By next summer, Gilroyans will be able to stroll from the parking lot of the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce to Monterey Street through the City’s newest lighted and landscaped paseo, which is scheduled for construction this spring following City Council approval.
Located at 7453 Monterey St., the paseo is just one of three projects designed to revamp the downtown and surrounding areas that were given the go-ahead on Dec. 2, including repairing some damaged sidewalks in front of the Milias Restaurant and improvements to the Sixth Street corridor.
The paseo alone – a linear, rectangular mini-park and walkway that will serve as an aesthetic shortcut from Monterey Street to the parking lots between Eigleberry Street and Gourmet Alley – has proved an expensive project. And it’s just the first of two that are planned for the downtown area.
The City has already spent more than $1 million in design drawings, managerial oversight and purchasing a vacant building last occupied by the Sisters Love Creations embroidery store in 2006 at the site of the future paseo. The unreinforced masonry building – deemed structurally unfit to survive a high magnitude earthquake – was acquired by the City in June 2012 at a cost of $183,000 and was subsequently demolished for roughly $428,000 to make room for the pedestrian walkway.
“I think what’s key here is to get that thing open to show people that we have it,” said Mayor Don Gage, noting that there will be more than 100 new parking spaces made available for the downtown area once the paseo is open, likely in the summer of 2014. “That helps the downtown and we’ve got to move forward. We’ve invested a lot of money in this – unexpected money – and we really do need to finish the project.”
Finishing the paseo by summer 2014 means the City will have finally realized an element in the Nov. 21, 2005 Downtown Gilroy Specific Plan that identifies paseos and plazas as “key components of the downtown pedestrian fabric.”
Community Development Director Lee Butler broke down the initial construction phase, which will include surveying and site preparation, grading and drainage, paving of concrete for the pedestrian pathway and installation of decorative lighting. The estimated price tag for that punch list is $174,000.
The construction drawings should be finished in January, Butler said. After the drawings are complete, the City will put the project to bid, select a contractor and hopefully begin construction by early spring.
“Depending on weather delays, the construction itself could take three months,” he added.
Butler also presented a list of future enhancements to the paseo. If the City chooses foot the bill for those as well, the total cost of the paseo would be $567,000 – which includes the initial phase of construction.
Landscaping and site furnishings – from trashcans to benches – will cost roughly $45,000, according to Butler, while a 10-unit bicycle rack will cost $8,000. Two security cameras could cost an additional $43,000 and interpretive panels depicting the history of Gilroy are estimated at $54,000, among other anticipated amenities.
Reacting to the price tag, Councilwoman Cat Tucker was shocked.
“It seems like for such a small piece of land, it’s costing a lot of money,” she observed.
The Paseo Design Group, comprised of former mayor and current committee chair Al Pinheiro; Gilroy Chamber of Commerce CEO Mark Turner; and various members of City commissions and local associations; is tasked with fundraising for some of those amenities, including the artistic interpretive panels emphasizing the heritage of the Garlic Capital.
But as Pinheiro expressed to City Council, the group will not be writing a blank check for everything the City doesn’t want to pay for.
“We don’t expect to be putting in those kinds of funds to the project,” he stressed. “We’re going to fundraise to make the amenities look nice.”
Touching on the hoped-for wider impact of the project, Pinheiro said the paseos were envisioned as walkways to downtown Gilroy that are safe, accessible, and will help create more business for downtown enterprise.
“It will be another downtown destination (and) a place where people can walk and even bring kids, showing them what the history of Gilroy is,” Pinheiro said. “We’re all citizens and we want a nice place to visit.”
Downtown sidewalk replacement and Sixth Street improvements
As part of an improvement package, City Council voted unanimously Dec. 2 to replace a section of damaged sidewalk in front of the Milias Restaurant and Hotel.
The improvements, as well as the installation of decorative lighting along the Sixth Street pedestrian and bicyclist overcrossing; repairs to a damaged traffic signal cable along the crossing; and curb work at the intersection of Sixth and Eigleberry streets; will cost the City approximately $380,000, according to City documents.
“In front of the Milias, we have a hodgepodge of different colored sidewalks,” said City Transportation Engineer Henry Servin. “We would be conscious of the fact it is a working hotel and a restaurant and we’re working with the property owner to minimize impacts.”
Adam Sanchez, who is a co-owner of the Milias Restaurant and Hotel with business partner Ann Zyburra, says he wasn’t even told the City was going to replace the sidewalks in front of his business.
“It surprised me because I had no idea they were going to do that,” Sanchez said Wednesday. “(City engineers) came out here and they were looking at it. They said they were thinking of redoing it.”
He remembers stressing to the team of engineers that he didn’t even want the sidewalks to be replaced to begin with.
“No one is not going to eat at this restaurant because the sidewalk is ugly. Every time (the City replaces) it, it takes months to tear it up, rather than days,” Sanchez said.
He hopes construction can take place on days when his business is closed, or after-hours.
City staff had originally proposed removing glass panels that adorn the sidewalk just outside the Sixth Street entrance to the Milias – panels that were installed in 1922 to provide much-needed lighting for the basement, Sanchez said.
Servin assured that the glass panels will be left in place due to their historic significance, but the rest of the sidewalk will be replaced with colored concrete to match the rest of the downtown corridor.
“When everyone says everyone is struggling for money, why spend the money right now?” Sanchez posited. “Would it make a difference and would you come here more often if the sidewalks were pretty? The building is 90 years old and I don’t mind if it looks a bit rough.”
Pointing at the decades-old problem of the unreinforced masonry buildings downtown, Sanchez thinks the City should take a wider look at what can be done to improve the area.
“The sidewalks can look beautiful, but if the buildings are empty no one is going to come downtown,” he said.
City staffers are currently preparing drawings and a consultant is scheduled to inspect all sections involved in the improvement package prior to and during construction. The sidewalk replacement and the Sixth Street improvements will take roughly two months to complete, Servin added, once the drawings have been finished and City Council has approved a favorable bid for the project.
