Building Civic Advocacy Muscle: The Importance of Land-Use Advocacy

Photo of local land-use advocates at the December 18, 2025, Fresno City Council meeting

By Rhonda Dueck, Jackson Community Development Corporation Executive Director 

Engaging neighbors to be advocates for their community and city is an important priority for Fresno. Within Fresno DRIVE, the Civic Infrastructure Initiative is a collection of organizations that are investing in community voice and advocacy. These cross-entity relationships across Fresno form an intricate web of connection and collaboration. A significant topic that has been a focus for this collaboration is the Southeast Development Area (SEDA) project. Fresno DRIVE supports its Civic Infrastructure Hubs in their stance against SEDA due to concerns of disinvestment for Southeast Fresno residents. Invested Fresnans from across the city are partnering to advocate for a unified Fresno to advance a more equitable city for all!

Organizational leaders were invited to convene together to study SEDA — both past and present realities of this project — hear from people representing various perspectives and to listen and learn from each other. The respect in the room was palpable, and the energy heightened by the looming Fresno City Council decision regarding this momentous topic was energizing. This network created flyers advocating for a “NO on SEDA” and “YES on FRESNO” with specific asks. We created a coordinated effort to share information across the city that led to packed out city council chambers for both the planning commission meeting and the SEDA agenda city council meeting, with more than 380 attendees. The taco food truck, colorful posters, long line of commenting residents, and media created an enthusiastic atmosphere that was so rewarding for our group, which spent countless hours meeting, collaborating, and planning our response to this gravely important issue.

As a part of our overall community learning, Every Neighborhood Partnership (ENP) created a Community Land Use Academy (CLUA), which seeks to educate residents about the historical and current realities of land-use decisions that previously and continuously shape our city. Our lack of healthy long-term planning in Fresno has led to some of our current land-use, economic, and housing challenges. This course helps equip leaders, like me, to educate their neighborhoods to understand why our land-use matters so significantly.

The Jackson Community Development Corporation (CDC), a member of the neighborhood hubs, supported through DRIVE, has taken the challenge to seriously educate and empower residents to advocate for our neighborhood and the prosperity of Fresno. The seven years of advocacy for the Tulare Street Diet, an infrastructure project that decreased street lanes to reduce traffic and increase bystander safety after some neighborhood children were hit when crossing the street, taught us that consistent advocacy in a focused direction can bring about desired change, but one must not grow weary. Advocacy is a muscle that needs consistent exercise to develop. Our monthly neighborhood meetings have created a facilitative environment to teach about SEDA by bringing in experts to share information and answer questions. We have created guides for letter writing campaigns to city leaders, participated in meetings with city council representatives, and worked to lower barriers for residents to attend city meetings by explaining city hall procedures, organizing carpools, and sitting together at meetings to cheer one another on to speak up and share opinions with city leaders. We are living out our neighborhood tagline “Empowered Residents = Thriving Community” and believe that our voices participating in the democratic action of advocacy are making a difference in Fresno!

To become involved in Fresno land-use sustainability work, please email Fresno DRIVE Executive Director Artie Padilla at artie@centralvalleycf.org. Also, to learn more about the Jackson CDC, visit: www.jacksoncdc.org and email Rhonda at rhondadueck@jacksoncdc.org.