Politics

GILROY—While the Gilroy portion of the California High-Speed Rail System will be one of the last built in the $68 billion system, city officials and a consulting firm are steaming ahead with environmental planning for a station downtown Gilroy or on prime agricultural land in east Gilroy.

GILROY—The second-annual South County Legislative Summit was a who’s-who of elected officials that included U.S. Congress representatives and South County mayors pro tem.

GILROY—The Gilroy City Council Monday reversed its own planning commission and rejected a long-planned housing project.

GILROY—More than 4,400 rural residents in Santa Clara County, nearly half in South County, will open mailboxes in May to find bills for a controversial fire protection fee levied by Cal Fire, the state’s fire fighting arm.

GILROY—The hundreds of homeless residents who sheltered in Gilroy’s National Guard Armory are out in the cold, as the building was closed for the season this week.

GILROY—Downtown Gilroy’s more than decade-long struggle to fill empty storefronts may have reached an all-time low—nearly one in three stores are vacant, according to a city survey.

GILROY—A united Gilroy City Council voted unanimously Monday to uphold a planning commission denial of a 23-unit, two-story housing project proposed on land next to Gilroy High School.

GILROY—The Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority this week purchased 183 acres of farmland south of Gilroy to help permanently protect land where Llagas Creek flows into the Pajaro River. The public agency now owns or controls more than 16,000 acres, according to spokesperson Patty Eaton.

GILROY—After banning them everywhere but downtown, the city has moved to reverse that stand and allow A-frame signs in all business districts.

GILROY—A three-story rental housing complex could come to the 600 block of Broadway Street, following the Gilroy Planning Commission’s unanimous vote to support the Broadway Townhouse development.