Hollister
– Developer Award Homes’s 677-unit subdivision is one step
closer to construction.
Hollister – Developer Award Homes’s 677-unit subdivision is one step closer to construction.
On Monday night, the City Council voted 3-1 to approve the project’s final environmental impact report. City Planning Manager Mary Paxton said that barring an appeal, the vote was the council’s last chance to review the project.
According to Redevelopment Agency Director Bill Avera, the planning commission will likely vote on the project’s tentative site map – the city’s final approval of the overall project – at its May 24 meeting.
A number of Hollister residents spoke at the council meeting to criticize the project and its effect on the city; many of the anti-Award Homes speeches were punctuated by applause from the audience.
Tony Ruiz, who heads a group of locals pushing higher density, mixed-use housing, said he objects to the project’s car-centric design.
“This thing is a dinosaur,” he said. Noting that many residents blame Hollister’s current sewer moratorium on rapid and poorly-planned growth in the 1990s, Ruiz said, “This is the kind of thing that got us into trouble.”
Jennifer Coile said that in the future, the city needs to make sure developments pay for all their effects to the city. She also complained that as a commuter, it was impossible for her to get a copy of the final EIR before the planning commission meeting.
But not everyone opposed the development. Hollister resident John Ucovich said Award Homes would provide a much-needed shot in the arm for the city’s economy. And representatives from the San Benito High School District and the Hollister School District said they’re working with the developer to ensure that Award Homes pays for the improvements needed to serve a bigger student population.
“I’m going to do something unusual,” Hollister Superintendent Ron Crates said. “I’m going to thank the developers.”
The EIR states that all of the project’s impacts can be mitigated except for traffic. Drivers will likely see increased delays at San Benito Street and Nash Road, San Benito and Fourth Streets and along San Benito Street/San Felipe Road between Hillcrest Road and Highway 25, according to the remember.
Councilwoman Pauline Valdivia, the lone councilmember voting against the EIR, said she could “go on all night” about her reservations, but she said her biggest concern is the increased traffic.
“Can you imagine the cars on the road?” she said. “It’s phenomenal.”
Award Homes signed a development agreement with the City Council in October 200, but the project was held up by years of litigation. The remaining three councilmembers – Councilwoman Eugenia Sanchez was absent – all noted that the project has been in the works for longer than they’ve been on the council.
“If we had been there at the beginning, the project would have looked really different,” Councilwoman Monica Johnson said.
And Councilman Doug Emerson noted that even if the council brought the Award Homes project to a halt, that wouldn’t stop local development.
“If it’s not Award Homes, it’s going to be something else,” he said.
Paxton has said that if everything goes smoothly, construction could begin when the city’s sewer moratorium is lifted at the end of 2008.
Anthony Ha covers local government for the Free Lance. Reach him at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or [email protected].
