Gilroy
– The rural and scenic gateway into the city via Hecker Pass
Highway, now flowers and farmland, could become home to
agriculture-based tourist attractions, retail and 530 homes in
coming years. But it still will be the
”
jewel
”
of Gilroy, landowners and some planning commissioners say.
Others aren’t so certain.
Gilroy – The rural and scenic gateway into the city via Hecker Pass Highway, now flowers and farmland, could become home to agriculture-based tourist attractions, retail and 530 homes in coming years. But it still will be the “jewel” of Gilroy, landowners and some planning commissioners say.
Others aren’t so certain.
The Hecker Pass Specific Plan proposal – which sets guidelines for building neighborhoods, parks and recreational facilities, agricultural tourism, agricultural commercial, and maintaining open space in that area – is being met with opposition by open space advocates and other planning commissioners.
Gilroy’s Planning Commission is expected to vote on the specific plan Thursday, and City Council will put it to a final vote on Monday, Oct. 18.
“I feel very comfortable that for many years, that property out there is still going to be a beautiful part of Gilroy,” Planning Commissioner Tim Day said.
By clustering homes, maintaining open space, and emphasizing agriculture, he said, the specific plan isn’t meant to represent a dramatic change for the area.
“I’m sure there are people that would just as soon nothing happen out there,” said Joel Goldsmith, a landowner and chair of the advisory committee that put the plan together. “There’s probably another group of people that see this as prime area for building houses. …
“Neither side will be happy with what we’re doing completely, but given the parameters that we had to work with, and under, I think the plan came out really, really well.”
Unique in the way it brought roughly a dozen landowners and planners together to create the project as one, the Hecker Pass plan will help City Council and the planning commission protect the scenic Hecker Pass area, said landowner and advisory committee member Jim Hoey. Above all, the committee wanted to preserve the Uvas Creek corridor and the rural feel of 423 acres around Hecker Pass, he said.
“All this specific plan does is, it creates a more clear vision and some very detailed direction and guidance,” Hoey said, “but at the same time, allows for some flexibility out there.”
Direction given in the plan is wide-ranging: How the area will be divided into certain land uses; the number of houses that could be built and how close together; what types of roads might be needed and where; expansion of the Uvas Creek Park Preserve; and designing the community.
What has drawn the most skepticism is what some see as a dramatic change in the number of homes that can be built there. The specific plan allows for 530 homes, up from the original General Plan number of 124.
The 124 was based on 2.5-acre lots, Goldsmith said, and the committee wanted to see more open space.
“We started with a vision, as opposed to starting with the number, and we let the number happen,” he said.
More density of homes was needed to make the project profitable, Hoey said. The three clusters of homes will be placed back from the highway, with two adjacent to Uvas on the south and one on the north side.
“We’re trying to stay away from sprawl,” Hoey said. “We just have to make financial sense of it.”
Planning Commissioner Cat Tucker said the density of housing is a problem for her, and has been from the beginning, but council already gave out 427 housing permits there.
“Raising it to 530, I do not agree with,” she said.
As a commissioner, Tucker said she agrees with the property owner’s right to develop homes, and clustering them is the right way to go.
“But (from) a citizen’s perspective, I don’t, because it’s beautiful land,” she said.
Closer to the highway are zones of agriculture – Goldsmith Seeds – agricultural tourism, open space, and agricultural commercial.
Some landowners – including Hoey – already have tentative long-term plans for their property. Goldsmith said he wanted the plan to allow his agricultural business, which is also a tourist draw, to expand and not be encroached upon by housing.
“I want to continue doing our business as we have been,” Goldsmith said.
Hoey has looked into his land being used for an orchard with some retail space, as well.
“We do hope to see that as being part of it, because I think that adds to the whole ambiance out here,” Hoey said. “To have agricultural commercial, it adds to the whole ‘town village’ feel out there.”
The commercial areas allow for smaller-scale businesses, such as “mom and pop” groceries, cafes, and delis.
A provision that allows for 30 percent of those areas to be built out doesn’t sit well with Tucker.
“The uses need to be clearly spelled out, and I think that needs to be dropped to 10 percent.
Tucker also takes issue with the plan’s request to have the city help finance infrastructure in the area, “which has never happened in the City of Gilroy, so I don’t think it should start happening now.”
That provision was added as an incentive, Hoey said, to small businesses that will likely struggle to be as successful as larger companies that pay the same amount of fees per acreage.
Tucker already passed her concerns on to the city, and hopes to have them resolved during Thursday’s planning commission meeting.
“If the other commissioners vote for everything as it’s written, I will be the only ‘No’ vote, but I hope that we can work it out,” Tucker said.
Tom Boe, chair of the planning commission, wants some of the language in the plan clarified at Thursday’s meeting.
“In general, I would prefer more specificity,” he said.
Boe said he worries what could happen in future years if some of the language used in the specific plan is not made more concrete, something that jibed with Tucker and echoed concerns raised by Save Open Space – Gilroy.
“A specific plan needs to be specific, it doesn’t need to be general, and all the language in this plan is general,” Tucker said. “I definitely think some development in the area could be an asset, definitely the ag-tourism situation. It’s very much a quality-of-life issue.”
Property owners in the future could attempt to subvert the plan and build extensively, Hoey admitted, but the specific plan will still be around for future councils to use as guidance.
“You can say that this is as strong (a plan) as you can get, it’s stronger than anything else in Gilroy,” he said.
What makes a highway ‘scenic’
• Quality of the landscape
• How much of the landscape can be seen by travelers
• How much development intrudes on the view
How Hecker Pass Highway could become “scenic”
The city could propose adding Hecker Pass to the state’s designated scenic routes, but state legislation is required. A proposal would first be made to Caltrans, to see if the highway qualifies.
Widening Hecker Pass in the future
Official scenic highway status doesn’t mean it cannot be improved, or widened. Caltrans attempts to protect scenic routes as much as possible.
Source: California Department of Transportation
