Timeline

Following is a timeline of events related to the proposed Yokohl Ranch development. 

February 2006: A request by the Yokohl Ranch Company, LLC (J.G. Boswell Co.) to initiate an amendment to the Tulare County General Plan to allow the Yokohl Ranch team to proceed with its land planning efforts goes before the Tulare County Board of Supervisors. An alert is sent to encourage concerned citizens to attend the Board of Supervisors hearing. Over 200 people show up at the hearing. The Board of Supervisors unanimously approves the Yokohl Ranch Company’s request.

February 2007: The Yokohl Ranch Company submits a formal application to the County for a General Plan amendment to add a Planned Community Zoning Ordinance. This application is in anticipation of developing Yokohl Valley as a Planned Community.

March 31, 2007: Op-Ed piece published in the Visalia Times Delta — Yokohl plan doesn’t fit Tulare County

February 21 2008: A public meeting at the Visalia Memorial Building to discuss the General Plan Update and Yokohl Ranch development. A platform for a responsible growth General Plan is introduced, and attendees are encouraged to include these points, and/or their own vision for the future of Tulare County, in a letter to the Board of Supervisors.

March 3 2008: Tulare County holds a Yokohl Ranch scoping meeting in Exeter, where citizens are able to submit input regarding issues to be addressed in the Environmental Impact Report. Over 150 people attend.

March 14 2008: Comments on the Notice of Preparation for Yokohl Ranch are submitted.

April 6 2008: The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Visalia hosts a presentation on the General Plan Update, Yokohl Ranch, and smart growth planning.
May 10 & 11 2008: Volunteers set up a Yokohl Ranch informational booth at the Three Rivers Redbud Festival. 150 people sign up to Save Yokohl Valley.

July 2009: Artist Mona Selph of Three Rivers initiates an art show at Arts Visalia, “Views of Yokohl Valley,” featuring works by local artists depicting many aspects of the valley.
November 7, 2009: An information booth at the first-ever Kaweah Land and Arts Festival, held at Tulare County’s Kaweah Oaks Preserve. features a Healthy Growth Alternative for the General Plan Update; the importance of our oak woodlands; and the Boswell Company’s proposed Yokohl Ranch development (and its 10,000 home Eastlake development in San Diego County, which is necessitating the construction of a new freeway to handle its traffic).

January 13 – February 26, 2011: “Yokohl Valley Revisited” art show is presented at the Tulare Historical Museum, featuring the work of many local artists in various media inspired by this historic, productive, diverse, beautiful, and very threatened part of Tulare County.
February 20, 2011: Rob Hansen, COS professor of ecology and biology, talks about “Yokohl Valley Natural History: Past and Present” at the Tulare Historical Museum, providing a sense of the regional significance of the grasslands, oak woodlands, ephemeral stream (Yokohl Creek) riparian habitat, and vernal pools that captivate so many local travelers, recreationists, photographers, and landscape artists.

February 1, 2018: J.G. Boswell Co. drops its plans to build the Yokohl Ranch project. 
“Our decision is based on very thorough analysis which indicates that market conditions and economic forecasts do not justify the financial investment necessary to develop and build out the Yokohl Ranch project,” wrote James W. Boswell, chairman and CEO of J.G. Boswell Company. “Also, this decision is consistent with J. G. Boswell Company’s strategic goal of building shareholder value by directing our resources and efforts to our core agricultural businesses.”

Laurie Schwaller has been one of the most vocal opponents of the project and the County General Plan that included the project. “I’m relieved and pleased. It was so inappropriate for our economy, community, environment and the health of our county,” she said. “They could not come up with any sound response to the heavily adverse effects on traffic, water supply, air quality and agriculture.”

Tulare County Citizens for Responsible Growth (TCCRG) opposed the project from the beginning and said it would have irreversible and significant impacts in a county already suffering from the worst air quality in the nation and among the most severely overdrafted groundwater basin in the State. The group of residents argued that new growth in Tulare County should be focused around cities, where jobs and infrastructure to handle growth already exist instead of the “leap frog development” proposed by the J.G. Boswell Co.

Unchecked growth in Tulare County has led to trickling rivers, a massive drop off in wildlife, the uprooting of Valley oak trees and the complete draining of the former Tule Lake, which once covered more than 13,000 square miles fed by the Kaweah, Tule and Kern Rivers.

“Each generation is less aware of the natural heritage here. They don’t realize there is no water in the rivers anymore, that the birds are all gone and that this was once home to the largest body of water west of the Mississippi River,” Laurie Schwaller said. “We have got to start acting responsibly with these resources on which we are all dependent.”

The 36,000-acre Boston Ranch will remain cattle grazing land and will continue to be operated by the Yokohl Valley Cattle Company, which has been in existence since Boswell first purchased the property in 1963.