New facilities for gliders and for the California Department of
Forestry and Fire Protection have been put back on a proposed plan
for the Hollister Municipal Airport.
HOLLISTER
New facilities for gliders and for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection have been put back on a proposed plan for the Hollister Municipal Airport.
On Thursday, the city’s airport advisory commission voted unanimously to restore those elements to the airport layout plan, which must eventually be approved by the city council and the Federal Aviation Administration.
City Manager Clint Quilter also announced that lease negotiations for CalFire’s new air-attack base, which have continued on and off since 2001, are almost complete. When city leaders figure out their plans for airport development, the lease should be ready to sign, he said.
“We’ve been working for many, many years on this project,” said Reno DiTullio, assistant chief with CalFire’s San Benito-Monterey unit. “This is the closest we’ve ever gotten (to a deal).”
In December, some locals attacked a draft of the layout plan presented to the city council. At that meeting, three airport commissioners said Airport Manager Bill Gere had changed the layout plan from the one they had approved by removing the future CalFire base.
Gere has said his revisions to the layout plan were not substantial.
The air-attack base also became an issue later during Thursday’s meeting when the airport commission discussed a “request for proposal” that would allow companies to submit their plans for airport development.
Some commissioners suggested limiting the RFP to the 12 acres CalFire doesn’t want for its base, but the commission eventually decided to create a “dual RFP,” which would call both for plans to develop the full 20 acres and for plans focusing on a more limited area.
That approach would allow the city to see all the options available, Quilter said.
“The commissioners aren’t land developers, and neither are we,” Quilter said after the meeting.
He noted that some developers have said limiting the development area would prevent projects from becoming financially feasible.
“Now we’ll find out whether or not that’s true,” Quilter said.
DiTullio said the commission’s approach would create “another stumbling block” to sealing the deal on the air-attack base.
“We’ve worked on this for so long because the city has committed to us, maybe only verbally, that this is our site,” he said.
In addition to restoring the air-attack base, the commission also decided to include a new glider staging area in the plan, as well as an interim staging area that would function until the new area is built.
Quest Richlife, owner of the Hollister Gliding Club, said the city should not approve a layout plan that doesn’t mention the airport’s gliding community.
“In good faith, we want the ALP to show something the city is already behind,” Richlife said.
The city council will consider approving the layout plan later in January, Quilter said. But the airport commissioners said they want to see the plan one last time after the additions are made.
“Absolutely,” Gere said. “I will insist upon it.”
