed in May, says Bill Holbrook, spokesman for the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. The new proposal is about $6 billion higher than the guaranteed funding in the House's $284-billion bill.T
  
  The Senate made its proposal on June 20 to the House side of a joint conference committee formed to reconcile the chambers' differing version of the sweeping, multi-year transportation measure. As of mid-day June 21, the House conferees had not responded to the Senate offer, says Holbrook. He adds that the Senate side is "optimistic that we'll be able to have the legislation completed by the end of the month."
  
  Since the last multi-year authorization, the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, expired Sept. 30, 2003, federal highway and transit programs have been operating under a series of short extensions. The latest extension, the seventh in that series, lapses on June 30.
  
  David Bauer, American Road & Transportation Builders Association senior vice president for government relations, says that the Senate offer "demonstrates that the political process is working, but where this is going to end up I don't think anybody can say with certainty."

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  06.18.2005
  Construction boom helps lower Valley jobless rate.
  
  

  By E.J. Schultz / The Fresno Bee
  
  Area jobless rates continued to fall into record territory in May as the job market gained strength from the seemingly unstoppable construction boom.
  
  The unemployment rate in Fresno County dropped to 8.1%, the lowest rate for a May in 15 years of recordkeeping and the lowest rate for any month since September 2000, according to the state jobless report made public Friday.
  
  The average unemployment rate for the five-county central San Joaquin Valley was 8.2%, down from the 9.9% average rate of a year ago.
  
  "It's like water on a thirsty day," said Ashley Swearengin, chief operating officer of the Regional Jobs Initiative. "It's momentum. It's encouragement. It's exciting."
  
  Spurred by seasonal agricultural job growth, May is typically a good month for the local labor market. Despite rainy weather, this year was no different. In Fresno County, for instance, 6,600 farm jobs were added last month.
  
  A better economic bellwether is nonfarm hiring, which grew by 2,900 jobs in the county. Tulare County added 400 nonfarm jobs, as its unemployment rate fell from 9.4% in April to 8.1% last month — the lowest rate in at least 15 years. (The state recently revised historical figures but has only posted data from 1990 forward.)
  
  "We're pretty excited about it," said Paul Saldaña, chief executive of Tulare County Economic Development Corp.
  
  If there is a downside, it's that highly cyclical industries continue to carry the load in the region. The construction industry, for example, added 400 jobs in Fresno County in May, bringing the 12-month gain to 1,900 jobs.
  
  The danger is that if the economy falters, those job gains could evaporate.
  
  But population growth should fuel the industry for a while as more homes, schools and stores are built, said Doug Reitz, a project executive for Harris Construction Co. of Fresno. He is chairman of the construction cluster of the Regional Jobs Initiative. The RJI has a goal of creating 30,000 jobs by 2009.
  
  "It's cyclical, but I don't think it's boom or bust," Reitz said of the construction trend. "I think the way the economy is going, it should have staying power."
  
  As an example, he points to the education center being built at Willow and International avenues by the Clovis Unified School District. At its peak, the project will create 500 construction jobs, Reitz said.
  
  Jobs in construction, retail and real estate are part of what economists call the internal economy, meaning goods and services made and sold locally. Or as Swearengin puts it, "pushing the money around amongst ourselves."
  
  Though internal economy gains create momentum, jobs growth in industries that export to other regions is often more desirable, she said. "That's the only way to improve the per capita income," Swearengin said.
  
  A good indicator for those jobs is the manufacturing industry, which is showing signs of life in the Valley. Fresno County added 200 durable manufacturing jobs in May, upping the yearly gain to 1,000 jobs.
  
  Nearly 40 of the jobs were created by CMEC of Selma. Launched about a year ago, the company makes equipment that elevates workers and equipment at construction sites. By selling out-of-state and to markets in Europe and Japan, the company brings new money into the region and spends it with local suppliers, said David White, the company's engineering manager.
  
  "We are in turn putting others to work," he said.
  
  Tulare County held steady with 3,600 total durable manufacturing jobs, and for the year is up 100 jobs. Despite losing large employers such as Frito-Lay, the county has been able to lure other manufacturers. "We've stayed ahead of the losses," Saldaña said.
  
