To the Editor, I live off Hecker Pass and while my first choice is to not have any development—residential, commercial or industrial—encroaching this pristine area viewed by travelers approaching our city from the west, I also know the importance of having great revenue-generating projects.
Great Wolf Lodge would have been one of these few opportunities a city is offered. This positive enhancement to our city would have created 600 jobs, while generating a continuous revenue flow of visitors spending on food, entertainment and retail. Consider additional hotels and businesses that would follow after seeing the draw for this park, resulting in the need for more employment.
We won’t often see many family-friendly, upscale projects with this many positive outcomes. I hope Heartland Estate residents, fighting every development in this westernmost part of Gilroy, will realize the importance of sales tax, transit-occupancy tax and benefits to locals. Would you prefer an increase in taxes to cover additional services needed for our city? Perhaps you’d like to have parking meters all over town? Don’t think property taxes help out much because the state takes it, distributes it, then returns very little to the city. I much prefer having others’ money flow into city coffers and surrender my “not in my backyard” perspective.
We have to make Gilroy a destination and that includes providing the amenities that will attract visitors to Gilroy. After attending the Economic Development Study on Aug. 13, I encourage our mayor and City Council to have a “Can Do” attitude and “Be Ready” for revenue-generating projects, while considering community impacts, when approached by developers.
Susan Mister
