Council will have final vote Dec. 18
Gilroy – Landowners hoping to build 400-plus homes on scenic Hecker Pass won an important battle Thursday when the planning commission approved a deal that would allow them to fast-track construction or delay it until the housing market heats up again.
The city has already approved a so-called development agreement for the project over a six-year period ending in 2012, but the proposed contract between City Hall and roughly a dozen landowners contains additional benefits for both sides.
Most significantly, the city would receive $2 million for street improvements and a three-acre public park. In exchange, landowners would receive permission to build homes three years earlier or later than originally envisioned – a less-than-thrilling prospect for school district officials scrambling to find space for new students.
But the sweeteners in the deal were less of an issue to planning commissioners Thursday night than what are proving to be sticking points left out of the agreement. After successfully negotiating dozens of items during the past 18 months, city planners and landowners continue to fight over three points: The so-called “under-grounding” of power lines and other utilities along Hecker Pass, the construction timeline for an extension of the Uvas Creek hiking trail, and maintenance responsibility and liability for the new trail segment.
“We should rename this ‘development disagreement,'” Commissioner Norm Thompson said after hearing arguments from both sides.
On all three issues, Thompson and fellow commissioners fell squarely on the side of landowners. They questioned city negotiators’ insistence that landowners remove 21utility polls along Hecker Pass and bury power lines and other wires under the road. Landowners have offered to “under-ground” 18 of the polls between Santa Teresa Boulevard and the Elk’s Lodge, but they say removing the last three polls would subject them to indefinite permitting delays at the hands of state transportation officials. Caltrans, landowners point out, is currently designing plans to relocate the Uvas Creek bridge and will remove the last three polls as part of the project.
Commissioners dismissed the staff idea of mandating public access to the Uvas Creek trail while asking future homeowners to bear responsibility for its maintenance and any potential lawsuits – another staff recommendation.
They also questioned the city’s insistence on extending the nature trail from Uvas Creek north to Hecker Pass. The area’s specific plan calls for the construction of trail connections as neighboring developments flesh out. In this case, a final piece of land next to Bonfante Gardens has not yet received development permits, and landowners fear they’ll end up footing the bill for the final section of trail if one part of their group – South Valley National Bank and Raley’s grocery store – fails to obtain building permits for the land they want to develop in the future.
Commissioners voted (6-0-1) to side with landowners on all three counts, with Commissioner Joan Lewis absent. Council members will review the recommendation during a Dec. 18 meeting.
“We’re hopeful that a similar decision will come down from council,” landowner Chris Vanni said. “We negotiated the maximum amount that we believe we could give based upon our finances and the current economic conditions out there. Some of these things would really add to those costs.”
Vanni said the city would receive $7.5 million in total benefits. The figure includes the cost of constructing the Uvas Creek trail extension and the three-acre public park. Without the agreement, the city would have to finance the improvements on its own.
Mayor Al Pinheiro said he could not predict how he would vote on the trail extension and the under-grounding of utility poles.
“I can see the developers’ side on this and I can certainly see (city) staff’s side to protect the city and get as much for the city as possible,” he said.
But he was certain about who should shoulder liability for Uvas Creek trail.
“I can tell you that I don’t believe (the landowners) should carry that liability,” Pinheiro said. “I’m in the insurance business and the last thing I’d want to do is insure anything that has that kind of exposure.”
The development agreement contains nothing to offset the effect of an estimated 345 new schoolchildren – a fact pointed out to commissioners Thursday by Rob Mendiola, facilities director for the Gilroy Unified School District.
The prospect of hundreds of homes coming on the market earlier than expected has fanned anxiety among GUSD officials, who are scrambling to finance new schools and tack on portable classrooms to existing sites.
“Let me start with the premise that we can’t build schools fast enough, which puts us in an infrastructure crunch,” Mendiola said. “You wouldn’t build a project without a sewer or a street. We ask that you not build them without schools.”
Planning commissioners and city council members say they are helpless to change the situation – state law bars the city from negotiating fees or facilities on behalf of the school district, while it limits the amount of fees the school district can levy against developers.
Project engineer Rob Oneto assured commissioners that even with the development agreement, the project would likely stick to the original six-year timeline ending in 2012. The first homes, he predicted, would rise no sooner than 2008.
On Thursday, commissioners also unanimously approved broad plans for roads, parks and other public infrastructure in the Hecker Pass development, and signed off on the first major phase of the project – 87 homes just east of Bonfante Gardens.
Serdar Tumgoren, Senior Staff Writer, covers City Hall for The Dispatch. Reach him at 847-7109 or st*******@gi************.com.
