Despite the threat of lawsuits, the Council of Governments
decided to go ahead with the Highway 25 bypass during a heated
public meeting Friday in order to avoid delays that could push up
the price of the project.
Hollister – Despite the threat of lawsuits, the Council of Governments decided to go ahead with the Highway 25 bypass during a heated public meeting Friday in order to avoid delays that could push up the price of the project.
Yesterday’s vote was pushed back from a COG meeting last week, at which the board agreed to seek legal counsel regarding the threatened lawsuits. COG Executive Director Tom Quigley urged the board Friday not to delay action again.
“Here’s my concern with these continuances: It’s delaying the bypass for at least another year, and by then it’s going to cost more. You’ll be killing the project for another year,” Quigley said.
COG Director Pat Loe agreed, explaining to the emotional crowd that “We need to get this thing settled today.”
After heated arguments from locals who felt COG had low-balled them in appraisals of the properties it needs for the project, the board voted to move ahead Friday. The 4-0 vote approved a resolution beginning the process to acquire more than a half a dozen properties needed to build the $27 million bypass. COG Director George Dias abstained from voting.
“This just means we’re on the record saying we need these properties; this is so we have a clear direction as to where the road is going to be,” COG Director Pat Loe said after the meeting.
The bypass project has been in the works since 1959. Construction should begin in June, and will take about 15-18 months to complete. Planners hope the project will divert cross-town traffic off of San Benito Street in downtown Hollister by building a bypass road off Sunnyslope Road and extending Park Street to connect with the bypass.
Liz Sparling, executive director of the Hollister Downtown Association, read a statement on behalf of the HDA praising the project, saying further delays on a decision to move forward would “drive up the cost of the project and delay better traffic relief.”
The HDA hopes the bypass will allow San Benito Street to become more pedestrian friendly and liven up downtown Hollister.
Design Consultant Carla Vincent reminded the board Friday that they could approve necessity for the various properties at that time and determine the prices of the properties later.
“It’s a very unique situation with the bypass and the moratorium,” she added after several property owners complained the city’s sewer moratorium was dragging down the appraised value of their properties.
COG hired Universal Field Services to conduct appraisals of the private properties the project required in March through June of 2004. But the owners of many of those properties have been before the COG board several times arguing the appraiser’s estimates were much lower than they should have been.
Landowner Harold Cerrato, who was particularly vocal during yesterday’s meeting, told the COG board a portion of his land had already been sold to San Benito Title, whom he said gave him a fair price.
“The prices they paid me and the prices you people are offering me … it’s like comparing a Model-T to a Cadillac,” he said.
Jim De La Pena told the board he had sold a piece of his property to Chevron eight years ago, and received $2 per square foot more than COG is offering now.
“Property values don’t go down around here,” he said.
About half of the five or six landowners present Friday asked the board for second appraisals of their property. Two said they had been told they would get second appraisals, but were then told it was not Universal’s policy to re-conduct them. Tom Evatt, COG’s right-of-way consultant from Universal, told the board he was sure this was just a misunderstanding and the angry residents had not been guaranteed a second appraisal.
COG Director Robert Scattini told Evatt and the COG staff he had trouble believing this.
“These people in here, I don’t believe they’re liars. So who’s lying?” he asked Evatt. “Maybe the people in this room need hearing aides or something, because they heard they’d be getting a second appraisal.”
Quigley countered by saying COG had already spent months and $110,000 on the first round of appraisals, and that the agency was not required to conduct a second round.
“If we do it for one property, everyone else is going to request a second appraisal. We’ve already put out a huge amount of money on appraisals. We used the proper methodology the first time, and I don’t see what good a second time would do,” Quigley said.
Cerrato jumped out of his seat across the room from Quigley and told him, “You wasted your money on the first appraisal, I’ll tell you that.”
By the end of the two-hour meeting, the COG board had voted to approve resolutions of necessity for all of the properties in question Friday. COG Chair Pauline Valdivia added the stipulation that staff work with landowners to determine fair offers for their land.
COG Director George Dias, a recent addition to the board, said he couldn’t make decisions after his short tenure with COG and declined to vote.
“I’m not comfortable with this project. I know we need it, but I’m not comfortable with it,” he said. “Last week we had a handful of private lawyers come in and give their legal arguments and we decided to move our meeting to today. I just don’t see how we could have solved all those problems in one week. I don’t see why the old board didn’t just vote on this.”
But as the vote drew near, the other four COG directors seemed to sympathize more with the sentiments of resident Nenette Corotto.
“To me this venture was a cooperative venture between the citizens and the government, and I’m very impressed with the plans. If we ever want to have a viable, economically stable community, we need these new roads,” she told the board.
Jessica Quandt covers politics for the Free Lance. Reach her at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or at jq*****@fr***********.com.
