To build homes the church will have to convince council members
to rezone land
Gilroy – South Valley Community Church plans to sprinkle 15 homes into its recipe for a new church and school campus off Hecker Pass, after seeing its development costs double to more than $20 million in a handful of years.
Original development plans crafted four years ago did not envision housing for the 27-acre strip of land just behind the Village Green senior center off Santa Teresa Boulevard. The plans included a 65,000-square-foot church and school facilities and sports fields for Pacific West Christian Academy, the school run by South Valley.
South Valley still hopes to build a Hecker Pass campus that will offer more space for its congregation and consolidate its elementary and middle school facilities.
But the church is hoping to erect 15 homes on the south side of the property on four acres once slated for ball fields. The church last week laid claim to the last remaining housing allotments set aside for small-scale projects, but has yet to file plans showing the layout or design of the proposed homes.
“We’re just exploring this option right now,” said Asta Durham, a South Valley project representative. “It’s all very preliminary right now.”
Project manager Bob Costamagna explained that spiraling construction costs have more than doubled the original project cost of $10 million and forced South Valley to get creative with its development plans. The residential component is one piece of a broader plan to make the church campus a reality.
“We’re looking at options of phased development, options of scaling back, options of reduced construction type, maybe partnership use of some of the property,” he said. “We haven’t locked in on any one thing at this point.”
The South Valley land is currently designated for “community facilities” under a broad set of development guidelines for the Hecker Pass corridor. To build homes, South Valley will have to convince council members to rezone the land for residential use. The four-acre property would border a future Third Street extension that will connect hundreds of new homes slated for development south of Hecker Pass.
South Valley currently operates a middle school at its Kelton Drive church and its elementary school off Mantelli Drive. The new campus would allow Pacific West Christian Academy to increase enrollment from 370 to 600 students.
