The California High-Speed Rail Authority is holding community
workshops to explain the evolution of the project in South Santa
Clara County from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 25 at the Gilroy
High School Student Center on 750 West 10th St., according to a
press release from Joe Kline, public information officer with the
City of Gilroy.
The California High-Speed Rail Authority is holding community workshops to explain the evolution of the project in South Santa Clara County from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 25 at the Gilroy High School Student Center on 750 West 10th St., according to a press release from Joe Kline, public information officer with the City of Gilroy.
The release also says a meeting in Morgan Hill will take place from 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 27 at Hiram Morgan Hill Room on 17000 Monterey Rd.
According to the release, the meetings will consist of a presentation on addressing statewide criteria and South County community matters, followed by breakout group discussions to ensure the team has identified key community issues.
For more information about the CHSRA program, call (800) 881-5799, e-mail [email protected] or visit cahighspeedrail.ca.gov.
Future workshops of this nature will be notified by e-mail. Citizens wishing to sign up for these notifications may do so by clicking here.
During Monday’s Gilroy City Council meeting, Gilroy resident Christine Paszkiewicz said she was concerned by the lack of public input.
“There’s been no community engagement,” Paszkiewicz said.
Paszkiewicz asked Gilroy Mayor Al Pinheiro why the public was not included in a meeting between Gilroy and Morgan Hill officials and CHSRA CEO Roelof van Ark in December.
Pinheiro said city officials have many meetings that are not public and would continue to work out some details in private before bringing the information to the public.
The Gilroy City Council held a study session Monday night to discuss CHSRA plans for an at-grade station in Gilroy. If chosen, the at-grade design would allow the train to roll into town at ground level and would necessitate overpasses above the tracks to allow for city traffic flow, according to renderings.
For the moment, there are two possible locations for the station: downtown or in east Gilroy. Preliminary plans call for either an at-grade, design, an elevated design or a trench design. Council members Monday said they were not happy with at-grade design, and Pinheiro issued an ultimatum, saying if the station were built downtown, “It’s trenching or else.”
