The Government Relations Committee gathered Friday to discuss the City of Gilroy Residential Development Ordinance (RDO) process during the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce’s regular meeting.
The RDO limits the number of market-value residential allotments that can be developed within the City of Gilroy, explained David Bischoff, director of Planning and Environmental Services for the City.
The purpose of the ordinance is to meter out the rate of construction that can take place within Gilroy, thus allowing for a uniform rate of development. City officials envision this being between 300 to 400 homes a year, Bischoff said.
The City has run into a development stalemate, however.
According to Mayor Don Gage, almost all of the available RDOs have been allocated – but requests for permission to build in the Gilroy area continue to trickle in and are on the rise.
The Council needs to find a way around this impasse, Gage said.
City staff was previously directed to come up with a plan that will allow for the creation of a special RDO that would allow the City to get building work started with developers who are ready to go.
When the concept for a special RDO was presented to the Council Jan. 28, however, members felt it could potentially allow for “projects of a lesser quality to proceed,” said Bischoff.
Even though a formal vote wasn’t taken on the special RDO, Council agreed potential loopholes needed to be closed and sent the proposal back to City staff for more work. The main proponents of the reworking include council members Dion Bracco, Peter Arellano and Cat Tucker.
If staff sends the proposed special RDO back to Council in 30 days and the council passes it, there still has to be a resolution that will add an additional 30 days, per the City’s legislative process.
The largest holders of RDOs in Gilroy are the city-approved development plans for a residential development area off Hecker Pass, in addition to planned development on Glen Loma Ranch off Santa Teresa Boulevard that will cater to a variety of housing styles. The two specific plans include a total of 1,800 RDOs.
The expiration date on the RDOs for Glen Loma and Hecker Pass is just 10 months down the road, but “developers behind both plans have entered into a legally binding agreement with the City – one that allows the developers to postpone construction indefinitely,” explained Bischoff.
There are multiple reasons a developer can hold off on construction, but the main one is “the economy,” he said.
RDOs held by smaller developers who don’t have a similar development agreement with the City are subject instead to a “performance agreement,” Bischoff explained. Developers who want to extend past the agreed upon time frame must come before the City Council to explain the reasons why, noted Bischoff.
“The Council has heard a number of these,” he added.
To Bischoff, problems with drafting the new special RDO encompass two key areas.
The proposed special RDO, if passed, would potentially allow new projects to come before City Council for approval, but also applicants who own property with pre-existing approval to come back and modify their projects.
Council is concerned that developers who have already been approved for building projects – but haven’t actually begun – “would use this new ordinance as a way of watering down their project and getting additional allotments without going through any sort of competitive process,” Bischoff explained.
Matters are further muddled by Council’s recent decision to allow the rezoning of some properties to accommodate development projects of 20 to 30 units per acre.
“We need some sort of an ordinance that allows those newly rezoned properties to be able to build,” Bischoff explained. “It’s really not fair to anybody to say, ‘we rezoned your property and guess what? We don’t have any RDO allocations, so you’ll just have to sit on your property.’”
Bischoff anticipates that both of the issues could be dealt with before the Planning Division bring the proposed “special” RDO back before the City Council at the end of February.
Habitat Conservation Plan slows development, too
Legislative work involved in creating the Habitat Conservation Plan – which the City of Gilroy was poised to form last year – also complicates things.
The Santa Clara Valley Habitat Conservation Plan is a regional partnership designed to identify and protect land that is important for endangered and threatened species. The partnership consists of the County of Santa Clara, Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, Santa Clara Valley Water District and the Cities of San Jose, Gilroy and Morgan Hill. The six local entities are joined by the California Department of Fish and Game and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, according to the partnership’s website.
The City of San Jose wasn’t satisfied with the original plan, so it “pushed the vote off” according to Gage.
When the City of San Jose finally approved the Habitat Conservation Plan, the revised paperwork came with new stipulations that will make it even more difficult for new development to take place in Gilroy.
“In order for any projects to go through, they have to go through the Habitat Conservation Plan because that’s where all the mitigation occurs,” rued Gage.
The time frame for the process of establishing a Joint Powers Authority – an entity formed when two or more local public authorities operate collectively – to assist with the implementation of the Habitat Conservation Plan could take three to six months from now, according to Gage. This means an added delay for people seeking to obtain a special RDO.
