Planning commission and council consider 204-unit project on old
Indian Motorcycle site
Members of the Gilroy City Council and Planning Commission
mulled a proposed condominium infill project Monday night, in which
the developer asked they consider adding his project into the
Downtown Neighborhood Specific Plan.
By doing so, the city would have to make a General Plan
amendment to allow more residential units in an
industrial/commercial zone, a pocket of retail activity on the
corner of Alexander and 10th streets. A small part of the Downtown
Specific Plan allows for a waiver of impact fees on new buildings
along Monterey Street from First to 10th streets
– an incentive Mayor Al Pinheiro managed to enact to encourage
the elimination of urban blight – but should this project be
included in the district, the developer would not have the luxury
of those fee waivers.
Planning commission and council consider 204-unit project on old Indian Motorcycle site
Members of the Gilroy City Council and Planning Commission mulled a proposed condominium infill project Monday night, in which the developer asked they consider adding his project into the Downtown Neighborhood Specific Plan.
By doing so, the city would have to make a General Plan amendment to allow more residential units in an industrial/commercial zone, a pocket of retail activity on the corner of Alexander and 10th streets. A small part of the Downtown Specific Plan allows for a waiver of impact fees on new buildings along Monterey Street from First to 10th streets – an incentive Mayor Al Pinheiro managed to enact to encourage the elimination of urban blight – but should this project be included in the district, the developer would not have the luxury of those fee waivers.
“That’s for a very limited part of the district,” said downtown planner Gregg Polubinsky. “But unless this project comes into the Specific Plan, he can’t build a residential project. He could build more commercial or more industrial, but you can’t ‘spot zone.’ You can’t create an island on zoning.”
In the case of “San Ysidrio Square” – a proposed complex that would sport 126 four-story condominiums and 78 three-story townhouses, along with a clubhouse and pool – the impact fees reaped from the project could mean a potential $10 million to city infrastructure coffers. But developer and former Cisco Systems manager Anthony Sudol says there are plenty of other benefits for the city should the district be extended to incorporate his proposed development – namely, that the large project would create a defined southern boundary to the Downtown District, encourage pedestrian activity and, in turn, bolster nearby businesses.
“It’s affordable by design,” Sudol told the passel of commissioners and councilmen during the study session, “and that fosters pedestrian activity and greater reliance on alternate and mass transit. It would be the gateway coming off 10th Street.”
The 204-unit project would be built on a parcel once occupied by the Indian Motorcycle warehouse, currently owned by property czar Ken Gimelli. Alexander Street borders the open side of the site, and the developers have plans to make the frontage a showcase for California condo living. Lighted landscaping, the occasional palm trees, a formidable four-story “Grand Hotel” style building with red mission-tile roofs and archways allowed for an impressive artist’s rendering of the proposed project at the meeting.
While the proposed site is two blocks from the CalTrain and VTA bus Transit Center, it is surrounded on three sides by retail and industrial businesses – including a cardboard box factory, called Baysheets. At all hours 18-wheelers drive in and out of Baysheets, loading and unloading materials on the docks, and the noise is incessant when backup beepers are used. Other trucks are often delivering food products for nearby retail businesses.
Sudol, a former Gilroy City Councilman, said incorporating the property into the Downtown Neighborhood Specific Plan would bring “balance to the district.”
An aerial shot showing an overview of the area prompted Councilman Dion Bracco to question the wisdom of extending the Downtown Specific Plan boundaries – and in turn, the impact – to include the industrial/retail area where San Ysidrio Square is being proposed. He also wanted to know why the project does not incorporate the “mixed-use” rule – required of projects proposed in the Downtown Plan – of combining affordable apartments with retail space into the same buildings.
“You say it belongs downtown,” Bracco said to Sudol, who stood at the podium answering questions. “But you don’t want to stick with the rules of mixed use.”
“We don’t want to take away businesses from downtown,” Sudol said, adding that the retail and commercial spaces surrounding the project would be enough to encourage people to walk farther north into the heart of downtown. “And there’s commercial (spaces) next door. I’d rather have people out in the community.”
Bracco did not seem convinced that the project fit into the area (he owns a tow-truck company just south of the site), or that it met the criteria of a Downtown Specific Plan project.
“This whole site is surrounded by commercial or heavy industrial,” Bracco said. “How can you say that’s part of downtown?”
“The current boundary is underutilized,” Sudol replied. “Bringing this under an industrial use permit would be a great challenge.”
Planning commissioner Norm Thompson came to Sudol’s defense.
“It’s an anchor on the south side of town, as the Cannery is an anchor on the north side of town,” Thompson said. “So it kind of makes sense to me.”
Several joint board members wanted to know which schools would serve the project, and if the developers had incorporated a park into their plans. Sudol said that in the middle of the project, presumably near the clubhouse, they had designed room for “play structures.”
“It’s not the typical single family detached suburban project,” Sudol said.
Edwin Diaz, superintendent of Gilroy Unified School District, took the podium to say he was concerned that schools serving the project are at least half a mile away, and the walking routes aren’t exactly safe: The project would be a block from the main artery of busy 10th Street and sits right next to the railroad tracks.
“We’d probably have to transport them [the school children],” Diaz said.
Sudol was asked how much the condos and townhouses would sell for, and he said the starting price would be $400,000.
“So it’s affordable by design!” said Councilman Craig Gartman.
No action was taken at the joint study session.
After the meeting, Diaz said that if the starting prices are $400,000, “You’re going to get some kids out there.”
Sudol was a Gilroy councilman from 1997 to 2001 and a former high-level manager at Cisco Systems Inc. in San Jose. According to a complaint filed by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission in March 2005, Sudol is accused of orchestrating insider trading at Cisco before he resigned the corporation in January 2004. SEC officials allege that Sudol learned of five impending acquisitions between 1999 and 2003, as he was the manager who helped integrate new acquisitions to the company, and shared the information with his younger brothers before the information was publicly released. The brothers bought shares in the targeted companies and sold them after Cisco announced the deals, making a cool $400,000 in illegal profits, the complaint said.
There is no indication that the complaint has been resolved, according to the U.S. SEC website. In an article published by the San Francisco Chronicle in April 2005, Sudol’s attorney, Paul Metzer of Santa Cruz, has adamantly denied the allegations in the SEC complaint and says his client expects vindication. The complaint, listed on the SEC Web site, states the federal agency is seeking civil monetary penalties in the matter.
Sudol declined to comment about the SEC litigation. But regarding his project, he has high hopes. When asked if city officials had approached him yet on making some consessions to the city – a park, more affordable units or other municipal works project – to sweeten the deal, Sudol said it was too early in the process for deal-making.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” he said, adding that San Ysidrio Square would be a “tremendous boon for downtown.”
