GILROY
– Those interested in the future of downtown can start by
learning a little about its history Tuesday.
GILROY – Those interested in the future of downtown can start by learning a little about its history Tuesday.
City officials and members of a special task force will meet Tuesday night to review different plans and ideas for downtown development and revitalization that have been formed over the years.
The “refresher meeting” will include a review of several specific documents, ranging from the Downtown Revitalization Action Plan to a city building design source book.
It’s meant to give some background and context to a new effort by the city to create a special land-use plan, called a “specific plan,” that will set formal rules and regulations in the area for the next two decades. The City Council has created a task force to help advise them on new document.
City Councilman Al Pinheiro said the purpose of the meeting is twofold: to bring task force members up to par with past studies on the downtown, and to bring them up to date on the Monterey Streetscape Project. If funded, that project would construct new sidewalks, traffic medians, landscaping and lampposts through the downtown core.
Tuesday’s review will give the task force a history of what ideas have been discussed in the past and a chance to validate them or create new ones, Pinheiro said. Many downtown concepts have already been raised or discussed several times, he said.
“It’s to see what other studies have been done and give citizens an idea of what’s happened and what’s been planned,” Pinheiro said.
The Downtown Specific Plan will include rules and regulations governing everything from parking standards to design guidelines, and is meant to help formalize more generalized policies and guidelines set during the recent update of the city’s overall land-use blueprint, the General Plan. It will have the weight of law once approved by the City Council.
The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Gilroy Senior Center, 7371 Hanna St. For information, call 846-0450.
