A small group of San Benito County residents has established an
informal task force to tackle issues surrounding revitalization of
Hollister’s downtown areas and find creative ways to improve it in
the future.
Hollister – A small group of San Benito County residents has established an informal task force to tackle issues surrounding revitalization of Hollister’s downtown areas and find creative ways to improve it in the future.
The group, which is comprised of five community members, has had several meetings over the past months to come up with ideas to bring more business to Hollister’s downtown, and ways to incorporate business improvements with housing needs in the community, said Tony Ruiz, a retired Gavilan College professor who founded the group.
“The bottom line is that we can do a lot better than what we’re doing,” Ruiz said. “Hollister is in a very unique situation because we haven’t done much (developing), and what we do now needs to be based on solid practice.”
Areas such as San Jose and Gilroy have been overdone and are now suffering from urban sprawl, which is something Ruiz doesn’t want to see happen in Hollister, he said.
With creative vision, insight and planning, Hollister can become more economically vital and still keep its small-town, agricultural roots, he said.
“We’re just barely getting started,” Ruiz said. “That’s an advantage because it gives us the opportunity to build a town that’s unique.”
Donald Anderson, a construction planner and analyst for the county, joined the group to get involved with something that can make Hollister a “healthy town,” he said.
The city’s Redevelopment Agency has been working on a beautification project to help revitalize the downtown, but Anderson said it’s not enough.
“The city just doesn’t look nice,” he said. “All the shopping has left, and even fixing the sidewalks isn’t bringing enough business.”
Improving the city’s park and road systems, access to public areas and tourism in general are all issues the task force plans to tackle, Ruiz said.
“We seem to be a little island, trying to reinvent the wheel, and often putting the wheel aside,” he said. “There’s plenty of talent out there – we need to bring it together and present a town everybody can be happy with.”
The task force didn’t form to criticize anything that’s been done by local leaders, but is attempting to present a positive approach to improving what the city already has, said member Scott Fuller, who is the general manager of San Juan Oaks.
Fuller joined the task force because he would like to brainstorm ideas to put more high density housing, such as apartments, town houses and condominiums, in and around the downtown area, he said.
He hopes to work with the task force to create a picture of what a mixed-use district, where residents live above retail stores and businesses, could look like downtown, he said.
Other areas that utilize a mixed-use downtown such as Morgan Hill and Los Gatos are successful and lure people into the area, he said.
“It brings people downtown,” Fuller said. “They have a core downtown area that’s very attractive for both tourists and people living there.”
The group is in its initial stages and doesn’t have a concrete agenda of what it’s going to work on first, how it’s going to get where it wants go, or when it’s going to get there, Ruiz said.
Eventually Ruiz would like to take the ideas generated to the public and then to local leaders, business people and developers, he said.
“It’s not a plan to sit back and wait for things to happen,” he said. “It’s a living plan. Some people say it could take a long time, but that’s an abstract thought. It could get going in five years and be complete in 20, or get going in 10 years and be complete in 40.”
If the community doesn’t take an active interest and get involved soon, however, the city and county will have urban sprawl, Ruiz said.
People getting together to work on ways to improve the city will only better the rest of the community in the long run, said Liz Kresky, executive director of the Hollister Downtown Association.
“It’s an exciting time for Hollister,” she said. “A lot of people in the community are interested in bettering the downtown.”
