The cake was out on Monday as the City Council said farewell and thanks to interim city administrator Ed Tewes, who attended his last council meeting on the dias before turning the keys to City Hall over to new administrator Gabriel Gonzalez.
At the start of the meeting, Tewes, who joined the city in October when Tom Haglund left the post after seven years, was presented with an award by Mayor Perry Woodward in honor of his service.
“Ed saw a lot of action,” Woodward said as he introduced Tewes to the room one last time, highlighting the surprise resignation of former Mayor Don Gage in December and the ensuing council shakeup.
“It was good to have his steady hand on the [tiller] while we went through all that—so thank you Ed,” the mayor concluded before presenting Tewes with the framed recognition.
“It was my great pleasure to serve this organization, to serve this council and to serve this community,” said Tewes. “Like Liam Neeson in the movie, ‘I had a particular set of skills’ that were getting rusty and you presented a series of challenges to those skills that I hope have served your community well during this interim period.”
Items continued
The council heard a number of items that were ultimately pushed forward to the next council meeting on April 4.
One dealt with a proposed affordable senior housing complex on Monterey Street that was denied by the Planning Commission on February 18.
The applicant for the Gateway Apartments, a 75-unit, four-story complex proposed for a 1.86-acre site on vacant land on the east side of the busy thoroughfare, appealed the Planning Commission’s decision to the council.
In a letter to the council, Barbara Macri-Ortiz, the Oxnard-based attorney representing the applicant, AMG & Associates, wrote that she believes the record of the Planning Commission hearing “will reflect that the basis and findings for the Commissioners’ action were not made clear and were not consistent with California housing law.”
Later, she wrote: “I am writing this letter to assist the Council in its review of my client’s appeal, specifically with respect to the laws related to the approval of affordable housing projects under State Density Bonus Law and the Housing Accountability Act.”
According to State Density Bonus law, she argued, the project, which will be “100 percent” affordable to lower income households, entitles the project to receive the maximum density bonus of 35 percent, bumping the number of units to 75, pursuant to state law and city ordinance.
The affordability of the project would also entitle it to a certain number of exemptions, including increased height of the project from three to four stories and reduced perimeter landscaping setbacks.
During council discussions, the safety of seniors who would be living at the complex, right next to a fast-moving traffic corridor was brought up multiple times, with Councilmember Roland Velasco saying he believed the site was the “wrong place for a senior project.”
Councilmember Daniel Harney, who during his interview to the council in January voiced his concern over senior issues and housing, worried that seniors living at the complex would have to navigate a potentially treacherous path along the quarter-mile to the nearest bus stop.
“We are putting seniors at a distance from public transit then requiring them to walk there,” he said.
In the end, the council voted 6-0 to continue discussion of the applicant’s appeal on April 4.
The other item to be discussed at the next meeting is a proposed housing development at Santa Teresa Boulevard and First Street.
Monday’s agenda presented the council with a series of actions to be voted on, which would have cleared the way for the development of 202 townhouse units on nearly 11 acres at the start of the commercial district on First Street.
According to the staff report, the townhouse units would be contained in 40 buildings, all of which would be three stories tall. Access to the units would be provided by numerous private streets and driveways constructed throughout the project. A clubhouse, pool and “tot lot” are some of the amenities listed for residents.
The project was reviewed by the Planning Commission on several occasions, the report continues, and issues of concern that were brought up by the commission had been “satisfactorily addressed” through subsequent modifications to the plan.
A supplemental traffic impact analysis was also conducted in October after the planning commission raised concerns over the initial traffic analysis conducted as part of the project’s environmental assessment.
During council discussions, concern over traffic impacts and project scale was voiced, with Velasco stating his conflict over wanting to support a project in that area but feeling ultimately that “this particular project misses the mark.”
After a 3-2 vote on the zoning change (with Velasco and Harney voting no), and with less than four votes in the affirmative needed to pass an ordinance, the council moved to continue the item at the April 4 meeting, when Councilmember Peter Leroe-Muñoz, who was absent from Monday’s session, could make it a full council. Councilmember Terri Aulman recused herself from the vote because she owns property in the area.
Done deal
Council actions on Monday cleared the way for the construction of 70 single-family residential homes on the former Las Animas school site at 8450 Wren Ave.
Kerri Watt, representing CalAtlantic Homes, which partnered with the Gilroy Unified School District in the development application to the city, told the council that the site plan before them was determined through a collaborative process, involving meetings with neighbors and amendments to the project based on their ongoing discussions with stakeholders.
Watt said they received comments from council members and neighbors, and held numerous meetings with city staff before submitting an application to the city.
“We really did our homework,” she said.
One of the neighbors, Steve Ashford, voiced his support for the project.
“These people have stepped up and answered all our questions. This is a good project. We knew this was going to happen sooner or later; now we want to get the weeds out and the new houses in.”
The former Las Animas school was deemed a surplus school site and closed in 2002. It was demolished in 2007.
