If Gilroy’s dream of a vibrant, revitalized downtown is to
become a reality, it will require a wide variety of people from a
cross-section of economic situations living downtown.
If Gilroy’s dream of a vibrant, revitalized downtown is to become a reality, it will require a wide variety of people from a cross-section of economic situations living downtown. That means there needs to be both market-rate and affordable housing units offered near downtown.
City Council seems to understand this.
“If people live downtown, they stay downtown and shop there, and that’s a big part of revitalizing,” Councilman Bob Dillon said at a recent study session to consider a request from the Downtown Specific Plan Task Force to transfer 250 market-rate housing permits to downtown.
Two sticky questions remain, however: From what pot those housing permits should come and how many permits ought to be issued?
A lawsuit alleging the city does not offer enough affordable housing means that city officials are leery of borrowing permits from a pool of 530 set aside for affordable housing. No developers have sought those permits.
Instead, the city will use permits set aside for housing for the years 2009 to 2013.
City officials are also hesitant to issue the full 250 units the downtown task force has requested and is likely to issue between 50 and 100 market-rate housing permits for downtown.
We urge the city to do whatever it can to encourage housing – both affordable and market-rate – in Gilroy’s beleaguered downtown. The presence of built-in customers who live above shops and restaurants is key to encouraging businesses to locate there and to drawing others to visit exciting, popular stores and eateries.
There are, of course, caveats. City planners need to keep an eye on parking, which will become tighter as more people live downtown. There needs to be a way for residents and customers to park easily for downtown to be an attractive place to live or visit.
Finally, we encourage that flexibility be built into the decision-making process for increasing the number of housing permits.
When developers need more permits, we hope the city will be able to act quickly to accommodate those with excellent projects.
Let’s all keep the goal in mind, as articulated by Councilman Dillon: “We like the idea of residential over retail. … We don’t want to let the lack of housing permits … stop development downtown.”
Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen.
