Gilroy
– An apartment complex that promises to restore a blighted
downtown industrial site and create much-needed affordable housing
received its first round of approval from planning commissioners
this week.
Gilroy – An apartment complex that promises to restore a blighted downtown industrial site and create much-needed affordable housing received its first round of approval from planning commissioners this week.
Thursday night, commissioners signed off on a request by South County Housing to exempt from the city’s annual permit competition 101 units of affordable housing, as part of a project slated for the old cannery site off Lewis Street. City ordinance allows for such exemptions as a way to encourage affordable housing and prevent sprawl.
The exemptions represent half of the 206 units proposed by South County, which plans to mix apartments, live-work lofts, and townhouses in its downtown project. The affordable units will be spread across all the housing types, according to South County Housing director Dennis Lalor. In addition, the apartment complex will include 40,000 square feet of street-level retail space.
“What is special about this project is that it’s doing a number of things,” Lalor said. “It’s providing affordable housing, a mixed type of development with a variety of housing types and prices, and it’s bringing residents and consumers into downtown.”
Construction should begin by summer 2006.
