Gilroy
– The desire to see smaller, more-affordable homes on the
hillside north of Hecker Pass led City Council Monday night to
delay final approval of the Hecker Pass Specific Plan, which will
guide all future development along the scenic gateway to
Gilroy.
Gilroy – The desire to see smaller, more-affordable homes on the hillside north of Hecker Pass led City Council Monday night to delay final approval of the Hecker Pass Specific Plan, which will guide all future development along the scenic gateway to Gilroy.
The plan, now nearly five years in the making, envisions preserving several hundred acres directly bordering the scenic passage as farmland and open space, while allowing clustered development in three areas set back from the road.
According to Mayor Al Pinheiro, the landowners who collaborated on the 100-plus page document have yet to fulfill the promise of a diverse housing mix – at least in one area.
Pinheiro’s concerns hinged on the residential “cluster” north of Hecker Pass, slated for up to 57 of the 506 homes that the city has agreed to allow in the 423-acre Hecker plan. In its current form the plan would only allow homes of 3,500 square feet or larger, whereas the two residential areas south of Hecker Pass provide for homes as small as 2,500 square feet.
“Any time you have great big globs of areas identified with one class or one type, I’m not excited about that,” Pinheiro said.
A representative from RJA Associates, the engineering consultants hired by the landowners to develop the Hecker plan, explained that steep slopes and the limited number of housing units allowed on the north side made it difficult, both physically and in terms of profit, to create smaller units.
“There’s not a lot of land left over for diversity,” the consultant said.
RJA representative Arminta Jensen argued that the current plan would allow the flexibility to create smaller units while not imposing the requirement on future developers.
But Pinheiro remained unconvinced. He said the landowners would likely sell to developers who, understandably, would seek to maximize their profits by constructing bigger homes.
“If you have the option, you’re not going to do it,” he said. “If you’re given the option of making $300,000 or $50,000, you’re going to go with $300,000.”
Councilmen Bob Dillon, Charles Morales, Russ Valiquette and Roland Velasco could have pushed through final approval of the housing types, but they demurred to the concerns of Mayor Pinheiro and councilmen Paul Correa and Craig Gartman.
“This is such a significant plan that I’m willing to defer to the minority to allow more time to understand it,” Councilman Roland Velasco said. “I don’t want to force this down the council’s throat.”
They asked the city staff to work with the landowners to devise a better mix of housing by the Jan. 18 regular meeting, when they hope to hold a final vote on the completed plan. Councilmen reserved the right develop their own housing scheme for the northern cluster if the landowners fail to come up with a satisfactory plan.
“They’ll make it work,” said Joel Goldsmith, who served as chairman of the Hecker Pass Specific Plan task force, formed in the late ’90s after the city annexed the area as part of the Bonfante Gardens acquisition. “In the overall scope of things, it’s a minor point that needs to be worked out,” he said. “We’re basically done.”
The housing issue represents the final sticking point in a review process that has lasted nearly three months.
The Planning Commission spent October scrutinizing the document and some council members, upon receiving the commission’s recommendation for approval in early November, appeared ready to sign off on the plan. They ultimately settled into weeks of lengthy discussions, however, after Councilman Craig Gartman presented a detailed list of concerns during a Nov. 6 regular meeting.
Gartman, who spent nearly 45 minutes explaining his concerns, concluded at the time that a developer “could drive a truck through the loopholes in this document.”
In the last six weeks, council members have combed through the 100-plus page report looking to ensure that housing and commercial development will not encroach upon farmland. The plan devotes three areas to farm-related uses: agricultural, agri-commercial, and agri-tourism.
Councilmen applied the most stringent standards to the areas set aside for farming, banning antique stores, barber shops and other activities they deemed unrelated to agriculture while restricting other uses to one of the two remaining farm-related areas.
The changes include prohibiting feed stores and amusement parks in agri-commercial areas, made up mainly of the Goldsmith family’s property on the south side of Route 152. Councilmen also restricted bed and breakfasts and small delicatessens to the agri-tourist area, roughly eight acres bordering the Gilroy public golf course on both sides of Route 152.
They also scaled back the number of housing units allowed in the three areas set aside for residential use, from 530 units to 472.
