Council narrows time that property owners have to restart
businesses
GILROY
Property owners need to keep with the times, or they may find themselves in a pickle with the city.
Just a few weeks into the new year, it will be easier for the city to enforce zoning laws on people who live or run a business on property that the city has since re-zoned for a different use.
As it stands for the next couple of weeks, though, property owners with “non-conforming uses” – such as an old apartment building on land re-zoned for single-family homes – can continue with their outdated use as long as it stays active. If the business closes or the building turns vacant for more than a year, however, the city can enforce the new zoning, and that outmoded use is gone forever on that property.
The city council decided to shorten this one-year window to 120 days with a unanimous vote Dec. 17. Councilmembers agreed that reality should reflect what’s on the books, especially in the downtown area, said Mayor Al Pinheiro.
“It’s mostly because of the (November 2005) Downtown Specific Plan,” Pinheiro said Dec. 17. “It’s the dance halls, night clubs and other types of non-conforming uses that we’d like to see changed.”
Dance halls are not allowed at all in the central part of downtown, known as the “Downtown Historic District,” and those a little farther out, such as Tenampa Restaurant and Night Club at 7990 Monterey Road, require a conditional permit from the planning commission. They can serve alcohol without any special permits after obtaining an alcohol license.
Things get more complicated in the heart of downtown along Monterey Street between Fifth and Eighth streets.
Earlier this year the council addressed the issue of downtown restaurants such as Chips N’ Salsa – which can serve alcohol as long as it primarily serves food – becoming too rowdy as the night wore on. The restaurant could apply for a conditional permit to serve alcohol without food, but that hypothetical seems unlikely as the restaurant’s owner has closed its day-to-day operations and now only hosts private-party banquets.
Councilman Perry Woodward supported the latest zoning ordinance change, but before the vote he pointed out its potential strains on people who take more than 120 days to sell their property in a slow real estate market and then having no recourse.
“We’re painting with a broad brush,” Woodward said. “Are we going to be cutting off peoples’ rights to use their property?”
But the mayor and the rest of council agreed that one year is simply too long to give someone to catch up with current zoning.
“We don’t want to put folks out of business or prevent them from selling,” Pinheiro said. “This 120-day window only kicks in once your business closes down or is abandoned.”
Any incongruous property uses within a designated historical structure may be exempt to the new rules as long as the owner has a conditional permit from the planning commission.
