Ask city planners to develop guidelines that explain which
projects should qualify for exemption
Gilroy – City Council members have balked at limiting the size of small projects allowed to slip past Gilroy’s growth-control measure, but they are asking for help in choosing which projects should qualify for such special treatment.
On Monday, council members postponed a final decision on changes proposed for the Small Project Exemption, or SPE, and asked city planners to develop guidelines that explain which small projects should qualify for the exemption.
The definition could mean the difference between waiting months or years for developers looking to build homes on half-acre lots and other small parcels scattered throughout the city. Current zoning laws allow projects of up to 12 units to bypass past the city’s formal competition for housing allotments, held every 10 years, and to obtain building permits in a more timely way by invoking the SPE.
Small projects are one of several housing types that city leaders exempted from the competition in hopes of encouraging affordable housing and growth inside the city, rather than on its edges.
Currently, council can use its discretion to award small project exemptions to developments with more than 12 units when the new homes would flesh out a larger subdivision. The regulation lets council decide which projects exceeding the 12-unit cap should qualify for the exemption and sets no limit on the size of such exceptions.
Council members rejected a staff proposal that would have capped such exceptions at 18 units. They also eliminated a proposal to require SPE applicants to have their project sites surrounded on all sides by existing development.
“Their concern is that you might get a property surrounded on three sides and not on four and they wouldn’t be able to come in,” City Planner Melissa Durkin said. “Or you might get a piece of property where somebody next to you doesn’t want to develop.”
The elimination of the requirement would allow developers of projects on the city’s fringes, such as several housing communities now rising along Santa Teresa Boulevard in southwest Gilroy, to capitalize on the exemption.
Council members decided that all small projects seeking the exemption should have similar lot sizes to the surrounding neighborhood – typically a major concern of neighbors who fear a large number of low-income units sprouting up in their back yards.
The proposal to amend the small project exemption grew out of city council policy discussions at the beginning of the year. Council is scheduled to review the revised SPE Aug. 7 at 7pm. The meeting will take place at City Hall, 7351 Rosanna St.
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City Council Study session – Officials will study plans to upgrade Las Animas Veterans Park and restrict alcohol consumption at all city parks. They will also discuss a proposed ordinance that would require sprinkler systems in all new homes.
Planning Commission regular meeting
City Council meeting – Council will review a proposal to limit the size of groups that can skip past a housing competition at the heart of growth control efforts.
July 24, 6pm at City Hall, 7351 Rosanna St.
Aug. 3, 6pm at City Hall, 7351 Rosanna St.
Aug. 7, 7pm at City Hall, 7371 Hanna St.
