GILROY—The Gilroy City Council Monday reversed its own planning commission and rejected a long-planned housing project.
The vote marked the third test of a firm stance taken by the council in June 2014 to end past abuses and hold so-called Planned Unit Developments (PUDs) to tougher design standards, including more amenities that benefit the community.
On March 19, the council rejected a combined 84 units in two other PUD proposals.
The three-story rental complex on the 600 block of Broadway Street rejected Monday had been in the pipeline for years and received the unanimous blessing of commissioners on March 5.
But citing the lack of parking, amenities, open space and a homeowners association for future residents, the council voted 4-2 to send developer Michael Oshan of Gilroy back to the drawing board. Council Members Dion Bracco and Peter Leroe-Munoz dissented.
Oshan’s in-fill project would have occupied four 2,500-square-foot vacant lots at 620, 622, 624 and 626 Broadway St., between Wayland Lane and Carmel Street.
He told the council that for eight years he has been “waiting for the right time to build” following the national recession.
The council’s vote indicated he will need to offer more amenities and open space to build in Gilroy—all part of the council’s new stance on what it will take from now on to get a PUD approved.
“I’m willing to send this back to staff and deny the project without prejudice, so they have an opportunity to flesh out this project under today’s guidelines and then come back to the council,” said Councilman Roland Velasco. He made the motion to deny a zoning change and architectural and site plan for Oshan’s project.
Bracco and Leroe-Munoz argued that Gilroy needs in-fill development, particularly in the central Gilroy neighborhood where Oshan proposed to build.
“This is in an area that really needs something,” Bracco said. “I think it would be a good project for the area and might encourage something else to start happening with the other (older, rundown) buildings there.”
Oshan purchased the property 15 years ago and first submitted plans for the townhomes in 2006. They were approved, but the economic downturn two years later halted the project. In 2014, Oshan submitted new plans and worked with city staff to perfect its design.
With each version submitted to the city, the property’s design improved, according to City Planner Melissa Durkin, who recommended approval in a March staff report to the planning commission.
Working with city staff to address concerns raised by the commission, Oshan agreed to move a wall originally set for the property’s frontage back 25 feet to allow visibility for passing motorists. He also agreed to install a new crosswalk at the intersection of Broadway Street and Wayland Lane, Durkin said.
But in council chambers Monday, Durkin said, “if this project were first proposed today, we’d be recommending differently.”
“The one thing I’d like to see is more open space,” Mayor Don Gage said, suggesting the applicant remove a unit to add common areas for residents.
The mayor said the proposed development’s parking plan—a combination of street parking, two-car garages and on-site spaces—left much to be desired.
“If one person has 10 guests, there goes all the parking. We’ve already turned down projects doing the same thing,” Gage said, adding, “We still need to have those amenities with it.”
Oshan pointed to a terrace on the building’s third floor—which he later said would not be accessible to all residents—as an amenity.
“We want open space on the ground so people can have barbecues, sit with their children and kick a ball around,” Gage said. “Those are the amenities we want to see so people don’t feel squeezed in.”
Bracco acknowledged that developers of smaller projects are limited on what amenities or open space they can provide simply because they don’t have much room.
“Some of these in-fill projects have so many restrictions with space there’s not a whole lot they can do,” he said.
“It’s not anything personal,” Gage added. “We just want to see a higher standard in our community.”
