Hollister
– City Councilors this week gave staff the go-ahead to prepare a
report that will explore how developer Pulte Homes’ ballot
initiative seeking an amendment to the city’s general plan will
affect the important land-planning document.
Hollister – City Councilors this week gave staff the go-ahead to prepare a report that will explore how developer Pulte Homes’ ballot initiative seeking an amendment to the city’s general plan will affect the important land-planning document.
Pulte subsidiary Del Webb announced in February plans to build a 4,400-house community for those 55 and older on the northern outskirts of Hollister. To accommodate the project – including a public golf course and walking trails on about 1,300 acres near the Hollister Municipal Airport – Pulte is seeking a new general plan designation and exemption from the city’s voter-approved growth restrictions. Last month, Pulte announced that it had collected sufficient signatures from local voters to get its initiative on the November ballot.
The impact report, the drafting of which councilors approved Monday, will study the effect that Pulte’s initiative would have on the overall general plan, according to Development Services Director Bill Avera.
“It will look at consistency issues, inconsistency issues,” he said.
Adopted in 2005 following more than two years of discussion between city officials and residents, Hollister’s general plan calls for tight growth outward from the city’s core. The Pulte initiative, if successful at the polls, would amend the fledgling general plan to include a new “mixed-use residential growth community” land-use designation. The initiative would also make the Pulte project exempt from Hollister’s Measure U, which limits residential allocations to 244 per year.
While Pulte representatives say the proposed general plan amendment is a minor change, at least one Hollister city council member said he believes that a ballot initiative would likely change the philosophy of the general plan, which seeks to limit the sprawling development experienced by Hollister in the 1990s.
In addition to saying the amendment would contravene the intent of the general plan, Councilman Doug Emerson said he doesn’t believe that a ballot initiative is an effective way to amend the document after the city and community spent so much time on it.
Others on the council, like Councilwoman Monica Johnson, have said that the size of the development is a concern, but voters will be the ones to decide whether or not it becomes a reality in Hollister. If voters approve the project, she said, it is the job of the council to make sure it moves forward in a way that benefits the city.
The Pulte project has received the support of Hollister Downtown Association President Sheila Stevens, who is also a downtown merchant. She said the senior community would help rejuvenate the city. City Councilman Brad Pike has also said he thinks the development could benefit Hollister. But, he said, he wants to see more details before he develops a firm opinion on the project.
Work on the impact report, the cost of which is not to exceed $20,000, can begin once the county office of elections certifies the signatures collected by Pulte last month. The county has until July 6 to get that done.
Even if Pulte’s ballot initiative is successful in November, Avera stressed that the developer still has a long road to travel before it can begin building.
Pulte must go before the Local Agency Formation Commission to have the project site, which is on county land, annexed into Hollister. Also, the project will have to go through extensive state-mandated environmental studies and the city’s regular planning process.
“They have a long way to go in the process before any homes are built,” Avera said.
Luke Roney is city editor at the Hollister Free Lance. Contact him at 831-637-5566 x 332 or at lr****@fr***********.com
