GILROY
– The task force charged with creating a blueprint for downtown
revitalization will consider expanding Gilroy’s downtown boundaries
to include areas several blocks away from Monterey and Tenth
streets, a traditional marker for the downtown zone.
GILROY – The task force charged with creating a blueprint for downtown revitalization will consider expanding Gilroy’s downtown boundaries to include areas several blocks away from Monterey and Tenth streets, a traditional marker for the downtown zone.
The expanded boundaries would make the new areas eligible for any incentive packages and government funding given to Gilroy to improve its downtown. Already the city is offering an incentive package to downtown businesses on an interim basis while the group puts together a specific plan for downtown. The package allows developers with property facing Monterey Street to rebuild and renovate buildings without paying thousands of dollars in permit fees.
One of the areas being proposed for inclusion in the downtown zone stretches south along Monterey Street to well past Luchessa Avenue and another zone brings the old cannery site – which could be developed into a commercial and housing project – into the downtown mix.
“Primarily, we’re trying to include all the areas that visually and economically affect the downtown area,” City Planner Gregg Polubinsky said. “We also want to see planning more uniform.”
Although opinions on specific boundaries vary within the group, the vast majority of the downtown task force wants to see downtown expand. There are six areas, some of them several blocks wide, that could be included in a new version of downtown. Most of the proposed zones are on the east side of Monterey Street.
“You want to improve not only the downtown but the gateway areas into downtown, too,” said Gary Walton, a member of the downtown task force and a prominent land owner in downtown Gilroy.
Walton said the group also is looking to expand downtown to include the Tenth and Chestnut street area where Indian Motorcycle’s headquarters used to be. However, opinions are split.
Walton said if the area is brought into the downtown, new opportunities to land grants earmarked for cities that lost large companies could become available.
The downtown task force also is trying to more clearly define which blocks downtown will hold primarily office, retail and/or mixed uses. The existing general plan offers broad conceptual recommendations for placing professional and corporate offices to the north end of town, retail shops in the core of downtown and mixed uses between First and Tenth streets.
The downtown task force meets Tuesday night from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Senior Center, 7371 Hanna St.
