A land swap in the works between City Hall and the Garlic
Festival Association could help relieve the city’s downtown parking
crunch while filling a hole in the vision for the area’s
redevelopment.
The nonprofit association now shares a Monterey Street office
with the Chamber of Commerce, but hopes to sell its barely-used
rear parking lot to the city and relocate its offices to a
city-owned lot off Lewis Street.
Gilroy – A land swap in the works between City Hall and the Garlic Festival Association could help relieve the city’s downtown parking crunch while filling a hole in the vision for the area’s redevelopment.
The nonprofit association now shares a Monterey Street office with the Chamber of Commerce, but hopes to sell its barely-used rear parking lot to the city and relocate its offices to a city-owned lot off Lewis Street.
The relocation plans, which surfaced at a Friday City Council retreat, were greeted enthusiastically by city officials who appeared eager to snatch up a prime piece of real estate to expand public parking.
“If you look at downtown, there is no other place to build a parking structure, short of destroying buildings,” City Administrator Jay Baksa said, referring to long-term plans for a downtown parking garage. While that plan is 10 years in the future, officials say the “land swap” would help the downtown add about 25 parking spaces. It would also bring the nonprofit responsible for Gilroy’s biggest annual event into more a prominent location on Monterey Street.
“It’s just another thing that’s going to revitalize that area,” said Mayor Al Pinheiro, a driving force in downtown redevelopment. “And we’re not going to lose any parking.”
The GFA plans will likely involve converting the parking lot at Lewis and Monterey streets into offices and condominiums, similar to the building under construction across the street. Plans are still in the conceptual stage, according to Jeff Martin, a local developer and former GFA volunteer president placed in charge of the relocation efforts. He said the new building would likely have three stories and include street-level offices and about 25 above-ground condominiums.
The association does not plan to go into the rental business, but will sell the condominiums to help finance the cost of the project, according to Martin.
The parking lot the city would gain as part of the deal is little more than a quarter of an acre, but it figures prominently in officials’ plans for downtown revitalization. The city already owns a lot immediately south of the GFA land. Joining the two would roughly double the current public parking, bringing the total to about 100 spaces.
The site is also ideally situated for a downtown parking garage, a structure contemplated in a recent parking study of the area.
“For us it’s a huge win,” Community Development Director Wendie Rooney said. “We get the Garlic Festival Association right in the downtown core, we get more downtown parking, and a good amount of land left over for parking in the future.”
Martin said the GFA has been looking for nine months to relocate. The plans represent one of the legacies of former GFA executive director Dick Nicholls, who died unexpectedly in June.
“Dick was looking at that lot for many years,” Martin explained, referring to the GFA’s current parking facing Eigleberry Street. “He said we should do something with it instead of just paying taxes on it – either sell it or build on it.”
Randy Costa, another GFA representative, said the city’s decision to waive development fees in the downtown area several years ago brought Nicholls’ vision within the financial means of the nonprofit group.
The waiver of development fees has led to a construction boom in the downtown area by dramatically reducing construction costs. Nearly 30 projects slated for Monterey Street are now under construction or expected to pass through the regulatory process over the next two years.
The GFA proposal would tie the downtown area together, according to Costa, by filling in the “urban disconnect” created by a vacant lot and serving as the gateway to one of the most anticipated projects in the city’s history – a 201-unit housing complex slated for the site of the old cannery. The project, put forth by nonprofit South County Housing, lies one block east on Lewis Street. It has been dubbed the northern linchpin of the area’s renaissance. Once complete, the South County project will include 40,000 square feet of space for coffee shops, book stores, and other retail uses, as well as apartments, live-work lofts, and townhouses.
“Part of this evolution was tying in this cannery project with what’s going on downtown,” Martin said. “We really want to create some symbiosis between what we’re doing on that corner and what (South County) is doing.”
To that end, the GFA plans to hire the same architect working on the cannery project.
Both city and GFA officials are sensitive to business owners’ concerns about a lack of parking. The GFA’s new office and condominiums would avoid cutting into downtown parking through the use of underground or “tucker under” spaces at street level. In addition, the city plans to add spots at one of two lots near the future South County project.
Martin acknowledged the “land swap” is not an equal exchange. The more-central location of the city’s lot off Monterey Street translated into a cost $33 per square foot, compared to the $20 figure for the GFA’s lot. The GFA would have to make up a difference of about $200,000 as part of the land deal. Rooney said the city could partition off a sliver of the Lewis Street land to reduce costs and further expand parking. Martin said the GFA had also partnered with Tanglewood Construction, a local company that has agreed to help finance the project in exchange office space.
Councilmen planned to approve a resolution in favor of the land exchange at an Aug. 1 meeting. A public hearing on the matter is scheduled for Sept. 19.
