Alternative 1 Silveira property Day Road and

GILROY
– Nothing is

easy

when implementing a $150 million facilities plan, but things can
be a little easier on Gilroy Unified School District if the city
wants to help.
That was the message school board trustees and district staff
brought to the Gilroy City Council table Monday night, in a
quarterly meeting between both agencies.
GILROY – Nothing is “easy” when implementing a $150 million facilities plan, but things can be a little easier on Gilroy Unified School District if the city wants to help.

That was the message school board trustees and district staff brought to the Gilroy City Council table Monday night, in a quarterly meeting between both agencies. Specifically, GUSD wants the city to annex its favorite of four sites that will house a second high school. And, it wants city officials to grant residential housing permits for the current Las Animas School site.

“If the city gave (permission to build homes), it would be a windfall for the district,” said local Realtor Chris Ordaz, who has done some initial property research for GUSD.

GUSD plans to relocate Las Animas School to the southwest section of town. To do so, it will likely purchase 10 acres of land south of Christmas Hill Park in the Glen Loma development and sell the Las Animas site, a chunk of land that will be significantly more valuable if the future owner can subdivide and build homes.

City council members and staff made no promises building permits would be available. Mayor Tom Springer reminded the group that the vast majority of building permits allowed over the next 10 years have been used.

“It would probably have been better if we gave them a heads-up earlier on,” Trustee Jaime Rosso said Tuesday. “I think the city is still going to try to help us. They have to help us, because they want good schools as much as we want good schools.”

Trustee Bob Kraemer said he was not disappointed by the city’s lack of response to the building permit issue.

“Our intent was to make the city aware of how they could help us. We were not looking for a commitment right now,” Kraemer said. “We have to trust they’ll do what they can to assist us.”

The biggest assist would be if the city annexes a 60-acre parcel off Day Road and Santa Teresa Boulevard, owned by the Silveira family. The Silveiras are willing to negotiate with both the Diocese of San Jose, which wants 10 acres for a church and school, and GUSD, which wants 50 acres for a new high school.

The district and the diocese will save substantial amounts of money by sharing infrastructure costs for utilities and roads with one another. The Silveira property is also easier to develop than other alternatives due to environmental and multiple ownership issues.

All of the high school site options are outside Gilroy boundaries, meaning City Council and the Local Agency Formation Commission must approve annexation.

More than 10 years ago, LAFCO approved the first phase of annexation for the Silveira property, making it eligible for city services. However, the property is still in Santa Clara County and is not zoned for multiple homes or a school.

If annexed into the city, splitting the parcel in two would make planning significantly easier, officials say.

“At this stage of the game there have been zero negotiations on any site,” Kraemer told city council members and staff Monday.

“If someone were to tell me tomorrow about another property for the new high school, I’d be all ears,” Kraemer said in an interview before Monday’s session. “But right now, frankly, I don’t see a better alternative.”

The district wants to begin negotiations to purchase the 50 acres as early as the first week in May. To do so, it will need the approval of trustees at a regular school board meeting May 1.

The three other potential sites for the district’s second comprehensive high school include parcels south of Day Road and parcels on the south end of town, east of Gavilan College.

Environmental issues, multiple owners and a lack of utility and roadway infrastructure, the GUSD believes, make those sites less desirable.

GUSD can make things easier for the city, too, officials from both groups agreed Monday night. The city is looking for land for housing, parks and recreation areas, and GUSD has a significant amount of it.

The old San Ysidro Elementary School site sits virtually unused on the southeast end of town and there is available land adjacent to its northwest replacement Antonio Del Buono.

The city also can benefit from shared usage of school facilities, as it will when the $2-million, city-funded Ascencion Solorsano Middle School gymnasium opens.

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