Our City Council laments that businesses won’t come to Porterville. We’re told the problem is too many regulations or a lack of direct access to Highway 99. That explanation is convenient—but incomplete.
Cities far more constrained than ours manage to attract investment because they plan well. Porterville sits at the gateway to the Sierra Nevada foothills, near Sequoia National Park, surrounded by agricultural heritage and small-town character. That should be an advantage. Instead, we’ve failed to capitalize on it through thoughtful planning and a cohesive vision for what kind of place we want to be.
Now, rather than fixing that failure, the Council proposes to make it worse. They want to down-size or eliminate zoning and planning processes and concentrate decision-making in the hands of an inexperienced city manager. They are also dismantling ordinances originally designed to improve aesthetics and community character—all in the name of “deconstructing the administrative state.”
But here’s the hard truth: businesses and tourists don’t invest in chaos.
Entrepreneurs look for predictability. They want to know what can be built next door, what standards apply, and whether the city has a long-term plan that protects their investment. Visitors are drawn to places with a sense of place—coherent streetscapes, inviting public spaces, and a visible pride in community design. Strip away planning and basic design standards, and what you get isn’t freedom or growth; it’s a hodgepodge.
A city without clear rules becomes a gamble. A city without aesthetics becomes forgettable. And a city that rejects planning signals that it’s uninterested in its own future.
If Porterville truly wants economic development, we need more planning, not less. We need regulations that are smart, fair, and consistently applied—not governance by impulse or ideology. Growth follows vision. Investment follows stability. Tourism follows beauty and identity.
Dismantling the tools that help cities succeed won’t bring prosperity. It will only ensure that Porterville remains overlooked—by businesses, by visitors, and eventually by its own residents.
We can do better, but only if we choose intention over ideology and stewardship over slogans.