  Beyond construction and manufacturing, however, nonfarm job growth seems to have slowed in the region.
  
  UCLA Anderson Forecast, which adjusts the state job numbers for seasonal variations, shows the industry categories of financial activities, wholesale trade and leisure and hospitality all losing jobs in the past three months.
  
  But Christopher Thornberg, a senior economist with UCLA Anderson, cautioned not to read too much into the numbers. A growing economy, he said, "often sees numbers that are below reality because they [the state labor department] miss new business formation."
  
  Statewide, 17,600 nonfarm jobs were added in May, down from the 18,300 jobs gained in April. The jobless rate fell from 5.4% to 5.3%.
  
  The statewide performance, Thornberg said, is "nothing exciting to write home about — just average."

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  04.26.2005
  Builders win latest tiff over building codes:
  With Davis out and Schwarzenegger in, state commission alters its 2003 decision
  
  

  By Jennifer LeClaire / Sacramento Business Journal
  
  When the state adopted a set of building codes different from those used in most of the rest of the nation nearly two years ago, lobbyists proclaimed, "It ain't over yet."
  
  Nineteen months have passed. The battle is finally over and the state has chosen to adopt the International Building Code, or IBC, instead of the National Fire Protection Association 5000 code as originally planned.
  
  The March vote by the California Building Standards Commission to rescind the NFPA model code for commercial construction was a blow to unions. Unions had lobbied hard for this code, favoring it over the IBC, which has the support of the building industry as the favored code.
  
  I-Codes, which include the IBC and other coordinated building safety and fire prevention codes, are the most widely recognized building codes in the country used in 48 states at the state or local level.
  
  "The I-Codes provide us with what we need -- clarity and certainty in a building code," said Kurt Cooknick, director of regulatory affairs for the American Institute of Architects California Council. "The I-Codes are like a new dialect. The NFPA was like a whole new language. There was too much uncertainty in the NFPA code."
  
  Blame it on politics: NFPA proponents are blaming politics for the change of mind.
  
  Much has changed since voters recalled a Democratic governor with union sympathies and installed a Republican replacement whose chief campaign theme was that California had become too hostile to the interests of business.
  
  Emboldened by the change, IBC boosters moved for a re-vote by a restructured Building Standards Commission. In March 2005 the commission took action that will allow state agencies to move forward with the adoption of building codes, including the IBC, the International Fire Code and the International Residential Code, when the state's building codes are updated.
  
  "The decision sets a course that will help ensure the highest level of building and fire safety in places where Californians live, work and play," said James Lee Witt, chief executive officer of the International Code Council. "We applaud the California Building Standards Commission for undertaking a detailed analysis of the codes and making public safety interests its first priority."
  
  But the NFPA is hardly applauding. Gary Keith, vice president of the NFPA's Building Codes and Standards/Regional Operations, said the office of the state fire marshal was the only agency that did a full and complete review of both codes in its 600-page document that ultimately supported the NFPA 5000.
  
  "The NFPA 5000 is the only building code developed through a process accredited by the American National Standards Institute," Keith said. "In contrast to the ICC process, NFPA's system of code development does not allow any one interest group to dominate. Public safety is too important to be left in the hands of any one group."
  
  Strength in numbers: Supporters of the rival codes continue to clash over which is the best regulatory framework for commercial construction in California. But both sides do agree on one thing: Chances to appeal the decision are slim to none. The I-Codes seem to have a stronghold in California.
  
  Many groups representing builders, engineers, architects and other business interests, along with some state agencies and local building officials, urged the state to adopt the IBC so that California would be in step with other states and other countries that have adopted it. They claimed that adopting the NFPA 5000 code would add time and cost to projects.
  
  Those claims were supported by non-partisan agencies. Data gathered by McGraw-Hill Construction suggest that adoption of the NFPA 5000 would result in lags that could lead to a trillion-dollar impact on potential construction during the next one to five years.
  
  State agencies, including the Division of the State Architect, the Department of Housing and Community Development, and the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, estimate it would take between two and three years to write amendments to the NFPA code. Officials said that figure is nearly twice as long as the estimated time frame for amending the IBC code.
  
