Hollister
– The Hollister Downtown Association is gearing up for an update
of its downtown strategy plan.
Hollister – The Hollister Downtown Association is gearing up for an update of its downtown strategy plan.
Jerry Muenzer, who chairs the downtown association’s economic restructuring committee, said construction of the Highway 25 bypass – which is scheduled to open by the end of 2008 – is going to create some great opportunities for downtown businesses. But they’re going to need a plan, he said.
“We want to be ready when the bypass is built, not wait until it’s done,” Muenzer said.
Muenzer said taking Highway 25 traffic off San Benito Street will allow the creation of a new, pedestrian-friendly “retail corridor.”
Retired Gavilan professor Tony Ruiz, who founded the Hollister New Urban Independent Research Group, said Hollister’s location, its history and the existing city plan create big opportunities for revitalization.
“You cannot find another city that has the potential we have,” Ruiz said.
The downtown association is looking for outside help to tap that potential. Three consulting firms have submitted proposals to prepare a new downtown strategy plan. Each of the three firms has prior experience creating downtown revitalization plans. One of the three, Berkeley-based Moore Iacofano Goltsman Inc., also prepared the recent revision to the City of Hollister’s general plan.
“We want to use their expertise to say, ‘This has worked somewhere else – let’s head that way,'” Muenzer said.
Muenzer, who owns Muenzer’s Cyclery and Sports Center, said the downtown association will be interviewing the firms in April and choosing one shortly afterward. Since each of the firms is asking for a comparable fee – between $160,000 and $200,000 – Muenzer said he’ll be looking at which one “feels like the best fit for Hollister.”
Ruiz said there are some political changes that need to happen before Hollister can have a flourishing downtown. The city needs to replenish its coffers with an additional 1 percent sales tax, exempt downtown development from its growth cap and make the government more accountable by creating a full-time mayor position, Ruiz said.
“You cannot do it with one or two; you need all three,” Ruiz said.
Muenzer added that the downtown association was partly spurred into action by Ruiz’s research group, which has been advocating for the incorporation of “new urbanism” – mixed-use, high-density development – into the design of downtown Hollister.
“We said, ‘Wait, we have plan, too,'” Muenzer said.
However, once he’d “dusted off” the old plan, Muenzer realized it was created in 1991 and focused to a large extent on rebuilding downtown after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.
Muenzer said downtown businesses have implemented “about 50 percent” of the 1991 plan, including repairing key buildings and building new sidewalks.
Muenzer said he traveled with other association members to Paso Robles Friday to see what downtown leaders there are doing. He said one page that Hollister can take from Paso Robles’ book is in revitalizing its night life. Downtown Paso Robles has a 10-screen movie theater, 12 wine bars and 24 restaurants – all big draws at night, Muenzer said.
Association president Marilyn Ferreira, a local real estate agent, will be looking at other examples next week, when she travels to the National Main Street Conference in Seattle. Ferreira said she hopes to come back with plenty of ideas.
Anthony Ha covers local government for the Free Lance. Reach him at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or ah*@fr***********.com.
