Newsom signs budget, finalizing $100 million for downtown Fresno upgrades
Newsom’s budget locked in Fresno’s last $100 million, putting sewer, street and parking work first along the downtown-Chinatown corridor.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed California’s 2026-27 budget and locked in the final $100 million of Fresno’s $250 million state commitment for downtown Fresno and Chinatown, giving Mayor Jerry Dyer financing to move from planning into construction. The new money builds on a previously awarded $43.7 million infrastructure grant and brings the state’s contribution to Fresno since 2023 to roughly $194 million.
The money will replace aging water and sewer systems, improve streets, sidewalks, lighting and pedestrian safety, add parking, and pay for stormwater and utility upgrades across the downtown-Chinatown corridor from Tuolumne Street to Cesar Chavez Boulevard and from Van Ness Avenue to State Route 99. Sewer and water main work in Chinatown and downtown should be finished this fall, with the next phase in the Cultural Arts District expected over the following six to eight months.
Two new parking structures sit near the center of the plan: a 600-stall garage on North Fulton Street and a second garage of about 900 spaces near Chukchansi Park. The package also supports a Linear Park, planning for a future intermodal transit center, and a $25 million revolving housing loan fund. Those upgrades are meant to create room for projects such as The Park at South Stadium, an eight-story, 174-unit mixed-income development near Chukchansi Park, and the Helm Building project.
The state money closes out a multi-year push that began with Newsom’s May 2023 budget revision. Fresno received an initial $50 million in the 2023-24 budget, but later funding was delayed during California’s budget problems before the final $100 million was signed into law. Some downtown water and sewer mains date to 1934, and Dyer puts the infrastructure need in downtown alone at about $160 million.
The city’s broader downtown goal is to build a core that can eventually support up to 75,000 residents, with an interim target of 10,000. Fresno launched a $22 million water-and-sewer project in October 2024 that was set to replace or rehabilitate 15,325 feet of water mains and 8,905 feet of sewer mains.
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