GILROY
– If Gilroy Unified School District wants to make its Las Animas
School property more valuable, the city says the land should be
developed for affordable housing, senior living or some other
category that meets the city’s housing needs.
GILROY – If Gilroy Unified School District wants to make its Las Animas School property more valuable, the city says the land should be developed for affordable housing, senior living or some other category that meets the city’s housing needs.
That was the advice city officials gave GUSD trustees and staff Monday night at a joint meeting between the two Gilroy agencies. For months, GUSD has been hinting at special consideration to receive a portion of the ever-shrinking housing permits available over the next 10 years.
The city’s reaction last night could mean the school district will have to play more of a developer’s role in the future of the Las Animas site. GUSD’s intention is to sell the Las Animas site at a value roughly equal to the site it wants to purchase inside the Glen Loma Ranch development. That new site would become the new Las Animas school, opening in fall 2006.
“Obviously, it’s going to be worth more if it has housing allocations on it,” school board President Jim Rogers told city officials Monday. “What we’re asking is what’s the best way to approach the city and ask for (housing) allotments.”
The city has less than 200 housing permits available for its next cycle that runs through 2013. Each cycle, city staff ranks housing projects according to a strict set of criteria. The projects that rank highest on the list get housing allocations first.
City Administrator Jay Baksa told school district officials Monday they could get around the allocation cycle by providing Gilroyans with the type of housing they need.
“You’d want to work with us pretty carefully when talking with a developer (for the Las Animas parcel),” Baksa said.
Baksa told district officials that if the parcel was developed for affordable housing or senior living, permits could be approved “pretty much immediately.”
GUSD will also begin considering options for another of its vacant properties – the old San Ysidro school site. Mayor Tom Springer suggested Monday that GUSD contact county officials to see if swapping land between them and the city of Gilroy is possible.
Springer pointed out that the county’s Ochoa migrant farm worker camp will be in the middle of an industrial area when Gilroy is built out.
Springer’s idea is to bring in a third party developer with land available in a more centrally located part of town. The school district or the city could use the centrally located property for a future school or affordable housing. The city would acquire the county’s industrial land at the Ochoa camp. And, the county would move the Ochoa camp to the agricultural area where San Ysidro is now.
