Officials look to the future
HOLLISTER
Representatives from Hollister’s redevelopment and planning departments traveled to Gilroy on Thursday to tour a new residential development in the city’s cannery district.
With the Hollister Downtown Association preparing a new downtown vision plan and the city’s building moratorium set to lift in 2008, there could be similar projects in Hollister’s future. Planning Manager Mary Paxton said she’d wanted to see “the transformation of what was once a cannery” into a shiny new residential neighborhood.
“I think it’s pretty akin to what’s in Hollister,” Paxton said.
The San Benito Foods cannery is still is business, she acknowledged, but there are other downtown sites that could be redeveloped into major residential projects.
In Gilroy, the cannery closed in 1997, and was purchased by affordable housing developer South County Housing in 2005. Parts of the Cannery District project are now up for sale, and some families are moving in.
All told, Senior Project Manager Nancy Moore Wright said the development will include 210 units, including detached single-family homes, townhomes and condominiums available at market-rate and below-market-rate prices.
“The bottom line is … you’ve gotta believe it’s gonna happen,” Mayor Al Pinheiro said.
Larry Cope, executive director of the Gilroy Economic Development Corp., told Hollister officials Thursday that residential growth is key to a booming downtown.
