GILROY
–
”
Surprise, surprise.
”
That was the reaction by City Councilman Al Pinheiro upon
learning of the latest in a long string of difficulties surrounding
a high-profile
– and increasingly controversial – senior mixed-housing project
rising at the gateway to the Hecker Pass corridor.
GILROY – “Surprise, surprise.”
That was the reaction by City Councilman Al Pinheiro upon learning of the latest in a long string of difficulties surrounding a high-profile – and increasingly controversial – senior mixed-housing project rising at the gateway to the Hecker Pass corridor.
While construction is progressing on other parts of the sprawling senior development at Santa Teresa Boulevard near First Street – which will include both affordable and market-rate senior housing – delay and uncertainty continue over an Alzheimer’s assisted-living facility that city officials said was a key component and attraction of the project.
Two months after it issued approvals for the Alzheimer’s facility after the latest in a string of lengthy, complicated and somewhat contentious hearings, Council learned last week that developers DMA Gilroy Associates have still not produced revised site and architectural designs for the project.
That news had several Councilmembers concerned that the developer will back out of that part of the project – or perhaps continue to press for alterations to water down the original purpose of the care center that they said was a major reason why they supported the overall project in the first place.
Dismayed at the prospect, Council asked the city attorney to identify what legal grounds the city has to halt the whole project if the developer does not come through.
“If there are no Alzheimer’s beds, as far as I’m concerned we won’t open the rest” of the mixed-use project, said Councilman Bob Dillon. “I’m not willing to take promises.”
Councilmembers and city staff have spent many hours over the past year working out details of the Alzheimer’s assisted living center and trying to balance city leaders’ desire for the facility – the first of its kind here – with their desire to protect the integrity of its planning process.
The council had exempted the 175-bed Alzheimer’s facility from the city’s growth-control law, the Residential Development Ordinance, in 1998-99 because it was considered a commercial project. But when DMA Gilroy Associates asked the city to sign off on a state bond financing application last year, city staffers said the care facility appeared different than originally proposed.
It had been split into two parts – a care facility and apartments, and that worried officials that the project no longer qualified for the exemption. After hours of discussion, the Council agreed to reaffirm the project’s exempt status, but added a number of provisions to ensure it stayed as a care facility and did not convert to regular apartments.
However, DMA Gilroy representatives later appealed almost all of the 13 conditions placed on the project by city staff and the Planning Commission, saying they would threaten financing of the facility.
Council kept most of those conditions intact, loosening a few – such as parking – and tightening others, such as requirements for recreational space.
But when Council prepared to review design plans reflecting those changes last week, they were told none were ready.
DMA Gilroy Associates representative Franco Mola could not be reached before press time. However, city planners said Mola and other representatives of the project have indicated they plan to move ahead on the Alzheimer’s building, and have said they are apparently trying to work out parking issues.
But increasingly exasperated Councilmembers – tired of the back-and-forth and hours of wrangling – don’t seem to have much faith.
Last week, they requested the city attorney research how the Alzheimer’s facility ties in legally with other approvals issued for the rest of the mixed-use project. Their goal: to hold the developer’s feet to the fire.
A “highly aggravated” Dillon said he continues to lose confidence in the developer.
“It’s an ongoing train wreck,” he said. “It’s just beginning to look really ugly to me.”
Pinheiro said the city has already “bent over backward” several times to accommodate the developer.
“I’m willing to sit back and wait for him to put the financing together,” PInheiro said. “But if I have my say, there won’t be construction of any cottages or a final permit for occupancy on those units until there’s concrete evidence in our hands that this is a go.”
