GILR0Y
– If downtown business and property owners rebuild, refurbish or
improve their property in any way, they now will be able to do it
for a much cheaper price than normal.
In an effort to stimulate downtown economics
– and aesthetics – the city is allowing for blanket waivers of
permit and development impact fees and is being more lenient on its
parking requirements. Notices to business and property owners were
mailed Friday, two days after the fee and parking waivers became
city law.
GILR0Y – If downtown business and property owners rebuild, refurbish or improve their property in any way, they now will be able to do it for a much cheaper price than normal.
In an effort to stimulate downtown economics – and aesthetics – the city is allowing for blanket waivers of permit and development impact fees and is being more lenient on its parking requirements. Notices to business and property owners were mailed Friday, two days after the fee and parking waivers became city law.
The stimulus package – which will be in place until City Council adopts a specific plan for downtown – could save a 5,000-square-foot business roughly $60,000 if it expands or renovates.
City Council approved the stimulus package in concept in July, however city staff needed time to hammer out the details and gain formal approval from the Council. The city also needed 30 days from the date of Council’s formal approval to make the package law.
“I’ve already got four projects that were languishing, and because of (the stimulus package) the developers decided they would move forward,” City Planner Gregg Polubinsky said.
Gary Walton, who owns four properties downtown, said he bought his fifth location – the former Bank of America building on Fourth and Monterey – because of the waived fees.
“There’s no question (the stimulus package) made it possible,” Walton said. “The waiving of just the sewer fees alone is a huge help.”
For every hundred gallons per day of sewer waste from a commercial property, the city charges $2,270 to get a permit. Walton plans to lease to three to four food establishments in the building, meaning the sewer rates would have been significant.
Walton and other business owners like him will save in many other ways. All development impact fees, processing fees and building permit fees will be waived (so long as the city does not need services from an outside consultant).
That means developers will save:
• $1,110 an acre on storm drain impact fees.
• up to $12,430 per thousand square feet on traffic impact fees.
• $2,680 per thousand square feet for police impact fees.
• $3,950 per thousand gallons per day for water impact fees.
• $690 per thousand square feet for fire protection impact fees.
• $600 per thousand square feet for public facilities impact fees.
The package also includes a reduction on parking requirements for downtown businesses. There is an automatic 25 percent reduction in required parking spaces and an additional 25 percent reduction if certain conditions are met.
The waived fees mean the city’s coffers will take a hit, but when Council approved the stimulus package concept in July, then-Mayor Tom Springer said the financial impact to the city in lost fees was “negligible, minuscule, insignificant” compared to the benefit to the community.
Over the last two and a half years, city documents state, Gilroy collected $70,000 in fees from downtown development. However, that number was derived during an economic downturn.
Downtown property owners gave the city rave reviews over the stimulus package. So rave were the reviews that owners would like the package to expand. Currently, it applies only to businesses that front Monterey Street from Tenth to just north of First Street.
According to John Tomasello, who owns the mixed-use building on Monterey Street that houses the Cherry Blossom apartments, there is a local developer who wants to refurbish an old ravioli factory. However, the site is not facing Monterey Street (it’s roughly a block away), so it does not qualify for the stimulus package.
Tomasello said the site has significant parking issues and needs the break that is part of the package to pass muster at City Hall.
Mayor Al Pinheiro says he is willing to expand the stimulus package to include more of the downtown. However, state law is tying the city’s hands – at least for now.
The law, Polubinsky said, prohibits the city from granting rights to certain businesses and not others when the businesses involved share the same zoning designation.
In Gilroy’s case, Monterey Street businesses are in a zone called Commercial 2 (C2), while many other businesses all over town are in the Commercial 1 (C1) zone. In other words, if a C1 business near Monterey Street is exempt from permit fees, a Commercial 1 business say on Santa Teresa Boulevard or Arroyo Circle must be exempt, too.
Pinheiro said he is aware of the legal complication, but believes the final downtown specific plan can expand the C2 zone just beyond Monterey Street. He also said he would broach the subject at City Council’s January retreat, when Councilmen will hash out a two-year work plan. The specific plan for downtown currently is being drafted by a special task force. There is no set timeline for that group to finish the plan, but the city is hoping to win a grant that would pay a consultant to complete the work in a matter of months.
“There’s got to be a mechanism to handle this,” Pinheiro said. “There will be a lot of talk about expanding (the stimulus package). Let’s just hope in the meantime lots of businesses get encouraged to improve their buildings and show some pride of ownership.”
