GILROY
– The lawyer for the group of Day Road residents opposing a new
high school site in their backyards is accusing a high-profile
Gilroy developer of strong-arming the school district into buying
the 50-acre parcel.
Attorney Bruce Tichinin told Gilroy City Council Monday that
John Filice, a director with the development firm Glen Loma Group,
pressured the school district to agree speedily to purchase the
multimillion dollar lot or face the legal hassles of taking the
land through eminent domain.
GILROY – The lawyer for the group of Day Road residents opposing a new high school site in their backyards is accusing a high-profile Gilroy developer of strong-arming the school district into buying the 50-acre parcel.
Attorney Bruce Tichinin told Gilroy City Council Monday that John Filice, a director with the development firm Glen Loma Group, pressured the school district to agree speedily to purchase the multimillion dollar lot or face the legal hassles of taking the land through eminent domain.
Eminent domain would require the Gilroy Unified School District to take the Silveira family and its developer Glen Loma Group to court, potentially delaying a 2008 high school opening at the Day Road and Santa Teresa Boulevard site.
“That kind of pressure is what motivated the (school) board to take this kind of position,” Tichinin said, referring to trustees’ 6-1 vote last week authorizing Superintendent Edwin Diaz to start negotiations for purchasing the Day Road parcel.
Diaz, school board President Jim Rogers and Trustee Bob Kraemer did not respond to the claims Monday night, but categorically denied them Tuesday morning.
“The claims are completely untrue, and frankly I’m upset and disappointed someone would throw out that type of irresponsible comment and spread distrust with something that has no basis in fact,” Diaz said.
Filice could not be reached for comment before press time; he is out of the office until June 26.
Roughly 15 Day Road area residents accompanied Tichinin to Monday’s quarterly joint session between City Council and the Board of Education, hoping to sway councilmembers from annexing the site that they believe will not pass muster during an environmental review.
The residents – who formed a broader grassroots group called Neighbors for Responsible Development – have vowed to watchdog the school district as it now begins an environmental review process on the Day Road site.
Tichinin and the residents told City Council not to be swayed by the school district’s “subjective” site reviews which ranked the Day Road property as better than four other locations a special committee reviewed.
“Those numbers are relatively meaningless,” Tichinin said.
Rogers sharply criticized Tichinin’s comments regarding the district being required to purchase the property from the Silveiras. Rogers stressed that the school district cannot purchase a property if it doesn’t clear stringent environmental reviews. The resolution passed by trustees 6-1 Tuesday directs the superintendent “to enter into a nonbinding letter of intent for the district to purchase the Silveira property.”
“When he used the word binding, he forgot one more word – non,” Rogers said. “We are working toward a contingent agreement at this point.”
Neighbors for Responsible Development had unsuccessfully lobbied the school district to choose a more centrally located site for its high school. Among other concerns, the group of residents believe traffic impacts to Day Road and Santa Teresa Boulevard make the Silveira property less desirable than other alternatives for Gilroy’s second comprehensive public high school.
Trustee John Gurich was the lone dissenter when the school board selected the Silveira property last week. On Tuesday, Gurich said he had no evidence John Filice or anyone from Glen Loma strong-armed the district, but restated his feeling that the district is pushing the high school site selection along too quickly.
“I have no proof of anything but I’m uncomfortable with how the whole situation unfolded, the timing, the matrix (that compared the top three sites) and so on,” Gurich said.
Gurich’s comments mirror an undercurrent of concern that the school district is easily swayed into its future land use decisions by the Glen Loma Group, which owns a significant amount of developable land.
“People forget (the Local Agency Formation Commission) directed us to the Silveira site,” Diaz said regarding the claims against Filice. “To think our paths are not going to cross is unrealistic, but everything has been above board.”
The group’s appearance Monday demonstrated that City Council will also be carefully watched as it considers whether to annex the Day Road parcel into Gilroy proper.
Annexation would make it easier for the school district to make road improvements and bring utilities and other city services to the site. If the city does not annex the site, the school district will have to get its infrastructure and emergency-service needs met by the county.
Glen Loma had been working with the Silveira family to develop housing on the 50 acres the school district is now likely to buy. Since plans for the site have changed, the annexation process – which could have ended in July – must now start over.
City officials estimated the process to take six months to one year. Environmental reviews for both the public high school and a Catholic school and church that are also proposed for the site must now be done.
