Tag: san benito county

The Soberanes Fire may be about 50 miles from Hollister, but its impacts have reached the local area. That’s because the region as a whole has been affected by the fire’s impacts to air quality.

How many people can say they positively affected thousands of children in their lives? Gene Cotter was among the very few in that prestigious club.

Timeless tradition in Hollister: Grown-up children shoot off miniature and not-so-miniature bombs over other residents’ properties, putting neighbors’ lives at risk and keeping the rest of the town awake until violators’ self-justified lawlessness simmers at a time of their choosing.

On the heels of a failed road tax measure, county supervisors for now are saying no to the possibility of a general sales tax in unincorporated areas.

Supporters of the Measure P road tax didn't have quite enough gas for approval Tuesday.

Mark Medina raised and spent more than opponent Mark Starritt through the latest filing period in the race to succeed Margie Barrios as District 1 county supervisor, records show.

While most of Santa Clara County might be the Valley of the Heart’s Delight, one San Benito County family believes the “flavor zone” for a rare kind of apricot is Hollister.

The three-year legal dispute between the San Benito County Water District and McAlpine Lake over water pumping rates went to court last week. And if the district succeeds in cutting off the lake’s underground supply, the recreation facility’s owner, Randall McAlpine, says it could force him to close the lake to the public.

The County’s affordable housing program is not logically constructed. The San Benito County Planning Commission recently had a notably fair and informative workshop on affordable housing. Yet in the end they were not presented with the options they needed to make a program that works, especially in the unincorporated areas where, for political reasons, the San Benito County Board of Supervisors has traditionally shunned high density housing. Affordable housing programs are often illogically constructed starting with the erroneous idea that nothing the county does impacts the market; the opposite is true.

Most county planning commissioners this week supported instituting a 15 percent affordable housing requirement on new developments more than six years after suspending income-based mandates here.