Monthly Archives: February 2016

A Gilroy citizens group has launched a petition drive that would require voter approval for large housing projects outside Gilroy’s city limits. Gilroy Growing Smarter filed a notice of intention to circulate a petition with the Gilroy City Clerk that would create an Urban Growth Boundary.

Santa Clara Valley has everything it needs to become the next big wine area in California: the grapes, the winemakers and most importantly people who love wine and the California wine lifestyle,” says winemaker Jeffrey Fadness of La Vie Dansante Wines via email.

The Black History Month exhibit in the Gilroy Library kids’ section offers a colorful and robust collection of books on the accomplishments of Americans of African descent.

Gilroy is speeding toward a high speed rail line and a new road and bridge on 10th Street. So far, the roadway is winning.The trains could be rolling in 2024 and environmental impact study of the 110-mph rail line should be finished by the end of 2017, the regional director of the California High Speed Rail Authority told a joint City Council and Gilroy Unified School District meeting on Feb. 8.“I wish that everyone was Gilroy,” said Ben Tripousis, the director, based in San Jose, after hearing comments from the audience about how they hoped the rail line would bring more foot traffic and customers downtown.Tripousis was brought in to let the school board know how the rail line could affect schools, but his answer was that it shouldn’t have any more effect than the current rail line has. The line’s goal is to keep the trains on the rail right-of-way used by Union Pacific, adding a track close by. Between Gilroy and San Francisco, it will use CalTrain tracks.He also said the authority’s goal is to have its opening routes be the ones that will be profitable, most likely San Francisco to Los Angeles and Anaheim. In other places where the fast-moving trains have been built between two cities, air traffic has cut down or gone away entirely, he said.  People prefer the convenience of the trains that can take them right to the downtown.“If statewide service moves this way, it’s supposed to create an opportunity for Gilroy to be a hub of its area,” he said. “It’s critical to the region, not just the local community, to ensure high speed rail is an asset, not an eyesore.”He offered some hope for job creation in Gilroy, saying that the authority was considering it as one of two cities for a maintenance yard. The other is Brisbane.Meanwhile, city planners unveiled a plan to build a new $4.5 million bridge on 10th Street over Uvas Creek, something that has been talked about since 2005 and could be completed by 2018. The bridge is needed to accommodate traffic from the 1,700-home Glen Loma development which is covering most of the expenses. It would include a tunnel for the bike trail along the creek and two traffic circles leading to Gilroy High School.Both of those had some controversies. Some said they feared homeless people or high school students would take advantage of the tunnel, which is more of a path under the bridge, than an actual tunnel. Others feared that cars and students crossing the street would have trouble navigating the roundabouts.However, city transportation engineer Henry Servin, said he is a big proponent of the circles and once people understand them, they greatly speed traffic flow.The city also learned that the vacant Jeffrey’s restaurant has been bought by the Hampton Inn, which will open a restaurant there.

A year ago, the city and the Gilroy General Plan Advisory Committee invited the public to “to help choose a future growth plan for Gilroy.”

Don’t expect perfection at Khodas used car lot behind the old DMV building on Church Street.

The man known as the “King of Downtown Gilroy” has filed a federal lawsuit against a landmark hotel he called home for 15 years, alleging he was evicted in 2015 because he is disabled and needs a wheelchair.

Gilroy Police nabbed a suspect who held up the McDonald's at the Outlets, even though he changed his clothes and tried to escape by bicycle.