Representatives from Hollister’s redevelopment and planning
departments traveled to Gilroy on Thursday to tour a new
residential development in the city’s cannery district.
HOLLISTER
Representatives from Hollister’s redevelopment and planning departments traveled to Gilroy on Thursday to tour a new residential development in the city’s cannery district.
With the Hollister Downtown Association preparing a new downtown vision plan and the city’s building moratorium set to lift in 2008, there could be similar projects in Hollister’s future. Planning Manager Mary Paxton said she’d wanted to see “the transformation of what was once a cannery” into a shiny new residential neighborhood.
“I think it’s pretty akin to what’s in Hollister,” Paxton said.
The San Benito Foods cannery is still in business, she acknowledged, but there are other downtown sites, including one formerly occupied by Leatherback Industries, that could be redeveloped into major residential projects.
“Some of our challenges are easier than Gilroy’s,” she added.
In Gilroy, the cannery – last owned by the Gilroy Canning Co. – closed in 1997 and was purchased by affordable housing developer South County Housing in 2005. Parts of the Cannery District project are now up for sale, and some families are moving in.
All told, Senior Project Manager Nancy Moore Wright said the development will include 210 units, including detached single-family homes, townhomes and condominiums available at market-rate and below-market-rate prices.
“The bottom line is … you’ve gotta believe it’s gonna happen,” Mayor Al Pinheiro said.
Larry Cope, executive director of the Gilroy Economic Development Corp., told Hollister officials Thursday that residential growth is key to a booming downtown.
“Until you have residents living downtown, you’re going to have trouble attracting retailers,” Cope said.
So what can Hollister learn from Gilroy? For one thing, Wright and South County Housing Executive Director Dennis Lalor said city cooperation was crucial to moving the Cannery District project forward.
“Finally there’s an understanding … what the relationship is between the risk involved here and what the city’s role needs to be,” Lalor said. “Cities need to do their part in mitigating that risk or lightening it.”
It’s still not completely clear if that risk has paid off, Wright added, particularly because of the current housing slump. But Lalor said South County might eventually consider building a similar project in downtown Hollister.
“Given our experience here and all we’ve learned, it would be derelict not to take that experience and do it again,” he said.
For her part, Paxton said the Gilroy project offers a compelling example for Hollister.
“It’s also nice to see things constructed and to see physical buildings, rather than drawings,” she said.