  Still waiting on an updated code: But now that the I-Codes are reigning, NFPA supporters are wondering what the difference really is. Proponents argue that the NFPA underwent an exhaustive process over the past two years to prepare an amendment package to move the code issues forward; time that now appears to be a wasted effort.
  
  "Right now what is most disappointing is the amount of time that has been lost," said Alameda County Fire Chief Bill McCammon, immediate past president of the California Fire Chiefs Association. McCammon lobbied for the NFPA 5000 in the heat of the battle.
  
  "It may be another several years before we even get to the point where we will have a usable code," he continued. "So the buildings going up now are being built under a code that was last updated in 1997."
  
  Cooknick said there are plenty of volunteers prepared to ready the I-Codes for adoption and doesn't expect delays now that the decision is finally settled.
  
  Avoiding potential liabilities: The pro-IBC camp is pleased that architects and engineers won't be encumbered by being potentially required to work with two separate building codes -- the NFPA 5000 in California and the I-Codes in other states.
  
  But perhaps the largest concern, said Cooknick, was potential liabilities in using the NFPA. He said the NFPA 5000 isn't time-tested like the I-Codes, leaving practitioners with uncertainty regarding how well the code's minimum requirements protected architects and engineers.
  
  Keith, once again, disagrees. But the NFPA is moving on to other battles, still blaming politics for the outcome in California. "The recent decision by the California Building Standards Commission to reverse the commission's 2003 selection of the NFPA 5000 was not surprising," he said.
  
  "Five new members had been appointed by Gov. Schwarzenegger since the commission concluded its very detailed and thorough review process in 2003. That review process had shown that the NFPA codes provided the highest level of safety for Californians."
  
  Still, it looks as though Cooknick, the one who proclaimed, "It ain't over until it's over" nearly two years ago, gets the final word in the conclusion of the code wars.
  
  "The existing codes we are using now are not much different from what we will end up with in the I-Codes," he said. "We know these codes work. We know the I-Codes are a good backstop for our design decisions."

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  04.21.2005
  Developers offer to fight pollution; contracts signed
  
  

  By Mark Grossi / The Fresno Bee
  
  Local air officials Wednesday signed unprecedented contracts with two developers who volunteered more than a half-million dollars and their best efforts to fight pollution from their Bakersfield-area projects.
  
  The contracts — pushed by the developers — are considered a unique cleanup approach nationally. Officials hope other developers follow suit in the San Joaquin Valley, which has some of the worst air pollution in the country.
  
  Even activists praised the effort from the two developers, Tejon RanchCorp and Castle & Cooke California Inc. But they still wanted a delay, saying the contracts were rushed, vague and flawed.
  
  "The contracts are not a bad idea," said Kathryn Phillips of Environmental Defense, a watchdog organization. "The bad idea is to start off with a weak framework."
  
  Carolina Simunovic of Fresno Metro Ministry added that the contracts might not be necessary if local authorities last year had passed a mandated rule dealing with such pollution. The rule has been delayed for months.
  
  After hearing the objections, the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District board Wednesday approved the contracts. Most board members liked the contracts and didn't want to discourage other Valley developers from stepping forward.
  
  "They didn't have to come to us," said board member Barbara Patrick, who will consider the proposed Tejon and Castle & Cooke developments at some point in her capacity as a Kern County supervisor. "They did this voluntarily."
  
  Board member Susan B. Anderson, a Fresno County supervisor, voted no because she didn't think the process had been open enough to the public over the past couple of months. She wanted to delay the contracts a month.
  
  A company official said that waiting another 30 days would have caused a months-long delay in Tejon's plans for a 15-million-square-foot warehouse and industrial complex about 20 miles south of Bakersfield near Interstate 5.
  
  In addition to cutting out as much pollution as possible in construction, the company agreed to pay the district $531,900 to wipe out pollution in the surrounding area. The money will be used to upgrade engines and pollution-control devices for surrounding businesses and industries.
  
  "We're talking about bringing in 6,000 jobs and no net increase in air pollution," said Senior Vice President Joseph Drew of Tejon.
  
  The other developer, Castle & Cooke California Inc., proposes about 7,500 residential units in Bakersfield. Castle & Cooke also agreed to pay for additional pollution reduction in the area.
  
