The Barberi family is stuck between a sports park and a hard
place.
Gilroy – The Barberi family is stuck between a sports park and a hard place.
The family’s 23 acres of land in southern Gilroy is surrounded on all sides by city-owned property, or land soon to be incorporated. Their property is assessed at rates typically associated with developable land. And in one year, children will start playing on ball fields under construction next door.
All signs suggest the Barberi land is a part of Gilroy proper, yet the one agency that could free the land from county zoning and allow development insists the property can still be used for agriculture.
Officials at the Local Agency Formation Commission, a county agency that authorizes the annexation of land by cities, has given the green light to Gilroy officials to incorporate the 81-acre sports park now under construction. But the agency has told the Barberis not to expect similar treatment.
“The last four or five years we’ve been trying to get annexed,” said Richard Barberi, a Hollister resident “We went through (the LAFCO process) once before to try and incorporate that land. The city brought us in as part of their application and LAFCO said ‘No. We’re going to hop over you and give the city rights, but we’re not going to incorporate you.'”
Officials at LAFCO argue that the land – although enveloped by car dealerships, hotels, homes and the city’s sports park – is still viable for small-scale farm uses.
An agency report issued in 1999 acknowledged that “nuisances such as odor, noise, dust, use of chemicals and pesticides … would make it difficult to farm lands at the urban edge,” such as the Barberi land.
“Nonetheless, a recent report by the Santa Clara County Farm Bureau … indicates that there is an emerging agriculture in the county where farmers are working in unique and innovative ways to overcome these traditional issues and adapt to the local context and economic realities of farming at the urban edge,” the report states. It goes on to list “specialty, niche agriculture” and agro-tourism as options.
That assessment differs with county assessors who, after a Barberi relative died several years ago, spiked the assessment on the land from a few thousand dollars to $28,000 a year.
“The frustration is that we continued farming the land as long as possible and eked out a living,” said Barberi, whose family discontinued farming the land two years ago. “Because of encroachment of the city we just feel times have changed – now row crops are not viable, agro-tourism is not viable. What we’re left with now is taxes that are choking us. The only thing is to sell it to developers to recoup the money and hopefully make some money on it.”
Over the years the family has floated the idea of using the site for residential homes and a grocery store or other commercial space. But city leaders, uncertain if LAFCO would allow them to annex the land, have denied the family’s efforts to obtain building permits on the land in anticipation of future development. “The council felt it was too premature,” said City Planning Manager Bill Faus.
The Barberis are now working with city officials in hopes of convincing LAFCO that the time is ripe for their inclusion in the city. Next spring, city officials will once again go before the LAFCO commissioners seeking to incorporate both the Barberi land and the sports park.
“(The Barberis) feel they have a solid case to bring in their property since the city is moving forward with the sports park,” Faus said. “They feel that is a compelling reason to bring that area into the city’s urban service area.”
It remains unclear, however, if LAFCO will agree.
Dunia Noel, a LAFCO analyst, said agency commissioners will consider a number of factors before changing their position. The considerations include the amount of vacant land already within the city’s borders, as well as the LAFCO policy of encouraging agro-tourism and other small-scale farming enterprises.
“We would update the fact that there are new uses in the area and look at the project in that light,” Noel added. “But I can’t say whether we’d come to a different conclusion.”
