GILROY
– Keeping the revitalization of Gilroy’s downtown on the action
list, the City Council is moving ahead on several financial
incentive possibilities.
GILROY – Keeping the revitalization of Gilroy’s downtown on the action list, the City Council is moving ahead on several financial incentive possibilities.
At its recent retreat, Council expressed continued interest in offering financial incentives – such as waived fees – for downtown revitalization projects, and asked city staff to research and develop some options on what kinds of work could qualify for the new benefits.
“We want it to be incentive enough that it allows people to do the kind of things (Council) is talking about, such as improving facades …” said City Manager Jay Baksa. “Those are the big-ticket items and the ones Council is interested in trying to incentivize – as opposed to somebody just changing out a toilet.”Meanwhile, during the retreat Council also directed Baksa to begin research on potential alterations to the city’s parking requirements in the downtown area, especially how they relate to residential or mixed-use development.
The actions were follow-up moves from a special downtown study session held late last year, where Council asked city staff to research what the impact would be to waive city fees for downtown renovations. Several downtown advocates have discussed such incentives for years and requested them as a way to help spur activity in the area, often cited as historic but neglected.
According to an analysis by city staff, the city collected roughly $68,000 in development and building permit fees over the past two and 1/2 years in the commercial area running along Monterey Street from First to Tenth streets between the railroad tracks and Gourmet Alley.
Most of those fees are so-called “hard fees” for specific city services such as building and fire inspections, officials said, rather than the impact fees that are meant to cover the costs of increased traffic or other impacts from development.
“As can be seen, the dollar value of the impact fees and permit costs are minimal and as such would not result in a major loss of revenue,” wrote John Greenhut, the city’s deputy community development director. The issue that officials will now take a look at is what amount of work produces enough of a return in value for the city that it should trigger the fee breaks.
“We want to give it for something that generates increased economic viability,” Baksa said. Council also asked Baksa to begin researching what city staff have noted is a much larger issue in the downtown revitalization scheme: parking requirements.
While the city has discussed bringing more mixed-use residential and commercial buildings in downtown, the addition of residential units there can currently trigger on-site parking requirements – requirements which can be a major obstacle on the narrow lots where buildings often stretch from lot line to lot line.
“Right now, we’ll be talking primarily about the residential issue,” Baksa said.
Incentives aside, parking is one of the “bigger issues” for those interested in remodeling or redeveloping downtown structures, officials noted in the analysis. The city has less control over others, such as Americans With Disabilities Act requirements or building code requirements around dowtown’s multitude of unreinforced masonry buildings, officials warned.
For example, changes in the use or intensity of a building often trigger the design architect or engineer to require the building to be retrofitted or comply with seismic requirements laid out in current building codes.
“They’re going to be hard to get around,” Baksa said of the ADA and masonry requirements. “They’re federal and state laws – that’s been the problem.”
In discussion at the retreat, Councilman Al Pinheiro suggested there may be some wiggle-room or creativity on the ADA requirements, such as whether wheelchair ramps are placed in the front or back of buildings.
“Interpretation has a lot to do with it,” he said.