  Air district officials do not have a cost figure yet for Castle & Cooke. The cost will depend on how much pollution the development generates in additional traffic and other activities, such as landscape maintenance.
  
  The air district has been working on a rule that will impose fees for such so-called "indirect" pollution. The rule has been delayed over technical details and issues raised by the building industry.
  
  During the past three years, developers in Kern County have been sued regularly by the Sierra Club over proposed projects and air pollution. The developers usually settle the lawsuits out of court and agree to pay an air impact fee for each home.
  
  With the contracts, Tejon and Castle & Cooke may be able to avoid lawsuits down the line. The information gathered to fight air pollution in the developments also can be used in the county's permit process when a public review of the projects takes place.
  
  But David Crow, executive director of the air district, said the contracts have far more significance.
  
  "These are businesses voluntarily coming to the district," he said. "Normally, we're in a command and control situation. This is most unusual."

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  04.16.2005
  Fresno County jobless rate drops:
  Unemployment is lower in most central San Joaquin counties in March.
  
  

  By Sanford Nax / The Fresno Bee
  
  Fresno County's booming construction industry helped lower the jobless rate last month to 10.7%, a robust 2.5-percentage point drop from a year ago -- the most recent evidence of an improving economy.
  
  Other counties in the central San Joaquin Valley also reported much lower jobless rates last month, according to a state Employment Development Department report released Friday.
  
  Madera County had the lowest jobless rate in the five-county region at 9.1%.
  
  Fresno County's jobless rate of 10.7% in March compared with 11.4% in February and 13.2% in March 2004.
  
  Construction created 400 jobs last month -- and 1,800 in the past year, or almost two of every five new nonfarm jobs in Fresno County.
  
  "I have been turning down work because I don't have enough workers," said Larry Willey, owner of Willey Tile Co. in Fresno.
  
  The county has a solid 2.7% annual growth rate since January, according to a UCLA Anderson report released Friday.
  
  Wholesale and retail trade, manufacturing, utilities, transportation and warehousing accounted for 2,100 of the 4,700 nonfarm jobs created during the past year, said Nannette Potter, a state labor market analyst.
  
  In the city of Fresno, a variety of businesses added more than 2,000 jobs in the fiscal year that started July 1 -- with an estimate of 2,600 by June 30, said Fred Burkhardt, city economic development director.
  
  "They have been small quantities over a wide range of industries," he said. More than 1,100 of the new jobs have been in the city's state enterprise zones, which make companies eligible for certain tax credits.
  
  But construction dominated. The Fresno-area ranked ninth statewide with 6,852 homes started in 2004, according to California Builder magazine.
  
  As a result, construction-related companies are adding employees to keep pace with demand.
  
  Willey has hired about 25 new employees during the past few years. He has to train workers on the job.
  
  "This is a great time to learn a trade," Willey said.
  
  The county's farm-related jobs dropped by 2,800, or 8.6%, during the past year. Rain idled more workers, said Dennis Plann, deputy Fresno County agricultural commissioner.
  
  Other counties also reported lower unemployment rates in March.
  
  Madera County's rate dropped to 9.1% last month from 9.4% in February and 11.8% a year ago. The biggest year-over-year gains were in agriculture and the service industry, which gained 500 and 600, respectively.
  
  In Tulare County, the jobless rate dropped to 11.8% from 12.5% in February and 14.6% in March 2004.
  
  "Everything is holding pretty steady," said Paul Saldaña, chief executive of Tulare County Economic Development Corp. "We have growth in some manufacturing and retail sectors."
  
  The state's unemployment rate was 5.4%, down from 5.8% in February. A year ago, it was 6.4%.
  
  In a separate report, EDD found that 954,000 Californians were looking for work last month.
  
  That figure declined by 71,000 from February and 172,000 from March 2004.
  
  Last month's figure was the lowest number of unemployed in the state since July 2001.

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  04.03.2005
  Moves abound to change environmental law to build more housing
  
  

  By Jim Wasserman / Associated Press / The Fresno Bee
  
  SACRAMENTO (AP) - California's housing shortage, which has pushed median home prices above $470,000, is spurring a variety of moves to change the state's 35-year-old environmental protection law, long considered the nation's toughest.
  
