The Hollister City Council will vote Monday on a four-lot
subdivision at Cushman and Nash roads that has neighbors up in arms
over traffic and safety concerns.
Hollister – The Hollister City Council will vote Monday on a four-lot subdivision at Cushman and Nash roads that has neighbors up in arms over traffic and safety concerns.
The proposed project would divide the property where Gold’s Gym and the Salvation Army thrift store sit into four lots. Three of the would-be lots are already occupied by the gym, the thrift store and a Java Express drive-through coffee shop. The fourth lot created by the subdivision would be open to a new business. The property’s owners don’t know yet what kind of business they would be bringing in.
But some area residents are concerned about the lack of details, saying some types of businesses would increase traffic on the busy road and could put San Benito High School and Rancho San Justo students in jeopardy as they walk home from school.
“No one seems to have thought about the students walking between 3 and 3:30,” neighborhood resident Bill Mifsud told the council at its April 4 meeting, during which the city held a public hearing on the project.
Although the council technically approved an impact report at its April 4 meeting, city staff will have a resolution of approval ready for another vote on Monday. City Councilman Doug Emerson explained Monday’s vote would be a “formalization” of the approval from the April 4 meeting.
Traffic engineers have done a “worst-case-scenario” traffic study for the area in which they estimate traffic increases based on a medical office on the fourth lot. A medical office would add 27 car trips a day to traffic in the area and about a five-second delay for drivers, according to Transportation Consultant Jeff Elia of San Jose’s Hexagon Traffic Consultants.
Elia and Bill Paxton, the property owner’s lawyer, said they were sure the added traffic wouldn’t be severe enough to put pedestrian students at risk, and pointed out that once the Highway 25 bypass is complete, traffic on Nash should decrease, although City Councilman Robert Scattini told them crossing Nash at 2:30 in the afternoon is “a chore” as it is.
If the council does approve the impact report on Monday, the owners of the property would agree not to build on the vacant lot until after the sewer moratorium is lifted. But the final approval itself could depend on what kind of further feedback the council gets on Monday night.
“We probably will (approve it), but there’s always a chance something comes up,” Emerson said.
