GILROY
– A Pittsburgh, Pa. firm hired to design an ambitious downtown
housing complex in a decrepit former cannery learned a lot more
about this town at a public meeting Tuesday evening.
GILROY – A Pittsburgh, Pa. firm hired to design an ambitious downtown housing complex in a decrepit former cannery learned a lot more about this town at a public meeting Tuesday evening.
Urban Design Associates’ six staff members also got a lot of detailed comments about what people think non-profit developer South County Housing should do with the cannery, which has not been used since 1997. South County Housing plans to buy the 12-acre site in the fall and turn it into mixed-income housing – perhaps more than 200 units – with some shop and office space on the ground floor.
“We’re really just learning about Gilroy,” said Urban Design Associates’ Rob Robinson at the beginning of the public forum at the Historic Strand Theatre, hosted by South County Housing. At a second public meeting scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday, also at the Strand, he and his staff expect to test some ideas on the crowd.
Here are some things the designers learned from the 25 or so Gilroyans who attended Tuesday:
• People wouldn’t mind seeing a cannery housing complex that is larger and more dense than the surrounding downtown and neighborhood buildings.
“A 40-foot building there? I wouldn’t have any problem with that,” developer Dave Sheedy said in a small-group discussion.
• Commemorating the cannery’s history in the project design is important to Gilroyans, many of whom either worked there or knew someone who did. Dolores Ferriera, a South County Housing employee whose family members once worked at the cannery, said this historical monument should be accessible to the passersby as well as cannery residents.
• People want the cannery project to be part of a revitalized downtown, not a separate entity. Therefore, they don’t want too many stores there that might distract people from Monterey Street.
• Gilroyans would be OK with the look of a multi-storied parking deck on the cannery site.
• Some people see a drainage channel that bisects the property as an opportunity for a trail system.
• Concerns about the site include railroad noise, increased traffic, decreased parking availability and that the railroad corridor is trashy-looking and could be unsafe to cross on foot.
• People think the project would spur restoration of historic and attractive east Gilroy houses and would decrease crime there.
• Among the things that make Gilroy a desirable address are its small-town identity in the face of population growth, its spirit of volunteerism and its proximity to big cities, beaches and mountains.
• Problems include a lack of moderately priced housing and a slumping downtown, but many people believe at least the downtown will be improved in the near future.
“This is incredibly helpful to us,” Robinson said of the input at the end of the two-hour meeting.
The Urban Design Associates Team staff members are in Gilroy all week and are actively designing the cannery project in the Strand Theatre at Monterey and Lewis streets, just across the railroad tracks from the vacant cannery. As they work with their maps, sketches and scale models, they are intentionally visible through the storefront window and welcome people to stop in to gaze and comment on their progress.
At the Tuesday meeting’s opening, Robinson explained that his firm usually travels to a city to design a project there.
“We like to design in the place … rather than tell you what to do,” he said. “We’ll begin to draw what we hear people feeling.”
Robinson said his firm knows there is a market for people who want to live in a restored downtown where they can walk to amenities. From design projects in places such as Pittsburgh, Richmond, Va. and Charlotte, N.C., he has learned that issues such as railroad or highway noise make little or no difference in how well redeveloped houses will sell.
Robinson said his staff liked the architecture of historic houses on either side of Monterey Street as well as the restoration of historic Monterey Street buildings, the construction of new downtown buildings and downtown streetscape improvements.
“Looking at some of the improvements you’re making to Monterey Street, we’re starting to see the beginnings of a renaissance,” he said.
In the final announcement of the meeting, South County Housing Senior Project Manager Nancy Wright assigned what she called “homework.”
“Bring at least two or three people with you Thursday,” she asked each member of the audience.
For more information, call South County Housing at 842-9181.
