GILROY
– Anyone wanting a city facility named after them, now has a
city policy telling them how to do it.
City Council approved Monday a new policy regulating how Gilroy
names the parks and buildings it owns.
GILROY – Anyone wanting a city facility named after them, now has a city policy telling them how to do it.
City Council approved Monday a new policy regulating how Gilroy names the parks and buildings it owns.
The guidelines are timely as the city prepares to build a new police station, sports park and arts center over the next several years. All of these multimillion dollar facilities have yet to be named. And city budgets for the projects are already stretched thin.
”This is really a sign of things to come” in these tight budget times, said Robert Connelly, the city’s community services director.
The city plans to build an arts and cultural center at Seventh and Monterey streets by 2008. Under the new policy, the entire site – as well as particular portions of the facility – can be named after a donor.
”The arts center will be one of our first learning experiences with this (policy),” said Sherri Stuart, a member of the task force charged with developing the new guidelines.
The new policy comes on the heels of a major land donation to Gilroy Unified School District by Garlic Festival co-founder and garlic rancher Don Christopher. In exchange for a 10-acre, $6 million donation of land, GUSD will name its second high school after his family.
The new city policy covers scenarios such as the recent gift by Christopher. It also sets up a system of naming rights for those who make smaller private donations as well as large corporate sponsorships.
Under the policy, namings cannot commemorate a living person except at City Council’s discretion. Also, a deceased person who is commemorated must be dead at least five years.
Commemorative plaques will be done on a limited basis, said Carla Ruigh, the city’s operations services manager.
”You don’t want plaques everywhere because you don’t want that feeling that you’re walking through a cemetery,” Ruigh said.
Facilities named after a corporation can be named on a permanent or temporary basis. Naming facilities on a temporary basis allows the city to resell the rights at a higher price in the future.
The new policy also makes it possible to get one’s name on a portion of a facility. For instance, if a large company like Calpine donated millions toward building a ball field at Gilroy’s future sports park, the field could be named after the company. However, the overall name of the sports park could be named after someone or something else.
And if the ball field bleachers, say, fell apart in an earthquake, the company – not the city – could be made responsible for rebuilding them.
