Gavilan College’s plans for student and senior housing on the
excess campus acreage now home to a nine-hole golf course is driven
by a vision for lifelong learning and an opportunity to start new
programs
– like engineering – thus attracting a new student component.
Then, of course, there’s the money.
Gavilan College’s plans for student and senior housing on the excess campus acreage now home to a nine-hole golf course is driven by a vision for lifelong learning and an opportunity to start new programs – like engineering – thus attracting a new student component. Then, of course, there’s the money.
Which is the primary motivator is difficult to unearth. The college’s Board of Trustees and administration certainly cannot be blamed for seeking a higher and better use for the 36 acres which, in a good year, brings in only $30,000.
But the city is right in its response: Gavilan is acting as a developer. Yet Gavilan also has a point: This is educational development for the betterment of the community.
Like all development, the project would have to pencil out. The traditional dorms, for 18- to 24-year-olds would hold 320 beds. The senior housing, on 25 of the 36 acres, would be for the over-55 set and house 125 “students.” The “students” are in quotes because the requirement would be for those seniors to take one class per year at the college. It’s a threshold designed to barely squeak by on the test when it comes to defining a “student.”
Gavilan, frustrated by the city’s categorization of the college as developer or, viewed another way, upset that it isn’t receiving special treatment, has withdrawn its application for annexation review.
That’s a wise move.
For the city to move forward and possibly give Gavilan special consideration, the plan has to be very much nailed down. Now, it’s in a stage best described as conceptual.
The footing isn’t firm enough for the city to consider such a big step. Some impact fees will have to be paid. Gavilan’s willing to pay property taxes, but, as all developers know, that doesn’t cover costs. There are traffic impact fees and public safety fees and sewer impact fees that have to be collected.
If Gavilan nails down a comprehensive plan and negotiates each impact fee with the city staff, a return to Council could make sense.
All the cards have to be turned over and on the table for the city and Gavilan to spend more time on this. Until such point, annexation and its implied promise – building entitlements – should be left on indefinite hold.
