GILROY
– The start of what could be a historic step toward boosting
Gilroy’s downtown is just a week away.
GILROY – The start of what could be a historic step toward boosting Gilroy’s downtown is just a week away.
Next Wednesday is the first meeting of the Downtown Specific Plan Task Force, a group of people who may have the opportunity to leave a lasting stamp on a downtown area that many observers feel is loaded with both potential and challenges.
The name of the group may sound drawn-out and bureaucratic, but many members expect an opposite effect when they get to work tackling the city’s rules and regulations for the downtown: they hope their efforts will provide incentives – and not obstacles – for future revitalization efforts.
And after witnessing various ideas and efforts come and go over the years with mixed results, hopes for action and serious progress are high.
“Every town that’s growing at some point in time has to realize that to have a healthy city, they have to have somewhat of a vibrant downtown,” said task force member Richard Young, who owns a design and sign shop on Eigleberry Street. “In the last 20 years we’ve done many things – improve the parks, police and fire departments – and it’s really the time to do something to improve the downtown.”
This may be their chance. While the group is advisory in nature, the land-use document they will help create will eventually have the weight of law.
Unlike other plans from the past that were more advisory in nature, the Downtown Specific Plan will include rules and regulations governing everything from parking standards to design guidelines, and is meant to help formalize more generalized policies and guidelines set during the recent update of the city’s overall land-use blueprint, the General Plan.
The new rules will at least set the tone on future downtown development, if they don’t actively encourage revitalization itself.
The specific plan will confirm boundaries of the downtown area and address features such as development standards, parking requirements, design guidelines and financial incentives, with a new emphasis on mixed-use development that combines residential and business uses, such as professional offices or stores. Many of the downtown-area property owners, developers and business owners tapped by City Council for the task force have firsthand experience working within the existing rules.
Members include Jim Habing, Richard Young, Pamela Martin, Jim Gailey, David Sheedy, Gary Walton, James Suner and Bill Lindsteadt. Susan Valenta and Dennis Gaxiola will also represent the city’s chambers of commerce.
Several are developers or builders who have tackled projects in the area. For example, Gary Walton is wrapping up a new two-story building at Fifth and Eigleberry that several city leaders have called a model for the new mixed-use concept. Gailey has also pursued “infill” residential development at several locations.
Many group members feel downtown has a “perception problem” and see a need to create a warmer, more inviting place to draw both citizens and developers willing to invest in the area.
“There are a lot of vacant buildings, run-down buildings,” Martin said. “It needs to be cleaner, with more landscaping and something to create a more beautiful place.
“We need to change the environment so it feels more attractive.”
And they cited many specific challenges – and potential solutions – within that greater problem.
Gailey would like the group to develop a plan that will create incentives to fill long-vacant lots along Eigleberry Street.
“An empty lot does no one any service,” he said. “It’s one thing to have an empty lot, and it’s another to have it vacant for 50 years while the city is continually annexing land and growing outwards.”
Young said downtown backers will need to focus on finding a unique, specific niche for downtown. It’s hard to compare the more active downtown of past decades – before strip malls, shopping centers and “big box” stores – with today because times are different, he said.
“We have to create a downtown where people want to walk around and there are options that they can’t find in the centers or big boxes,” he said. “You have to change with the times.”
The city will have to work with what it has, he said. While good ideas are to be found in other cities’ successful downtowns, making direct comparisons is often a matter of “apples and oranges,” he said.
“We can’t be a Los Gatos, Mountain View or Pleasanton,” he said. “We have to look at the resources we have here …”
Siting the city’s planned cultural arts center in the downtown will go a long way toward creating that niche, he said. A separate task force has targeted lots along Monterey and Eigleberry near Seventh Street as its number-one area. Young – also a member of that group – said the site will help clean up that area and provide a strong draw for citizens.
Meanwhile, there are already other features to draw people to build on, Suner said.
“The reality is there are restaurants, a bowling alley, pool hall and entertainment,” he said. “It’s happening right now, but we just need to make it grow a little.”
Financial incentives are also a major theme among task force members.
Suner said he’d like to see the city’s impact fee system restructured so that money collected on downtown projects stays there, instead of being diverted to parks or schools outside the area.
He would also like to see the city pursue a less-expensive streetscape improvement project that would start from the north end of downtown – say, around Fourth Street – and work south to meet the work that’s already been done or underway. He sees that northern area as the downtown’s true “gateway” where the majority of traffic originates, but notes the presence of two empty bank buildings, a vacant corner lot and the old cannery building there.
An emphasis on improvements that are less dramatic on the economic scale could also help, he said.
“We keep focusing on big-ticket items like the $5 million streetscape plan, but what we really need is facade improvements for $100,000,” he said. “If you look at the downtown, it’s small parcels, small buildings, small businesses and we really only need small amounts of money” to produce positive changes.
The city has already done some work to streamline processes, Gailey said, noting he got “nothing but support” from the City Council when he tackled two projects on Fifth Street.
“That’s the kind of partnership that has to continue,” he said.
“I really, really want to see something positive come out of this,” he added later.
Young also hopes to see results.
“I hope this isn’t another task force where it’s called a task force and then nothing happens,” he said. “I’d be really disappointed.
“I’d like to see action and search out options how we can do it financially.”
Al Pinheiro and Roland Velasco will represent the City Council, while Cat Tucker and Russ Valiquette will represent the city’s Planning Commission.
