GILROY
– On Aug. 4 City Council will consider a second moratorium on
new downtown businesses deemed undesirable by revitalization
activists still reeling from news that a Gilroy icon – and an
example of the sort of retail shop activists want – has been
sold.
Rumors swirled late last week that the Garlic Festival Store
would become a rehabilitation clinic serving alcoholics and drug
addicts. The speculation drew several downtown merchants to
Monday’s City Council meeting where they spoke against replacing a
retail store with a medical clinic.
GILROY – On Aug. 4 City Council will consider a second moratorium on new downtown businesses deemed undesirable by revitalization activists still reeling from news that a Gilroy icon – and an example of the sort of retail shop activists want – has been sold.
Rumors swirled late last week that the Garlic Festival Store would become a rehabilitation clinic serving alcoholics and drug addicts. The speculation drew several downtown merchants to Monday’s City Council meeting where they spoke against replacing a retail store with a medical clinic.
“I had phone calls from four renters threatening to leave (if the Garlic Festival Store becomes a medical clinic),” downtown property owner Joe Rizzuto said. “This isn’t what we want for downtown Gilroy. It’s getting harder and harder to bring back the downtown to the way it should be. What’s next, legal marijuana?”
Gardner Family Health Network’s Chief Executive Officer Reymundo Espinoza confirmed late last week his company is negotiating a deal to relocate its existing medical center on Sixth and Princevalle streets into the building currently occupied by the Garlic Festival Store, at 7526 Monterey St.
Espinoza said the facility will serve low-income patients with medical and dental needs, not drug addicts. Nonetheless, merchants told Council Monday night that bringing a health clinic to the core of downtown was not what the downtown community wants or needs.
“We’re not opposed to low-income individuals receiving medical care in Gilroy. This city needs a bit of a help for folks who don’t have regular medical insurance,” said Charles Coachman, vice president of the Gilroy Downtown Development Corporation and an antiques store owner. “But the downtown, especially the center of downtown, is not the place for it. I am one of those people that would close their business down immediately should that happen.”
Icon lost
Garlic Festival Store owner Caryl Simpson said Wednesday she is baffled by merchant reaction.
“I’m totally boondoggled over all the flap about doctors and dentists coming to downtown,” Simpson said. “I’ve probably sat through hundreds of hours of consultant meetings (for downtown revitalization), and the one thing they say will contribute to downtown vitality is a mix of housing, retail and medical establishments. To me, this a tempest in a teapot.”
Simpson said she had been considering selling the physical building and the retail business for “quite a few months.” Her hope is to sell the retail business to a local owner interested in reopening the store at another location on Monterey Street. Simpson will relocate the store’s parent company, Randan Corporation, which produces and distributes garlic food products.
The sale of the Garlic Festival Store building is in escrow and could take several weeks to finalize. Simpson said she received no offers yet on the retail business. It has been listed for two weeks.
Simpson said the retail shop has always been successful and believes interested buyers are out there. Simpson is closing the store because the manager and operator, her daughter Heather Blum, is having a baby in six weeks and wants to be a full-time mom.
“So many people have come in and said ‘Oh no, you’re closing,” Simpson said. “I think if Gardner (the health clinic) moves in it will bring a lot of potential customers to town. They have many employees, some with well-paying jobs, who will need places to eat and shopping to do downtown.”
Ban impacts
If Council passes the new moratorium, it would work alongside an existing ban on undesirable businesses from pawn shops to bars that serve alcohol without offering meals.
Council, on Monday, voted 5-1 to extend that controversial 45-day moratorium to 22 months and 15 days – the state maximum – or until a master plan for Gilroy’s historic commercial core is complete.
Councilman Craig Gartman, who said he is concerned by what he called loopholes in the moratorium, was the lone no vote.
“It looks very favorable to receive a ($200,000) grant to do the (downtown) specific plan,” Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Susan Valenta said. “That’s a lot of money. This ordinance, what it does in my mind, is provide a period of time for the community to come forward and help to plan the downtown.”
The moratoriums are part of an ongoing and obstacle-laden effort to make Gilroy’s main street more attractive to residents and tourists who frequent the town’s strip malls in lieu of the blighted downtown. The existing law prohibits: used car lots, auto repair shops, junkyards, shops that sell cars or car parts, “head” (drug paraphernalia) shops, tattoo parlors, body piercing studios, pawn shops and establishments that sell liquor but do not offer meals.
The effort is splitting the downtown business community between owners and operators of these kinds of businesses and merchants who run specialty retail shops and food establishments.
Some business owners and operators gave City Council a 30-signature petition against the existing moratorium Monday. Among other points, the petition stated that a high-profile downtown mural was made by a tattoo artist and Gilroy would be out of touch with art trends if it banned tattoo parlors from Monterey Street.
The effort is splitting the council, too.
Councilman Peter Arellano, a doctor, argued in favor of allowing health care establishments to exist. He noted that a number of vital downtowns, such as Santa Cruz, have health care clinics.
“We’re trying to revitalize downtown and put (housing) above commercial property, but we’re going to tell those future residents they have to go somewhere else to see a doctor?” Arellano said.
At the Aug. 4 session, City Council will also consider exempting a downtown dance club, El Mariachi Local, from the ban. The moratorium hit downtown when El Mariachi Local owner Pau Nguyen was in the midst of re-applying for a liquor license and selling the business which is not currently in operation.
Under the moratorium, the new business could only have a liquor license if it served food – a service that would require, Nguyen says, a significant investment interested buyers do not want to make. Nguyen, who is still paying his monthly rent to the property owner, is worried he will no longer be able to sell El Mariachi Local.
“When we passed this moratorium we tried to be very sensitive to existing businesses,” Councilman Al Pinheiro said. “To me, this business is still in existence even though it may not be in operation. The owner did not stop paying rent, he did not turn in his keys. He’s trying to sell his business.”
City law allows a business that has ceased operation to continue its historical use if it reopens in less than one year. Council must decide Aug. 4 if a one-year exemption clause can be applied to Nguyen.
For Arellano, applying the exemption to El Mariachi Local is not the way to go. Arellano believes the El Mariachi Local situation constitutes a new business. He noted there will be a new owner and liquor license for El Mariachi Local, and both should be handled as new, not as existing.
“Why do we have this moratorium?” Arellano asked rhetorically. “There are types of businesses we’re trying to keep out of downtown. You either want this moratorium or you don’t.”
