Open Fresno City Council seat sparks west Fresno, Tower District fight

The seat Annalisa Perea is leaving behind has become a fight over who gets to shape west Fresno and the Tower District next. With sidewalks, parks, homelessness, business corridors and growth policy all hanging in the balance, the open Fresno City Council District 1 race is already drawing a clear divide over how much the city should pour into existing neighborhoods versus pushing development outward.

Four candidates are on the ballot: Rob Fuentes, Joe Hinojosa, Monte Forkas and Naindeep Singh. District 1 covers much of west-central Fresno, including the Tower District, a neighborhood north of downtown that city planning documents place around State Route 180, Blackstone Avenue, Shields Avenue, Fruit Avenue and the Union Pacific Railroad tracks. The city’s seven council districts are elected to staggered four-year terms, and District 1 is one of the seats voters will decide in 2026.

Perea, who was sworn in on January 3, 2023, is not seeking another term on the council. Instead, she is running for California State Assembly District 31 in the June 2, 2026 primary, turning what could have been a rematch into a true open-seat contest.

The campaign is shaping up around practical, block-by-block questions. Hinojosa, the city’s ADA coordinator, is leaning on his inside view of city departments and says that experience matters when residents want faster fixes on street-level problems and better service delivery. Fuentes, a law professor and assistant U.S. attorney, is pitching himself as someone who wants to serve the community that raised him and help neighborhoods thrive.

Singh brings a different profile to the race as a Central Unified school board member and Sikh community advocate, while Forkas rounds out a field that gives District 1 voters several competing visions for the seat. That matters because the next councilmember will immediately influence decisions on homelessness, infrastructure, parks and sidewalk repair in neighborhoods that have long argued for more attention from City Hall.

The sharpest policy clash is over growth. Hinojosa has said he opposes annexing more farmland while existing neighborhoods still need basic infrastructure. That puts him squarely against a Southeast Development Area proposal that would cover nearly 9,000 acres and could eventually accommodate about 45,000 homes and 37,000 jobs by 2050. Critics have warned that the plan would deepen farmland loss, strain infrastructure and add environmental costs.

Perea’s endorsement of Fuentes adds another layer to the race, signaling that the outgoing councilmember sees him as the strongest fit for the district she is leaving. For voters in west Fresno and the Tower District, the choice is not just about replacing one councilmember. It is about which set of priorities will guide Fresno’s next round of reinvestment, expansion and neighborhood repair.