GILROY
– A group of downtown business leaders are so gung ho to
revitalize Monterey Street they’ll paint storefronts along the road
at their own expense.
GILROY – A group of downtown business leaders are so gung ho to revitalize Monterey Street they’ll paint storefronts along the road at their own expense.
By March, Monterey between Sixth and Seventh streets – which the city has already upgraded with new sidewalks, trees and street lamps – will have freshly painted facades. The group will also fund power washing of the streets and will remove trash and pull weeds around the area as part of a “spring cleanup” event.
The face-lift is the latest effort in a downtown revitalization movement fully supported by Gilroy’s mayor and other Councilmen. In December, Council approved a Monterey Street stimulus package that could save a 5,000-square-foot business as much as $60,000 if it expands or renovates.
“What Council has done to improve downtown is significant, but it’s behind-the-scenes policy stuff. When people drive downtown they don’t see that,” said James Suner, president of the Gilroy Downtown Development Corporation. “What we’re trying to do is get more concerned with the visual impact. My wife calls it an ‘extreme make over.’ ”
Suner said the group would use its own money and donations of money, materials and labor to paint drab Monterey Street storefronts which subtract from aesthetic improvements other businesses have made in recent months.
‘We want to target abandoned buildings,” Suner said. “They look terrible, but if you put a fresh coat of paint on them, it will improve.”
At Council’s Jan. 16 and 17 retreat, Suner and his organization asked the city to intensify its downtown improvement efforts.
The Gilroy Downtown Development Corporation wants the stimulus package – which waives development impact fees and loosens parking requirements for businesses fronting Monterey Street – to be expanded. The group says stores on streets like Eigleberry Street should get the same incentives since the downtown business district has expanded to include the formerly residential area.
Council was receptive to the idea.
“I’ve been using a lot of businesses on Eigleberry Street more and more,” Councilman Craig Gartman said.
City Administrator Jay Baksa warned that expanding the stimulus package past Monterey Street may have a steeper financial impact to the city. City Council passed the existing stimulus package partly because development impact fees for downtown businesses generated only $70,000 over a two-and-a-half-year period.
Baksa said city staff would estimate the revenue impact to Gilroy and present that to Council before it votes on the matter.
The downtown development group also wants the city to repave Monterey Street, which potholes, cracks and other normal wear and tear have warbled into an eyesore, rather than a gateway to Gilroy.
Staff is putting together cost estimates on various levels of resurfacing the street, including short-term aesthetic solutions such as re-striping and paving with a thin layer of asphalt.
Suner said the repaved street, coupled with the painted storefronts and new streetscape, would show Gilroyans what they can expect downtown to look like.
“If we could just get a few streets funded by Council, they can serve as model blocks,” Suner said.
