Fresno to buy burned Carl's Jr. site for railroad crossing project

Fresno is spending $3.5 million to take control of the burned-out Carl’s Jr. at McKinley and Blackstone, a corner city leaders say has to be reshaped before trains can keep clogging one of central Fresno’s busiest intersections.

The Fresno City Council voted 6-0 in closed session to settle the eminent-domain dispute over the property, adding interest and up to $6,000 in appraisal costs to the deal. City officials had originally offered $2.8 million, but the final price also resolved issues involving the franchisee, not just the landowners.

The restaurant, a few blocks from Fresno City College, had already closed at the end of 2025 before a suspicious fire on Jan. 29, 2026 destroyed the building. The city had been pursuing the parcel because it needs the land for the Blackstone and McKinley Burlington Northern Santa Fe grade-separation project, which is meant to eliminate two at-grade crossings and untangle traffic that has long backed up at the corridor.

Public works materials say the redesign is supposed to improve safety, reduce congestion and make the area work better for drivers, pedestrians, bicyclists and transit users. City officials want to lower the street there by as much as 25 feet so trains no longer force the kind of delays that have made the crossing notorious. Project materials say the location has seen the highest traffic volumes and the highest number of accidents of any at-grade crossing on the BNSF corridor, a distinction that has made the McKinley and Blackstone corner a priority for both city and state transportation planners.

The project has already drawn significant Measure C and state Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program funding, and the city has awarded engineering work to AECOM Technical Services for design and construction documents. For Fresno, the payoff will not be a new storefront but a safer, faster crossing and fewer gridlocked trips through central Fresno.

City Hall also used the same meeting to promote Amy Aller from interim clerk to permanent city clerk, effective June 15. Aller had been serving in the interim role for about six months after Todd Stermer left the post in 2025; Stermer had served as city clerk since 2021. The clerk’s office preserves Fresno’s legislative history and keeps public records accessible.

Mayor Jerry Dyer also picked up a national honor, with the U.S. Conference of Mayors naming him the winner of its 2026 Mayors’ Climate Protection Award for Fresno’s Solar and Battery Storage Portfolio. One industry report said the city’s renewable-energy offset rose from 1.7% in 2020 to 46.3% in 2025, underscoring how Fresno is pairing infrastructure projects with a broader push to brand itself as a city of visible public works wins.