Hanford’s City Council is set to consider the approval of a new formal policy and permit system for exclusive use of sport complexes managed by the City of Hanford during an upcoming meeting this Tuesday.
The new permit system would affect the Youth Athletic Complex, the Hanford Soccer Complex and the Hanford Softball Complex. Reservation permits allowing the exclusive use of certain fields would cost $2.50 per each hour a field is used without lights, and $5 per each hour a field is each used without lights the 2023 Fall season.
These charges would increase to $5 and $10, respectively, in Spring of 2024, with identical cost increases projected to continue until Spring of 2025.
However, the staff report included with the City Council meeting agenda noted that this fee system was developed by working with local youth sports organizations cooperatively. The permit fee system for Fall of 2023 also charged significantly less than fees charged by other nearby cities, like Visalia, Tulare or Corcoran, according to the staff report.
Also up for City Council consideration is whether the City will officially enter into a contract with the California Department of Transportation evaluating land use around the area of Lacey Boulevard and the planned Kings-Tulare High-Speed Rail station using state dollars.
The Council previously approved city staff to seek a Sustainable Communities grant from the state of California in February for this project, and, according to a staff report included with the City Council agenda, Hanford was awarded $650,000.
The California High Speed Rail Authority has previously projected this station to be located to be east of Hanford near the intersection of Highway 43 and Highway 198. The City Council agenda said land use guidance near this area would be done with the goal of promoting economic development and better connecting downtown Hanford to the future rail station.
Work done for this project is expected to conclude in June of 2026. This is about the same time that the California High Speed Rail Authority projected that stations would begin to be constructed for the 119 mile rail line connecting Bakersfield to Merced, which the Kings-Tulare station is a part of, in a 2023 project update report.
This same timeline included in the report predicted that testing on the rail line wouldn’t begin until 2028, with passenger service not starting until 2030.
