GILROY
– Gilroy Unified School District and the Catholic Church are
eyeing the same 60-acre parcel of land northwest of town to develop
into a 50-acre site for a new public high school and a 10-acre
parish and parochial school.
On Thursday night, the Glen Loma Group, a major residential
development player in Gilroy, will represent the Diocese of San
Jose and the family that owns the land at a special meeting of the
city’s planning commission.
GILROY – Gilroy Unified School District and the Catholic Church are eyeing the same 60-acre parcel of land northwest of town to develop into a 50-acre site for a new public high school and a 10-acre parish and parochial school.
On Thursday night, the Glen Loma Group, a major residential development player in Gilroy, will represent the Diocese of San Jose and the family that owns the land at a special meeting of the city’s planning commission. Glen Loma will ask the commission to recommend annexing the parcel into city boundaries to allow for urban development of the land, which is now occupied by a house and two barns.
Neither the diocese nor the school district has yet purchased their would-be shares of the parcel. The Silveira family, which owns the land, has agreed on a deal to sell 10 acres to the church once the annexation is approved, said John Filice, the president of Glen Loma. Meanwhile, GUSD has hired local Realtor Chris Ordaz, the branch manager for Coldwell Banker, to advise them whether to make an offer on the remaining 50 acres.
GUSD has also initiated the process for getting the state – which ultimately approves school land purchases – to evaluate whether the site is appropriate for a high school.
“My personal opinion is that there is a very good chance this property will become the new high school,” Filice said. “The Silveiras are willing to sell (to the district).”
A lawyer for the Silveira family did not return phone calls before deadline.
The property sits at the southwest corner of Day Road and Santa Teresa Boulevard, just north of Gilroy’s current boundary and has been used for farming in the past. It borders a 76-acre Glen Loma development slated for 247 homes and sits near a city parcel that will house a future Gilroy fire station.
“We are seriously considering this site,” GUSD Trustee Bob Kraemer said. “It’s 50 acres and it’s close to utilities. There aren’t many parcels like that around.”
Superintendent Edwin Diaz said the Day Road parcel is one of two properties the school district is evaluating. The second potential site is a more than 40-acre parcel east of Santa Teresa Boulevard near Day Road.
If the Gilroy Planning Commission recommends the annexation request, City Council would still need to give its stamp of approval. After that, the anti-sprawl Local Agency Formation Commission must approve the annexation.
More than 10 years ago, LAFCO approved the first phase of annexation, which makes the property eligible to receive city services. However, approval to formally incorporate the area to allow for denser rezoning is no sure thing.
LAFCO recently denied a City of Gilroy request to incorporate a roughly 75-acre parcel for a sports and recreation complex. LAFCO has also said it did not like the city’s plan to annex 660 acres east of Highway 101 for an industrial center.
Building a high school is part of the 25-year GUSD facilities plan. In the November election, voters passed a $69 million bond that will help fund construction and renovation projects under that plan, including classrooms for 900 high school students and other educational and administrative buildings the school would use when it serves the full 1,800 students.
Plans call for the city’s second high school to open in 2008.
Monsignor Michael Mitchell of the Diocese of San Jose said no firm timeline is set for building a new Gilroy parish and parochial school.
“It will be based on community need and funding resources,” Mitchell said. “We won’t cannibalize one parish to build another.”
Saint Mary Parish, which is 4,000 families strong, is considered a large congregation. Typically parishes top out at less than 2,500. Saint Mary Parish also supports a kindergarten through eighth-grade school.
The diocese’s master plan calls for building a church and a kindergarten through eighth-grade school on a portion of the 60-acre Day Road site.
No one is saying how much the 10- and 50-acre parcels are worth. In its facilities improvement plan, GUSD sets aside $10 million for a 45- to 50-acre land purchase and other non-construction costs.
A local real-estate appraiser estimates the property to be worth roughly $200,000 to $300,000 an acre, based on the sale of a smaller property in the area with similar zoning.
