Business owners dismayed by city’s construction
schedule
Gilroy – A land deal between City Hall and the Garlic Festival Association received final approval Monday night, despite objections of downtown business owners who fear a potentially crippling loss of short-term parking.
Council members unanimously agreed to sell a public parking lot at 7600 Monterey St., at the intersection with Lewis Street, to the nonprofit organizer of the city’s biggest annual charity event. In exchange, the GFA will give the city its parking lot off Eigleberry Street – located one block west of the downtown core – and $390,000 in cash to offset the difference in value between the properties.
The association plans to build a three-story complex on the Lewis Street lot with underground parking, street-level office space and 24 above-ground condominiums. The group will relocate its headquarters to the site and sell the condominiums to support its charity efforts.
City officials say the land deal, in combination with a number of other downtown projects already in the works, will increase downtown parking by several dozen spaces over the next few years. They stress that the deal affords the city its best chance to secure vacant land for a downtown parking garage, a facility contemplated in the area’s long-term plans.
But downtown business owners have expressed apprehension about the deal from the start. On Monday, about a dozen proprietors attended the meeting to once again voice concerns. While they supported the association’s plans, they strongly opposed the timetable for the deal and questioned alternate parking options.
Jeff Martin, a local developer and GFA representative, said the nonprofit must break ground on the Lewis Street lot by mid-spring 2006, or risk losing an offer from a private buyer on its office space at 7471 Monterey Street. They would also miss out on an estimated $400,000 savings through a city incentive program that expires in December.
The time constraints mean the GFA will begin construction on the 63-space lot just as the city tears up two blocks of Monterey Street as part of a major overhaul between Fourth and Sixth streets. The project involves expanding sidewalks, installing trees and lighting, and eliminating the winding median that now partitions the road. Business owners are already concerned about the elimination of storefront-parking during the 10-month project and said the additional loss of the Lewis Street lot could prove devastating.
“I think it’s extremely poor planning,” said Brooke Murphy, an employee of Harvest Time restaurant at the corner of Sixth and Monterey streets. “I hear the city toss around the phrase ‘vision for the future downtown.’ Well, how about some compassion for the existing (businesses)? There is none.”
Ricardo Espinoza, owner of Planet Fitness at 7560 Monterey Street, said his fitness center and the two work-out studios above it have a combined 800 members.
He and other business owners insisted the city must take steps to immediately replace the Lewis Street lot with equally safe parking at a comparable distance.
“I will lose a lot of members if the council doesn’t make something happen as far as lighted parking lots close by,” Espinoza said.
Mayor Al Pinheiro said the city would speed through efforts to prepare the new lot off Eigleberry Street following the land deal.
He also said the city would redouble efforts to secure temporary parking from private landowners in the area – part of the original planning surrounding the streetscape project.
But he did not sugarcoat the matter for business owners.
“I know when we talk about doing both (projects) at the same time, it scares people,” Pinheiro said. “There are going to be growing pains, I wouldn’t kid anybody about that.”
Martin agreed with downtown business owners that the city should securing additional parking in advance of both projects, and create a long-term parking management program. But he also spoke of the downtown’s parking issues in a positive light.
“The truth of the matter is, Gilroy is fortunate to have a parking problem,” he said.
“It is the first indicator of something truly changing in downtown after years of false starts and unfulfilled plans.”