  Attempts by the state's home building industry to change the 1970 law, signed by former Gov. Ronald Reagan, are nothing new, but this year Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and a growing list of Democrats are joining in. Key lawmakers are pushing bills to make it easier for developers to maneuver around the law, especially to build housing in downtowns and older urban neighborhoods.
  
  The growing momentum to change the California Environmental Quality Act sets up a clash between business and environmental interests in a state with some of the nation's highest priced homes and lowest rates of homeownership. A majority of Californians can no longer afford to buy homes, prompting some lawmakers to lament their generation may be the state's first unable to provide a better life for its children.
  
  Although environmental groups have given Schwarzenegger's early moves high marks, the governor is expected to unveil proposals to ease current CEQA rules and make it harder to use the law to stop residential construction projects. A draft version of the bill would limit the ability of opponents to file some lawsuits and would streamline the regulatory process for developers in areas already planned and zoned for housing.
  
  Earlier this year Schwarzenegger called home ownership "part of the American Dream" and promised to eliminate "regulatory and legal hurdles that delay construction and increase the costs." His proposal also expands on recommendations made by the California Performance Review study Schwarzenegger started last year. The review's report said CEQA creates "too many opportunities for blocking projects for non-environmental considerations" and that neighborhood opposition groups especially use it to block multifamily apartment projects.
  
  Builders and their allies provided key input to the CPR panel and also to a 41-member Resources Agency advisory group regarding the draft legislation.
  
  Although many of the proposals are aimed at limiting the sprawl of housing to empty farmland, environmental groups fear the proposals will change the law so much that it will actually foster more sprawl instead of more housing in urban areas. On the defensive, they're highlighting the act's success stories and preparing for battle in the Legislature.
  
  "If builders get their way, ordinary Californians are going to be sitting in traffic even longer and living further out and having fewer options," said Karen Douglas, attorney for the Planning and Conservation League, a lobbying coalition of environmental groups. Because the law requires detailed studies of a development's potential effects on its surroundings, it "has made the state better."
  
  Developer groups don't argue the law's benefits. Instead, they say it's been twisted by NIMBY - "not in my back yard" - groups to shrink development proposals by forcing extra environmental studies. Such delays - a new environmental impact report can cost up to $200,000 and take 18 months - sometimes make developers just walk away.
  
  A handful of law firms have used it to stall many of the 40 Wal-Mart Supercenters planned in California. Developers building housing subdivisions on empty land also find themselves wrangling with lawsuits alleging insufficient environmental studies.
  
  Some of the tactics led Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown, a Democrat who was staunch defender of the law when he was governor of California from 1975 to 1983, to push for a new law to restrict opponents' ability to use it to block downtown Oakland housing projects.
  
  The problem isn't the law but those who abuse it, said Tim Coyle, the top lobbyist for the California Building Industry Association.
  
  Coyle said legislators, many of them former city council members, complain to him that the law "keeps getting in the way of urban revitalization projects and neighborhood restoration projects."
  
  Last year, California developers built 211,000 new homes and apartments, and expect to reach a similar target this year. But that's still 80,000 short of demand for a two-year span, they say. As prices of existing homes reached a median price last month of $471,620 - where half cost more and half cost less - fewer than one in four households could afford one, reports the California Association of Realtors.
  
  "We're killing the most fundamental goal or objective of every middle-class Californian - owning a home," said Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland.
  
  Perata wants more central city and downtown housing projects declared off limits to CEQA challenges and has introduced a bill greatly expanding the acreage and number of homes that qualify. The bill is part of a package of anti-sprawl legislation that Perata said will be a top Senate priority this year.
  
  Other lawmakers have followed suit. Bills awaiting their first hearings would allow builders to use "short form" environmental reports in areas already planned and zoned for homes, make those who file CEQA lawsuits disclose their backers and their economic or other interest in the project.
  
  Another would exempt some downtown residential projects from traffic impact studies.
  
  "There are plenty of situations, in Sacramento and elsewhere in the state, where smart growth, infill housing developments, which are designed to give people an option to live close to work and where they shop, are faced with significant traffic mitigation requirements," said its author, Assemblyman Dave Jones, D-Sacramento.
  
