Have you been in the remodeled Veterans Memorial Building
lately?
Have you been in the remodeled Veterans Memorial Building lately?
This coming Saturday would be a good time to check it out. The City of Hollister is using it to host an open house where the draft of the new General Plan will be presented to the public.
The public: in other words, you.
This is one of your opportunities to view the various elements of the plan that has been put together through the work of paid professionals, including the planning department and consultants they hired, and your fellow citizens, including the planning commission, appointed by the city council, and the steering committee, appointed by the planning commission.
In the interest of full disclosure, I should note that I serve on the planning commission. So you could say this is a shameless plug.
After all, you may be thinking, what is a general plan, anyway … and why should I care?
You should care because the general plan is Hollister’s future.
It’s the key to doing something about the reckless growth in housing and population that everybody has been complaining about.
It is our way out of becoming a soulless maze of anonymous subdivisions. It is our chance to define the character and quality of the city we want to live in. It is a rough outline for preserving our historical and rural character and traditions, without becoming a fossil or a theme park.
Here’s some technical stuff: state law directs that a general plan contain seven elements:
Land Use and
Community Design
Housing
Circulation (traffic)
Community Services
and Facilities
Open Space and
Agriculture
Natural Resources and
Conservation
Health and Safety
Each of these elements represents hours of work by the professionals and hours of scrutiny by the commissioners, and contains a wealth of research, information and ideas. In fact, it can be almost overwhelming to try to understand the whole thing.
To address this, at the open house this Saturday, each element will occupy its own station, with a member of planning staff or the commission available to explain it, offer handouts, and answer questions.
Eventually the plan will be referred to the City Council and will become the working document the planning commission uses to guide its decisions.
The plan itself can be viewed on the Hollister City website at www.hollister.ca.gov. Hard copies are available at the Planning Department offices on Park Hill.
All of the steering committee meetings, as well as current planning commission meetings, are open to the public. What I’ve noticed is that the same five or six people keep showing up.
They can’t be the only ones who care about the future of Hollister.
Surely everybody who has children or grandchildren cares.
I know life is busy. I know we’re already overcommitted. We don’t need yet another obligation fighting for space on our calendars.
But this is one you really shouldn’t miss.
If you have a child who walks to school, or would like to, or if you hate getting stuck in traffic, or if drivers go too fast on your street, you should take a look at the Circulation Element.
If you are worried about finding a home you can afford, or that your employees can afford, you could check out the Housing Element.
And so forth: no matter what concerns you most about the future of Hollister, one of the elements of the plan will address it.
So I’ll see you there next Saturday at 10 a.m., right?
Draft General Plan Open House, Saturday, April 16, 2005, 10:00 am – 1:00 pm; Veterans Memorial Building, 649 San Benito Street, Hollister.
