The City Council voted 7-0 Monday night to approve a
staff-picked consultant to undertake a high-speed rail station
visioning project. Full article
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The Gilroy City Council voted 7-0 Monday night to approve a staff-picked consultant to undertake a high-speed rail station visioning project.
Berkeley based Design, Community & Environment will conduct the study, which will analyze two station alternatives in the Gilroy area – one downtown and one east of U.S. Highway 101.
The study is expected to assist the City Council in offering an official site recommendation to the California High-Speed Rail Authority, which has final say over where the station is built.
Mayor Al Pinheiro and Councilman Perry Woodward have argued in favor of building the station downtown, as long as the tracks are trenched. Many residents have spoken against the east of Gilroy location because it would be constructed on and near prime agricultural land.
Councilman Peter Arellano questioned whether the city should study the east station location at all if the downtown option appeared to be the preferred choice.
“Let’s not waste our time with what’s happening beyond the city limits of Gilroy,” he said. “Let’s look at downtown. Forget the east side.”
Woodward disagreed, saying, “That doesn’t make any sense.”
Woodward said the city’s recommendation to the rail authority would carry more weight if supported by a comprehensive study of both sites.
“We have to tell them what we recommend and why,” he said. “What we are going to find, I’m confident, is that downtown is best.”
Arellano also questioned why Woodward and Pinheiro had been having closed meetings with high-speed rail CEO Roelof van Ark. Woodward, Pinheiro and other members of a Morgan Hill-Gilroy task force met with Van Ark in December and January in closed-door meetings at City Hall in Gilroy.
“These meetings should be open to the public,” Arellano said. He requested a discussion regarding the meetings be placed on a future Council agenda. The issue also will likely go before the city’s Open Government Commission, on which Pinheiro and Council members Dion Bracco and Peter Leroe-Munoz sit.
On Monday night, the Council also approved a $200,000 figure needed to conduct the study – $150,000 from a Valley Transportation Authority grant and $50,000 from the City of Gilroy.
City Transportation Engineer Don Dey said the city received 15 proposals from consultants, a list which the city narrowed to four.
All four were interviewed, and staff selected Design, Community & Environment as the best option, Dey said.
Construction on the high-speed rail project is expected to begin in 2013. The project itself carries a price tag of roughly $45 billion and will include approximately 800 miles of track from Sacramento to San Diego.
Council accepts donation for amphitheater renovation
The Council accepted a $350,000 donation Monday night from the Gilroy Garlic Festival, Bill and Don Christopher and Christopher Ranch to renovate the Christmas Hill Park amphitheater.
Festival President Kurt Svardal said the amphitheater should be renovated by July 29, the first day of the 2011 festival.
“We’ll work a lot faster than government,” Svardal quipped.
Pinheiro thanked festival representatives for their contributions to Gilroy.
“Gilroy is known throughout the world for your efforts and your organization.” He said. “You are helping not just your event but the whole community.”
City sets up relief fund
The City of Gilroy has set up a fund to receive donations for disaster relief in Gilroy’s sister city, Takko-Machi, Japan.
Donations can be made payable to the City of Gilroy, and please note in the memo “for Takko-Machi relief.”
9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami devastated Japan.
Donations can be personally dropped off or mailed to the Finance Department at Gilroy City Hall, 7351 Rosanna Street, Gilroy, CA, 95020.