  In Sacramento, opponents recently used the act to delay a 119-apartment project just blocks from a downtown light rail line and within walking distance of thousands of jobs.
  
  Despite some of the complaints, the law's defenders said its benefits are too great to ignore.
  
  It's not perfect, because any law that opens the way for lawsuit can be abused, said Sean Hecht, executive director of the Environmental Law Center at the University of California at Los Angeles School of Law.
  
  "The fact that some people might frivolously file employment discrimination lawsuits when there's been no discrimination doesn't mean we throw out employment law. I see CEQA the same," he said. "Like any good law, it's done some really important things for our state."
  
  Read the bills, SB948, SB832, SB785, SB427, AB648 and AB1387 at http://www.legislature.ca.gov
  
  Planning and Conservation League: http://www.pcl.org
  
  California Building Industry Association: http://cbia.org

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  01.14.2005
  Frecast for construction employment positive in 2005.
  
  

  Equipment World Online
  
  Construction industry economists predict a positive outlook for industry employment despite the decreased job gains from November to December 2004, according to the most recent report by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
  
  The BLS reports the construction industry added 258,000 jobs in 2004 for a total of approximately 7 million. The agency’s 10-year outlook for construction employment is a positive 15 percent gain, which mirrors the economy as a whole.
  
  “I would have made the same prediction,” said Kenneth Simonson, chief economist for the Associated General Contractors of America, the country’s largest and oldest construction trade association.
  
  Simonson said construction industry employment numbers grew twice as fast as other fields. He also said the industry grew at record levels for nine straight months in 2004, making it one of the strongest sectors in the economy.
  
  “Construction did very well for jobs,” said Simonson. “It’s been a major contributor to economic recovery for the last three and a half years.”
  
  Bob Gasperow, executive director of the Construction and Labor Research Council, said most of the gains in the construction industry have been the result of a booming residential housing market. He said there would be less of this type of construction for 2005, and more industrial and commercial building.
  
  “If there is any upturn, there could be a labor shortage,” Gasperow said.
  
  The BLS reported non-farm payroll employment increased by 2.2 million last year to a seasonally adjusted 132.3 million. This represents the single largest annual gain in employment since 1999.
  
  William Buechner, vice president of economics and research for the American Road and Transportation Builders Association, said he expects employment for the transportation construction industry to grow by 2 percent to 3 percent this year. This expansion would ride an expected 4 percent to 5 percent growth for the industry as a whole.
  
  Buechner said employment in the transportation sector of the construction industry was less volatile because of sustained state and federal government funding. But much of the industry’s economic health would be dependent on Congressional passage of the Federal Highway Safety Administration’s Safe, Accountable, Flexible and Efficient Transportation Act of 2003.
  
  Approval of the SAFETEA bill would be a reauthorization of the Transit Equity Act for the 21st Century. Legislation for that bill died in September 2003 and has been on short-term extensions since its expiration.
  
  “If Congress fails to enact a new transportation bill, or [if the country experiences] general recession, that’s going to be a concern,” Buechner said. The possibility of Congress passing the bill this year were as endless as in 2004, he said.
  
  “Any guess I make would be a guess,” Buechner said of trying to predict the bill’s approval chances with the new Congress.
  
  Other factors that could derail potential growth for 2005 or beyond are construction material price increases, specifically that of steel and cement. Prices for construction materials were as much as 9 percent higher than this time last year.
  
  Patrick Beeson can be contacted at pbeeson@randallpub.com.

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  06.30.2004
  The Perfect Storm in the Construction Industry
  
  

  The Three Factors: Economic Recovery, Workforce Shortage and Licensing Mandates. A perfect storm exists in the world of weather when three huricanes collide to form one gigantic, powerful storm. Although a rare occurence, such storms create waves as high as 10-story...

  
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  06.15.2004
  Creating an Education Training Culture
  
  

  The constsructin industry agrees — creating an educatinal training culture within a company is critical to the success of the company and the industry. But it's not that simple...

  
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  06.01.2004
  Teaching More—Better
  
  

  Technology Improves Construction Education
  Paper, pencils, rulers, and calculators are materials of the past for students in undergraduate and graduate construction managemetn programs across the country. Students now can enroll in online classes...

  
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