City leaders admit Hollister has developed the wrong way over
the past decade. Now, they say, priorities have shifted.
This time, they want to do it right.
The local government’s philosophy on development has drastically
changed in recent times
– a transformation largely motivated by a state-ordered building
moratorium in effect until October 2005. The penalty stems from the
15-million gallon sewer spill a year and a half ago.
City leaders admit Hollister has developed the wrong way over the past decade. Now, they say, priorities have shifted.
This time, they want to do it right.
The local government’s philosophy on development has drastically changed in recent times – a transformation largely motivated by a state-ordered building moratorium in effect until October 2005. The penalty stems from the 15-million gallon sewer spill a year and a half ago.
As the construction imprisonment has moved along, officials have started talking seriously about post-moratorium development. And the emphasis is clear: Commercial and industrial expansion will get priority over residential growth.
“I’m mostly interested in pursuing developments that create new jobs in town and create new revenue opportunities for the city,” said City Manager Dale Shaddox, whose relatively progressive views have brought continual praise from City Council members.
Shaddox, who arrived in May, didn’t look around long before seeing what he calls a “balance problem.” The city is flush with recently erected housing subdivisions, he acknowledged, but comparably lacking in desirable commercial attractions – stores, restaurants and hotels, to name a few.
Four out of the five council members agree with Shaddox’s aggressive contention; Mayor Brian Conroy did not return phone calls and an e-mail message. Four of them were on the Council when the water board imposed the cease and desist order.
“I think we need to roll out the red carpet when it comes to business, industrial and commercial development,” Councilman Tony LoBue said.
Commercial enterprises, in particular, not only create jobs and offer more in-town conveniences, Shaddox said, but attracting them would also help the city climb out of its current economic hole by boosting sales tax revenues.
Anytime a big name business moves into Gilroy these days, Shaddox said, pausing to take a deep breath, “my heart sinks.”
Hollister’s lead planner Bill Card called Gilroy’s commercial success a detriment to the local economy.
“Whatever Gilroy is building will not be built in Hollister,” Shaddox said. “We’re just simply too close to them.”
Hollister leaders don’t necessarily want to be another Gilroy, though. Furthermore, Shaddox said, that would be nearly impossible at this point. The Garlic Capital owns the regional market for big box retail outlets, he said.
“I still think there’s a tremendous opportunity to do well, but it must be different from Gilroy,” Shaddox said.
Card, whose official title is community development director, has been leading a major venture by the city since March to rewrite the General Plan – a document the state requires cities and counties use as their official growth policies. It should be finished in four or five months.
Thus far, with the help of an appointed steering committee, Card said it is likely the city will especially promote development of the four main entrances, called gateways, into Hollister. For each gateway, the city would push for a unique theme, Card said.
One reason for that philosophy, he said, aside from aesthetic inconsistencies at several locations, is Hollister’s unfavorable distance from a major highway – in this case 101.
“It does play into it,” Card said. “Like I said, access is an issue around here.”
Other areas of the town – such as near the airport, which is encompassed by business park space – don’t necessarily depend on access, or need a facelift, officials say.
But even though Hollister maintains an abundance of land there designated for industrial use, companies won’t move to a town where they can’t build, according to officials and local developers.
Ken Lindsay is one of those developers. He has cultivated industrial land near the airport for nearly 25 years and has financial interests in four business parks. His most recent project was the Airpark Business Center, which Lindsay, at the time of the sewer spill, had been outfitting with infrastructure while awaiting permit approvals on six buildings.
Since then, the progress of Airpark and other Lindsay developments has halted. Outside companies have stopped calling his office altogether, he said.
“We’re just in an economic crisis,” Lindsay said. “There aren’t a lot of people in my situation.”
He had hoped, by now, the city would have lobbied the regional water board for some type of interim wastewater system for people in his situation. Officials have been “walking on egg shells,” Lindsay said, in being guarded against offending the water board. He did, however, acknowledge city leaders’ dedication to the moratorium issue.
Ray Pierce is a Realtor in town and he’s also a Hollister planning commissioner. He commended the city for its plans to emphasize nonresidential development. But as a real estate agent, he could reap long-term personal benefits from further residential growth.
“There’s always a certain amount of resale property to sell in the area,” Pierce said.
In the same light, he also addressed the local contracting industry, which suffered from an influx of large developers and, more recently, the moratorium.
“They’ve already been hammered,” Pierce said. “Many ventured out or left, and it’s too bad.”
The regional water board wasn’t the only group frustrated by the untamed residential boom of the 1990s. The people here became fed up, too, which resulted in a voter-approved growth cap of 244 residential units a year in the city. The boom also helped spur the county’s 1 percent residential growth cap and considerations for further restrictions.
Al Martinez is the director of the Economic Development Corp., a 22-year-old nonprofit organization supported by the city and other local members. While his job includes recruitment of new employers to town, he called the county’s Growth Control Initiative on the March ballot “the kiss of death” for commercial and industrial advancement.
“When a county is a ‘no-growther,’ nobody comes to it,” Martinez said.
But initiative authors, such as Rich Saxe, and some city officials disagree. Saxe said a program within the initiative, one that encourages development in or near Hollister, would promote urban commercial development.
“If (commercial and industrial) development would be allowed to happen away from the city, that would be the kiss of death for Hollister,” Saxe said.
Nonetheless, what city officials call regular “leakage” to surrounding communities – Friday night trips to the Salinas Outback Steakhouse or Saturday strolls through the Gilroy outlets – must be impeded.
For starters, Shaddox said the city’s historic pattern of annexing properties into city limits for housing subdivisions should, for the most part, stop.
“I’m not interested in spending any time on those projects,” Shaddox said. “They do nothing for the city except for put demands on service levels that we can’t provide.”
Some residential projects on the table when the moratorium struck, however, including 199 units for senior and low-income housing and another 304 units, will likely commence when allowed, Card said.
Shaddox also said officials should consider annexing certain locations well within city boundaries – which were never annexed – such as a property adjacent to Premiere Cinemas. The city also wants to include more affordable housing units into its future plans, Shaddox said – a notion that pleases Councilwoman Pauline Valdivia.
She mentioned the city’s elderly population as one group that could be troubled if trends don’t change.
“How can you survive on $700 a month? You can’t,” she said.
In the meantime, the city will continue its update of the General Plan, including an early December meeting where housing will be addressed.
And the city, as Councilman Tony Bruscia pointed out, is not “dead in the water” now. Businesses can remodel and expand, he said. Vacant properties can become occupied.
“So we need to be doing a lot of things now, not just after the moratorium,” Bruscia said.
At some point in about a year, Shaddox said he plans to request the Council consider adopting an official policy on post-moratorium permitting – to inject priority to commercial and industrial developments.
The balancing act, though, is a long-term ambition, Shaddox said. The goal, he said, is financial stability with adequate public service levels.
It will take 10 years, he said, “to determine whether we’re on the right track.” In 20 years, he said, the city should be able to look back and say, “Yeah, we did good.”
“It got away from us,” Shaddox said of the 1990s growth pattern. “There was a lot of pressure there, and that’s one of the things we need to learn as a community – to be prepared and respond to pressures not in the best interest of the city.”
