Our View: Exceeding the growth rate by 30 percent without any
parameters in place sets Gilroy on a dangerous course for the
city’s future
It’s a list of worthy goals:
– Increased affordable housing in Gilroy.
– Infill development – building on vacant or abandoned lots closer within the city’s heart, rather than on the city’s edges.
– Bringing more residents in and near downtown.
– A financially successful Bonfante Gardens.
But none of those things should trump the city’s compact with residents regarding the pace of city growth.
Right now, the Council is hoodwinking Gilroy residents. Our growth rate is on target to be 30 percent, THAT’S 30 PERCENT, above the pace residents were promised. The Residential Development Ordinance is a process in shambles.
The City Council has promised that no more than 3,450 housing units would be built over 10 years. But with exceptions handed out left and right for good causes, the city is likely to exceed that cap by roughly 1,000 units.
That’s a huge miss. In a town the size of Gilroy, that’s missing the target by a mile. And the ramifications for recreation, school, police and fire services – not to mention socialization and assimilation – are as real as they are irreversible.
Alas, the road to sprawl is paved with good City Council intentions. There is no discipline. There is no honest evaluation of the strain this extra growth causes. There is no will to say “not now.”
City Council members routinely and vaguely pay homage to the RDO growth cap at election time as a “good target.” Plus or minus 5 percent would be a “good target.” Thirty percent over is a lie.
It’s time that Council publicly held just this debate. What percentage over is acceptable? Let the public have a chance to weigh in on this important debate.
Mark our words: If the Council doesn’t set parameters for what is acceptable, a strict growth-control measure, like the one in neighboring Morgan Hill, is likely to surface and be presented to Gilroy voters.
The projects that seek exceptions all have great causes. If the city wants to approve of them, it must do so within the growth cap. The truth is that the RDO process has left the Council with little flexibility. Doling out all the permits at the beginning of a 10-year period handcuffs the process.
But until that is changed, our City Council must honor their pact with residents by sticking to a number reasonably on target with Gilroy’s growth cap.
