Las Animas School on the fast-track; concerns about the city’s
grading system for housing
By Serdar Tumgoren Staff Writer
Gilroy – School district officials desperate to raise cash for new facilities are crafting a regulation that would fast-track redevelopment of Las Animas Elementary School.
Concrete language has not been developed, but the addition to the city’s zoning regulations is intended to exempt the Gilroy Unified School District from the city’s housing competition and allow for the conversion of the school into homes.
The number of houses headed for the site in north-central Gilroy is not yet known, but the need to convert the site is urgent, according to Steve Brinkman, GUSD assistant superintendent.
School bond monies approved in 2002 have fallen $6.9 million short of the amount needed for various projects, and school officials are eager to convert Las Animas to help keep construction on track.
“We need to have the income from the (Las Animas) property to build the elementary school and continue building the high school,” he said. “This is very pivotal.”
Without the exemption, the school will have to obtain its housing allotments in a competition governed by the Residential Development Ordinance, the city’s growth control measure. A limited RDO competition for 191 building permits is scheduled for next year, but there are no guarantees the school district will edge out other developers hungry to cash in on Gilroy’s booming housing market. If that fails, the school district would have to secure housing allotments during a full-scale permit competition in 2013, when officials dole out permission to build thousands of homes.
The fate of GUSD lies in the hands of city council members, some of whom recoiled at the district’s initial attempts to sidestep the RDO competition through an exemption tailored for nonprofit groups. City leaders approved the exemption for 501c3s – named after the section of the IRS code that exempts them from taxes – as part of a bail-out several years ago for cash-strapped Bonfante Gardens.
The regulatory change allowed the horticultural park to receive 99 building permits, but both city staff and officials balked at the prospect of granting a similar exemption to the school district.
“That particular section calls for 501c3 nonprofit organizations and the school district does not meet that criteria,” City Planner Cydney Casper said. “I cannot make a recommendation on them as a 501c3 if they are not a 501c3.”
Sentiment among council appears split over the latest attempt to fast-track the Las Animas project.
Councilman Craig Gartman opposes the use of the nonprofit exemption or any other regulations that would give the school district special treatment. Instead, he insists GUSD should pass through the RDO competition like any other developer.
But Mayor Al Pinheiro, who opposed GUSD plans to invoke the nonprofit exemption, would not rule out support for a regulation designed for the school district.
“We as a city have just as much interest in making sure we have good schools,” Pinheiro said. “We have to do what we can to work together with the school district to fulfill the needs of our community.”
The school district, which was scheduled to appear before planning commissioners tonight to discuss the Las Animas conversion, will ask for a postponement of the matter until June 1, according to Brinkman.
“We’re working on the specific language and we’re going to take a couple cuts at it,” he said.
Grading System challenge
City staff are asking for additional time to “digest” a flood of complaints and concerns from the development community about a proposed overhaul of Gilroy’s grading system for housing projects.
The changes proposed earlier in the year are designed to give preference to affordable housing, eco-friendly designs, and projects that provide paseos or some other community benefit.
Developers are calling the changes “extractions” and have asked for the city to differentiate between large and small projects, so as not to handicap small developers with less ability to finance such requirements. The comments came during an open house on the matter last month, as well as in letters to the city planning department.
“I think they had a lot of really good comments and I think we need to digest them and incorporate them where necessary,” City Planner Melissa Durkin said.
The 200-point grading system is an integral part of the Residential Development Ordinance, which officials rely on to choose which projects should get the most building permits and how fast homes should be built. The RDO competition, as it is commonly known, lies at the heart of the city’s growth control efforts and remains a subject of ongoing debate.
City officials are eager to revamp the system in time for an RDO competition this summer, when developers will jockey for 191 building permits for market rate homes. Developers, meanwhile, are calling for officials to hold off on changes until the next full competition in 2013, when thousands of permits will become available. One developer even went as far as calling for the elimination of the RDO competition.
Councilman Craig Gartman said he would not support such an extreme move, but said he would like the RDO competition to become “less subjective.”
“I’d like to see a program where the rating system is easy to measure,” he said. “We need to say ‘If you incorporate solar heating into your design, then that’s worth five points. If you incorporate fluorescent lighting, that’s worth three points.’ Make it less subjective and more definitive.”
He would like to see the changes integrated in time for next year’s RDO competition.
Mayor Al Pinheiro agreed.
“We’ve learned that things are not working and we’ve identified things that need to be changed and it needs to be done prior to this competition,” he said.
Commission meeting
When: Tonight at 6pm
Where: City Hall, 7351 Rosanna St.
On the agenda:
– Housing Grade System – A second draft of revisions to the city’s grading system for housing projects will go before commissioners. The changes would give preference to projects that are affordable to low-income families, eco-friendly, or help subsidize “community benefits” such as downtown paseos or sidewalk repairs.
– McCarthy Ranch – The developers of a future Pacheco Pass industrial park will ask commissioners for the first round of approval on the commercial component of the project, a 146,000-square-foot shopping center on the south side of the city’s eastern gateway.
– Garlic Festival – The city’s nonprofit festival association will seek commission approval to build condominiums above its future downtown headquarters.
– Cannery project – South County Housing will ask for approval of 78 commercial and residential lots as part of its conversion of the old cannery in downtown Gilroy, a project involving 200 homes and 40,000 square feet of retail space.
– Las Animas School – The Gilroy Unified School District will seek approval of a zoning exemption to set the stage for conversion of Las Animas Elementary School into 99 homes.
To view the planning Commission agenda, visit www.ci.gilroy.ca.us.
Contact Planning Commission Chairman Tim Day at 842-1270 or td**@****ic.com
Development datebook
– Tonight: Planning Commission regular meeting (see agenda). 6pm at City Council Chambers, City Hall, 7351 Rosanna St.
– May 9: Housing Advisory Committee will review options for revising resale restriction agreements, which govern the length of time that a home must remain affordable before it can be sold at market rates. 6pm at the Senior Center, 7371 Hanna St.
