Small group of officials included in megamall construction plans
leaves council in the dark
Gilroy – Before the public ever learned of Westfield Corporation’s plans to build the biggest shopping center in Gilroy history, a small circle of local officials knew about the effort. The list of those in the know included city planners, Gilroy’s economic development chief, the city manager and mayor. Now, some councilmen caught flat-flooted by the July announcement are demanding greater communication from city staff, though some of their colleagues say transparency is not always a virtue.
Most members on the city’s top governing body expressed surprise at the end of July after learning from newspapers that Westfield had formally asked the city to annex 119 acres of farmland east of the outlets. The land is intended to make room for a 1.5-million-square-foot mall – nearly a third larger than the two Pacheco Pass shopping centers built in the last five years.
“If your wife decided to put the house up for sale while you were at work, that’s fairly significant and you probably wouldn’t want to find out about it from your neighbor,” Councilman Craig Gartman said.
Plans are in the most preliminary stages and Westfield representatives have said little besides stating their eagerness to collaborate with local and regional officials. Success will depend on the company’s ability to bring about major revisions to an overall vision set for the area in 2002, when a divided city council targeted the land for technology companies and other high-end employers. The decision was made over the objections of environmentalists and regional land use officials.
“In (most) situations you ask, ‘Do we want to know every little thing that goes on?’,” Councilman Russ Valiquette said, “but with something this big, I think we should at least have been given a heads up. … We need to sit down across from each, council and staff, and decide at what point it is necessary for staff to give us updates.”
But confidentiality is often crucial to beat out international competition when it comes to luring big business to Gilroy, according to the city’s Economic Development Director Larry Cope, who refused to disclose when he was first contacted by Westfield. Cope only briefed the agency’s board of directors after the story went public, following the filing of the annexation application at City Hall.
“Without the permission form the company to release that information, I can’t speak on it with anybody,” Cope said.
The company also asked City Administrator Jay Baksa to keep quiet about the project.
“If a developer walks in here and says ‘I want this confidential,’ I have an ethical responsibility to keep it confidential,” Baksa said. “The same thing goes for Larry at the EDC. You’re caught in a quandary here. Just by the nature of this, staff is going to hear about it sooner.”
The public review process would afford council members, planning commissioners and residents ample opportunity to scrutinize and comment on the project, Baksa added. And that’s just fine for some colleagues of Gartman and Valiquette.
“I really don’t want to know every time someone walks into City Hall to get information on building a project,” Councilman Dion Bracco said. “I think we get told in due time. At the stage that this mall is in, it may or may not happen. It’s pretty much a rumor. I just don’t want to micro-manage City Hall.”
Councilman Roland Velasco echoed the sentiment.
“The entity the city has partnered with to help develop the economic engine of Gilroy is the EDC, and to that end, I want to give as much free rein as I can to its director to find companies or employers to locate in Gilroy,” he said. “A lot of times, especially in the development business, they’re doing their due diligence, they’re researching, counting rooftops, doing the research necessary so that they can flesh out a project idea, and I think it’s probably not in their best interest to have everybody and their brother knowing about it.”
Any project of this magnitude involves a careful balancing act between keeping city leaders informed and protecting the interests of the business, according to Mayor Al Pinheiro, who was notified by the company about its plans in the weeks before the news became public. During the meeting, Pinheiro warned the company about the potential challenges posed by the project, ranging from traffic issues to possible roadblocks at the hands of regional land-use officials who wield veto power over annexation requests.
Though Pinheiro would prefer if developers kept all council members informed of major projects, he said a lack of early knowledge does not pose a serious problem.
“This council is going to have to deliberate this thing. That’s the process and it’s not a bad process,” Pinheiro said. “It’s not to blind anybody from knowing stuff, it’s just that there’s times that happens.”
