A proposed mega-development outside of southeast Fresno, known as SEDA, is losing support with the Fresno City Council after Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer said on Thursday that city residents would have to take on $1.5 billion in debt to build new water and sewer lines just to build the part developers are angling at first, located in Clovis Unified.
The cost to city residents is so high, Dyer said, that it would take years of increased utility rates for Fresno residents to allow developers enough time to pay back the debt City Hall would have to take on to build the upfront infrastructure for SEDA.
“The potential for it [the costs of SEDA] to fall on the general fund and ratepayers, I believe it’s all true,” Dyer said. “That return on investment would have taken so long, it would have been on the backs of ratepayers.”…