Planning department staff oppose project
A second farmers’ market has been proposed in San Benito County,
but that may not be such a good thing according to a few
residents.
Planning department staff oppose project
A second farmers’ market has been proposed in San Benito County, but that may not be such a good thing according to a few residents.
The proposal hasn’t even come before the San Benito County Planning Commission yet, but the tentative plan, submitted by Jim Matthews is to establish a temporary farmers market on Saturdays between May and October.
Matthews could not be reached for comments.
The market would be located on property at 1640 Cienega Road.
The planning commission will review the item at its May 16 meeting, but County Planning Director Chuck Ortwein felt that after reviewing the item briefly the location doesn’t feel right.
“It wouldn’t require a zoning change to establish a market at this location,” Ortwein said. “But we don’t feel the location is right and for the most part it would not be a good use in a residential neighborhood.”
The county is waiting to get a few more letters from residents in the surrounding neighborhoods, Ortwein said, but the county staff is not in favor of the project at its current location and will likely recommend denying the proposal.
Because the land where Matthews wants to put his farmers’ market is located in an unincorporated area, the county rather than the city has jurisdiction over the matter. However, Ortwein said the city planning director would still be asked to review the project and offer input as well.
“Unincorporated areas are a pain because they can be problematic,” said Bill Avera, the Hollister Planning Director. “So when the county gets an application for one, we always appreciate their letting us give our two cents.”
Avera had heard about the project and will discuss it with the Design Review Committee, but didn’t know all of the details about the project yet.
Still he said from a purely engineering standpoint if access to the farmers market was coming from San Benito Street it could be a problem because there are not supposed to be entries facing onto San Benito Street other than the high school parking lot.
From a zoning standpoint the whole area is low-density residential, so it would be hard to get a use permit for that, even if it were just a temporary use permit, Avera said.
“Personally, we already have a farmers’ market in town,” Avera said. “I don’t necessarily think we need something that competes with that, because when people are [at the farmers market] downtown they might go to the other shops and businesses there as well and that benefits the city as well.”
Sharlene Van Rooy, manager of the Hollister Farmers’ Market is certainly not anxious to see another farmers’ market move into the area.
“The farmers market committee just discussed the issue and we’re taking a wait and see attitude,” Van Rooy said. “I’m not sure where they’d get certified farmers for a Saturday market, or if they’re waiting to see if they can get certified farmers. But this would not be a good thing for the farmers’ market, which is struggling as it is. If this gets approved I don’t know what we’re going to do or if there is even anything we can do at this point.”
