The safety of school children is just one good reason of many to
deny this building proposal
City Council should be in no rush to fill the empty former Indian motorcycle factory site on Tenth Street.
Former City Councilman Tony Sudol, along with property owner Ken Gimelli, is asking that the body of which he used to be a member to expand the definition of downtown to include the shuttered factory site so that he can build more than 200 homes on the 6.2-acre site that’s been vacant since 2003.
First and foremost, we agree with pedestrian safety concerns voiced by Gilroy Unified School District Superintendent Edwin Diaz and others. The children living in the Sudol-Gimelli project would be assigned to either Eliot or Glen View elementary schools.
“They’d have to cross 10th Street at a busy time of day, and I’m very uncomfortable with that, Diaz told reporter Serdar Tumgoren. “In my mind, there would have to be some pretty strong mitigations to deal with that. The other school within one mile is Glen View, so not only would they have to cross 10th Street but they’d have to cross the railroad tracks as well.”
It’s worth noting that 10th and Monterey is the city’s most dangerous intersection. Given the spate of pedestrian deaths in the city in the last few months, there’s even more reason to put pedestrian safety at the top of our list of objections to this project.
But we have other concerns.
Like Mayor Al Pinheiro, we don’t believe the site is well-suited to a residential project. We believe the location is more appropriate for retail or industrial development.
In addition, the traditional downtown core – as currently defined in the downtown specific plan – is struggling. Now is not the time to lose focus or dilute our efforts to improve Gilroy’s city center by expanding the definition and allowing the 1,500 housing permits set aside for downtown to be spread outside that core.
Mayor Pinheiro and the Council should instead make sure that Economic Development Director Larry Cope is intently focusing on sites like the former Indian Motorcycle/Nob Hill site and the old Wal-Mart location to bring new businesses and jobs to town.
It might take some time, but a project that’s a better fit in terms of safety and appropriate use that doesn’t dilute efforts to revitalize downtown, would be just the ticket.
Let’s pass on the Sudol-Gimelli project and wait for a better proposal.
