Application to build housing on 30 acres of Bonfante Gardens
land in the Hecker Pass area has been ‘abandoned’ but could
re-surface
Gilroy – Officials at Bonfante Gardens, the area’s nonprofit horticultural park, say they have “abandoned” plans to build homes along the scenic highway outside their front gates, but have not ruled out housing if the “excess land” fails to lure commercial buyers.
The development plans are part of efforts to restore the park’s financial health following a three-year flirtation with bankruptcy.
Councilman Craig Gartman said he would “keep an open mind,” but expressed reservations about any development surrounding the park’s entrance off Hecker Pass Highway, the tree-lined gateway to western Gilroy.
“Back when we originally changed the zoning to Highway Commercial, it was brought up at council that we probably shouldn’t do that because it opens the door to all kinds of businesses that can suddenly go out there if something happens to Bonfante Gardens,” Gartman said. “That was the greatest fear – that Bonfante Gardens wouldn’t survive and someone would buy them and turn it into a hotel or shopping center. We were told that that would never happen. Now we’re seeing that start to happen.”
Park officials did not mention alternate plans for housing as details emerged in recent weeks about their efforts to sell 30.4 acres for $26.5 million.
The land is zoned for commercial use and listed with a commercial Realtor in San Jose, but park officials in July applied to rezone a portion of the site for residential use, according to an application with the city’s planning division. The application states that five acres just north of Hecker Pass “may or may not be able to support a high intensity commercial use,” and that officials would like to explore the potential of the land for “estate lots.” It also states an interest in building hillside homes overlooking Lake Katherine in the park’s southwest corner.
Bob Kraemer, president of the park’s board of directors, said he did not mention the application for residential development because officials are focusing on the commercial potential of the land.
“It’s abandoned. That’s the key word,” he said of the application. “We are not desperate for cash but we are looking at under-utilized resources like any business would.”
He called the application for residential zoning a “placeholder” intended to keep all options available.
“It was an area that we were exploring,” Kraemer said. “At this stage in the game, it is an inactive issue.”
John Kent, a Bonfante board member and developer who intended to shepherd the project through the city’s approval process, said the board would not consider home development or any other options until the six-month commercial listing expires in February or March.
The Bonfante proposal coincides with a major development push for the Hecker Pass corridor. Council members are discussing a widening of Hecker Pass, between Bonfante Gardens and Santa Teresa Boulevard, as part of plans to bring hundreds of homes to the surrounding hillside and areas behind farmland.
Mayor Al Pinheiro, who serves on Bonfante Gardens’ board of directors, said he would give the park’s latest development plans the same consideration as any other project.
Council previously approved the park’s sale of 33 acres for residential development as part of a bailout package. The deal with Shapell Industries, which used the land for a northern addition to its Eagle Ridge housing and golf community, helped reduce the park’s debt from $70 million to $13 million. Proceeds from the land now up for sale would replenish the park’s reserve fund, depleted in recent years as officials sought to keep creditors at bay.
