GILROY
– Even though a potential land deal could save Bonfante Gardens,
at least one Councilman is concerned enough about the theme park’s
future to call a special meeting for next Monday.
To avoid a commercial development explosion along pristine
Hecker Pass, Bob Dillon is asking fellow City Council members to
consider rezoning the area now, in the event Bonfante Gardens fails
in the future.
GILROY – Even though a potential land deal could save Bonfante Gardens, at least one Councilman is concerned enough about the theme park’s future to call a special meeting for next Monday.
To avoid a commercial development explosion along pristine Hecker Pass, Bob Dillon is asking fellow City Council members to consider rezoning the area now, in the event Bonfante Gardens fails in the future.
Hundreds of acres currently owned by Bonfante Gardens are zoned commercially. If creditors, to whom Bonfante Gardens owes $70 million, decide to foreclose, those lenders could develop commercially where the horticultural park is now.
“I don’t want to raise this issue, but it needs to be done,” Dillon said.
The session will be held at 6 p.m. Monday at City Hall. Bonfante Gardens board president Bob Kraemer will be present.
Dillon’s concerns stem from Bonfante Gardens inability to pay its many creditors without help from a yet-to-be-completed land deal estimated at $20 million to $40 million.
The land deal must be approved by homeowners in a luxury west side housing development, Eagle Ridge. And residents there are growing wary of accepting up to 120 new homes without a second way in and out of the development.
An anonymous group of homeowners, calling itself the Homeowners of Eagle Ridge, placed petitions in the mailboxes of all 508 Eagle Ridge homes last weekend.
The group doesn’t necessarily oppose the land deal. It opposes rushing a decision that will be made by delegates, not individual homeowners. The petition asks residents to send the group an e-mail asking for a change in the voting process.
“Moving fast to vote yes to save Bonfante Gardens is not the problem of current Eagle Ridge homeowners,” the group’s flyer said.
Eagle Ridge bylaws state that seven delegates representing particular neighborhoods (or districts) of Eagle Ridge will cast the votes. In an e-mail to The Dispatch, Homeowners of Eagle Ridge described the system as illogical and the district boundaries as unfair.
One district, for instance, could control up to 62 percent of the vote.
“We would suggest that you start quickly changing the voting bylaws, as we will be coming back to you and the (homeowners association) board once we get the majority of homeowners to voice their support here,” the group told Eagle Ridge management. “And trust us, they are voicing support for change.”
Homeowners of Eagle Ridge has responded only to e-mail inquiries. Eagle Ridge votes for its delegates March 30.
Dillon addressed the homeowners’ discontent with his fellow Council members at their regular meeting Monday night.
In a prepared statement, Dillon said, “Remarks quoted in The Dispatch by many at the Eagle Ridge homeowners meeting last week, and certainly the threatened legal action by some of the homeowners, have led me to the conclusion that the land deal with Shapell (the Eagle Ridge developer that wants to buy the land from Bonfante Gardens) almost certainly cannot be completed in time to satisfy the park’s creditors and bondholders.”
If the land deal fails, the park will be foreclosed on. Creditors will then own Bonfante Gardens, triggering a range of development possibilities for the area.
“If that happens, then we have a problem here. And that problem is 300 acres of highway-serving commercial (zoning) on Hecker Pass,” Dillon said. “For 12 years, this Council has contemplated commercial enterprise east of the freeway but not the west.”
The commercial zoning is not intended for big-box retail, according to the city’s Planning Division Manager Bill Faus. But Faus acknowledged what could and couldn’t be built there isn’t easy to nail down.
“There’s so many variables that it’s difficult to put your arms around it,” Faus said.
Dillon is not predicting a big-box development in the area, but highway commercial zoning does allow for hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts and other businesses serving visitors.
“You just don’t know what could happen, and I haven’t seen any plan coming out of the park other than victory,” Dillon said.
Dillon would like the Council and staff to discuss changes to the zoning that would protect the interests of Gilroy. However, City Attorney Linda Callon said the Council’s hands may be tied.
In 1997, the city and Michael Bonfante’s Nob Hill corporation, signed an agreement that spells out the allowable uses on the land. Page 24 of the 40-page document states that the rights in the agreement are bound to the land even in the event of “merger, consolidation, or otherwise.”
“This is a document the city entered into years ago. It needs to be dusted off, and the city attorney, the staff and the Council need to take a peak at it,” Faus said.
