A Gilroy citizens group has launched a petition drive that would require voter approval for large housing projects outside Gilroy’s city limits. Gilroy Growing Smarter filed a notice of intention to circulate a petition with the Gilroy City Clerk that would create an Urban Growth Boundary.
A Gilroy citizens group has launched a petition drive that would require voter approval for large housing projects outside Gilroy’s city limits. Gilroy Growing Smarter filed a notice of intention to circulate a petition with the Gilroy City Clerk on Thursday afternoon.
The group pressing the initiative includes former Gilroy Councilmember Connie Rogers, dairy farmer Sandie Silva, union organizer and former council candidate Rebeca Armendariz and David Lima, who worked as an engineer and product designer at HP, Apple and other Silicon Valley companies before moving to Gilroy five years ago.
“It would implement an Urban Growth Boundary,” Lima, the group’s secretary, explains. “It would limit the amount that the city can grow without a public ballot, with certain exceptions.” The exceptions include affordable housing required by state and federal law; parks; public projects such as schools and water treatment facilities; and job creating industries.
The initiative “to protect the unique character of the City of Gilroy and the agriculture and open space character of the surrounding areas ” defines the Urban Growth Boundary as “a line beyond which urban development is not allowed.”
The 721-acre Rancho Los Olivos development would be prohibited if the initiative qualifies for the ballot and is approved by voters.
“Our intent is to allow smart growth in Gilroy,” Lima says. “There is significant room for growth within the city limits.”
The ballot measure includes a map with a line that cannot be crossed. The boundaries are close to those proposed in the draft 2040 General Plan’s “compact growth” alternative and a plan that was endorsed by citizens attending a community workshop of the General Plan Advisory Commission at Eliot School on February 25, 2015.
A majority of the council, led by former Mayor Don Gage and current Mayor Perry Woodward, voted December 7, 2015 to begin implementing key parts of the “orderly growth” alternative in the as-yet-unpassed Gilroy 2040 General Plan. That option that would add considerably more housing and more than double the city’s population to as many as 130,000 people, according to projections by city-hired consultants.
Woodward has criticized what he calls “a particularly vocal, activist group” that is “agitated about the council’s long-range planning efforts.”
“Allowing large development that happens in stages over time gives the council local control and funding for roads, fire stations, schools, overpasses and the like,” Woodward says.
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Map of proposed Urban Growth Boundary drawn up by Gilroy Growing Smarter.
Text of notice submitted to the Gilroy City Clerk:
Source: Gilroy Growing Smarter
Notice of Intent to Circulate Petition
Notice is hereby given by the persons whose names appear hereon of their intention to circulate the petition within the City of Gilroy for the purpose of adopting General Plan policies that establish an Urban Growth Boundary for the City through the year 2040.
A statement of the reasons of the proposed action as contemplated in the petition is as follows:
- To encourage efficient growth patterns and protect Gilroy’s quality of life by concentrating future
development largely within existing developed areas. - To promote and protect continued agricultural and open space uses on lands outside of the Urban Growth Boundary.
- To allow the City to grow in a manner that fosters and protects the small-town character and rural identity of Gilroy while encouraging appropriate economic development in accordance with the City’s unique local conditions.
- To promote sustainable job creation by encouraging infill development that will enhance and revitalize the downtown, guide growth in a compact manner, promote a well-planned community, and foster neighborhood development.
- To safeguard the City’s prosperity and fiscal health by avoiding premature investments in expensive new and expanded infrastructure and by ensuring that new growth in Gilroy will be planned in light of resource capacity constraints.
- To allow the City to continue to meet its reasonable housing needs for all economic segments of the population, especially low- and very low-income households, by directing the development of housing into areas where services and infrastructure are more efficiently available.
- To promote stability in long-term planning for the City by establishing cornerstone policies in the General Plan that designate the geographic limits of long-term urban development and allow sufficient flexibility within those limits to respond to Gilroy’s changing needs over time.
- To ensure that the City’s proposed new General Plan, which will guide the City’s development over the next two decades, includes an Urban Growth Boundary that meets the needs and reflects the will of the people of Gilroy.
Dated February 18, 2016
Signed by:
Constance “Connie” A. Rogers, Co-chair, Gilroy Growing Stronger
Rebeca Armendariz, Member, Gilroy Growing Stronger
David Almeida, Electrician, IBEW local 332
“It would limit the amount that the city can grow without a public ballot, with certain exceptions.”
