A Pacific Grove developer has submitted plans to replace a
cherry orchard in south Gilroy with 349 prefabricated homes
targeted at active older adults.
A Pacific Grove developer has submitted plans to replace a cherry orchard in south Gilroy with 349 prefabricated homes targeted at active older adults.
Armed with a project that would help Gilroy reach state affordable housing goals, Bill Cusack and Mark Wasserman of CW Development Company want to build the units off site and then ship them in pieces to be assembled off Bolsa Road in south Gilroy. In order to do this, the men have to convince the city council to re-zone 83 acres of land from open space to residential and to modify Gilroy’s long-term general plan – which encourages affordable housing but also calls for eventual commercial and light industrial development in what is now a mostly agricultural area. The council must also accept an environmental impact report addressing the ecological and social changes that would come from paving over yet another patch of farmland.
The single-family houses made by Oregon-based Palm Harbor Homes will go on 60 of the project’s 83 acres with the rest remaining as cherry trees, which everyone will have in their backyards, Cusack said. A professional operator will maintain them, and Paradigm Senior Living – the company that manages Village Green retirement community along Santa Teresa Boulevard near Eagle Ridge – will also help run the gated ranch that will have a theater, community and business centers, wireless Internet and many other amenities. The development will technically fall under the State Mobile Home Park Authority’s jurisdiction if the city approves the project.
Cusack has completed projects in San Jose and Salinas and is trying to move Cherry Orchard Ranch through because it would be considered affordable. Gilroy – which still has permits to build affordable homes left to give out after doling out all of its market-rate permits last year – is far below the affordable housing quota set by the Association of Bay Area Governments, which bases its numbers on data from the California Department of Housing and Community Development. Affordable houses are reserved for those earning up to 120 percent of the county’s median income – $88,600 for an individual and $123,000 for a family of four – according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development which uses census estimates.
For the last year, Cusack had been unable to procure a swath of residential land within the city that would make his affordable project pencil out, so he has proposed to buy a portion of the orchard owned by the Denice and Filice families. CW Development would then offer 35-year leases for the pre-fabricated homes and the land they sit on, which still falls within the city.
“It’s a pretty compelling argument,” Councilman Bob Dillon said.
Along with others on the dais, Dillon has defended Gilroy’s inability to meet state affordable housing demands because Gilroy’s median family income typically lags behind the county’s and the city – unlike most others throughout the Bay Area – has a self-imposed growth limit. The city also lacks a redevelopment agency that could help fund affordable housing projects. For these reasons, Gilroy’s current housing plan from 2002 did not satisfy the state, effectively barring Gilroy from sharing a $2.8 billion affordable housing pot.
“I’m definitely willing to take a look at this project, specifically because we’ve gotten so much grief over our housing element – maybe this’ll make them shut up,” Dillon said.
City staff is currently working on a new housing outline for the council to review after the Housing Advisory Committee does so this summer. The outline, known as a “housing element,” looks at how many homes have been built and how many have been approved, and then identifies land to accommodate planned development – including affordable housing. City staff are also working on an Inclusionary Housing Ordinance that would require 20 percent of the city’s affordable stock to remain so through deed restrictions for up to 30 years. In anticipation of this, Cusack has set aside 20 percent of the manufactured homes, all of which would debut as affordable units.
“We’re confident that our 349 units would be a substantial contribution to the city’s affordable requirements,” Cusack said.
But Mayor Al Pinheiro – who has met with Cusack along with Dillon – said he planned on evaluating it with Gilroy, not the state, in mind.
“With all due respect to Mr. Cusack, he’s not coming to the city because he’s worried about our affordable housing requirements. He’s a businessman thinking about what’s in it for him, and this city council and the planning commission will decide if this project fits this community and its vision,” Pinheiro said.
The General Plan encourages manufactured home developments as a means of achieving affordable housing goals. The applicant has also argued that there will be an “explosive need” to house baby boomers between 55 and 74 years old. This population was 12 percent of the greater Gilroy area in 2000 and is expected to reach 18 percent by 2013, according to census data.
Between 1999 and 2005, Gilroy doled out 2,701 housing permits, 435 – or 16 percent – of which were for affordable housing. At the time, ABAG recommended 78 percent of all units be affordable, but has since revised its expectations to 50 percent – or 811 units of the 1,600 the city has approved and planned for the next six years with developers such as the Glen Loma Group. Glen Loma Ranch along Santa Teresa will add 1,693 to the city.
All told, the council has doled out more than 4,300 housing units for the 2004-13 time period, the vast majority of which were for market-rate homes. Before that, Gilroy’s housing plan from the 1990s fell victim to two lawsuits brought by nine different poverty law groups alleging the city’s housing policy neglected county numbers. However, the city won both cases.
As of Monday, Gilroy still had 96 of its 464 affordable units left to give out, according to city documents. Cusack has his eyes on those 96 and plans to apply for the other 250 when the city’s next housing allocation process occurs in 2013. However, he dismissed speculation that he planned to sue the city if it rejected his application.
“I think the city’s pretty well aware of the law,” Cusack said.
