Rancho San Benito developers offer up treasure trove of
amenities to county
San Benito County has two potential housing developments in the
works that could change the face of the county forever
– bringing with them more than 10,000 new houses and nearly
25,000 new residents if they are approved.
Rancho San Benito developers offer up treasure trove of amenities to county
San Benito County has two potential housing developments in the works that could change the face of the county forever – bringing with them more than 10,000 new houses and nearly 25,000 new residents if they are approved.
DMB Associates is in the early stages of a development that could bring 6,800 new housing units to San Benito County, in addition to a new school, a new library and new public safety facilities, not to mention new jobs. DMB’s project, dubbed El Rancho San Benito, would cover 1,800-acres along Highway 25 stretching to the Santa Clara County line.
Del Webb, another developer, is proposing a retirement community for residents 55 and over near the Hollister airport.
The 1,300 acre development could bring as many as 4,200 housing units reserved for senior citizens. With a combined housing total that would nearly double the number of units currently in San Juan and Hollister, the two projects are sure to have a big economic impact.
The DMB project, if approved, would bring 1,800 construction jobs to the region over the 10- to 12-year build-out phase. The plan incorporates retail and light industrial space that would provide an estimated 8,800 new permanent jobs in San Benito.
“We actually did an economic impact analysis,” said Ray Becker, a developer with DMB. “We had an outside firm take the development plan as we outlined it and look at the impact on the county services, county government.”
After comparing the costs likely to be incurred to potential revenues of the project, the consulting firm found that the development would pay for itself and all the extra offerings DMB has included, Becker said.
“When you compare it to the revenue of the development between now and 2020, there would be a surplus,” Becker said.
The San Benito County has not received an official project proposal from DMB and has not looked at the potential economic impact of the project on the county.
“We haven’t seen big projects like that,” said Susan Thompson, the County Administrative Officer for San Benito. “But the board has stated numerous times that a development needs to pay for itself, for its infrastructure.”
DMB has big plans for public services within their development, including a new fully staffed fire station, a sheriff’s substation with 27 new deputies and emergency medical services. The project includes a new branch library as well as $170 million to be used by the San Benito County Council of Governments for major highway improvements.
Those costs include not just infrastructure, but ongoing costs of maintaining services to the community over the long haul, Thompson said.
“There are a number of ways that that can occur,” Thompson said. “But normally what you see is a benefit assessment district or a special assessment district, where they pay for their own services.”
The county is likely to benefit from increased property taxes in the region, though Thompson and Tom Slavich, the county assessor, were not able to estimate the increases.
“Those areas will grow substantially in terms of the tax rates in that area,” Slavich said. “It will flourish. The value now in those regions is minimal.”
Slavich described the land as mostly cattle ranches and row crops on the outskirts of the county.
“Mainly it is pretty much raw land with some improvements,” Slavich said. “There would be a substantial increase [in tax revenue], but it’s impossible to say how much.”
Property and sales taxes are the main source of local revenues for San Benito County. The money is used at the discretion of the Board of Supervisors to support local programs such as the Sheriff’s department, libraries or state or federal programs that are implemented locally to which the county is required to contribute funds.
The DMB project could bring as many as 17,000 new residents to San Benito County and the Del Webb project, a senior-citizens development, could bring as many as 7,560, based on estimates of people per household in Hollister and figures provided by Del Webb. With 25,000 new residents bringing disposable incomes with them there has been a debate about who is likely to reap sale tax dollars – San Benito County or Gilroy?
The DMB development will include commercial developments mixed within the 1,800-acre community, keeping some sales in San Benito.
“It will be primarily neighborhood-serving kinds of retail,” Becker said. “Supermakets, bank branches and coffee shops … the kinds of things you’d want to have in your neighborhood.”
The retail is likely to be what is known as convenience retail, said Larry Cope, the executive director of the Gilroy Economic Development Corporation. Cope has been attending public sessions about the El Rancho San Benito project to keep informed about the possible impact it will have on the region and Gilroy.
“Grocery stores, hair salons and things like that would continue to grow in [San Benito],” Cope said. “There could be growth in food supply, or restaurants. Those are convenient things because people want to stop at them on the way home or want them close to home.”
DMB is not looking at including specialty retail shops such as jewelry stores or women’s dress shops, Becker said. The project calls for a shuttle service that would bring residents to downtown Hollister and San Juan Bautista for shopping.
Despite DMB’s tactics to keep sale tax in San Benito, in Hollister and San Juan, Cope said Gilroy is likely to capture some of the dollars.
Currently, Gilroy’s big box retailers, such as Best Buy, Costco and Barnes and Noble, as well as the Gilroy Outlets, draw shoppers from all over the region – and there’s no reason to believe Rancho San Benito will be any different.
“We are grabbing shoppers from Prunedale, Hollister and some towards Los Banos,” Cope said. “In addition to Morgan Hill and Gilroy. Those two and Hollister and the primary cities that feed the big box stores.”
While Cope said the new developments could be a win-win for both San Benito and southern Santa Clara County, there are many factors to weigh as DMB and Del Webb move forward with their projects, which have not yet been presented to the Board of Supervisors.
“The part you have to balance out is that you gain in sales tax and property tax,” Cope said. “But how does that effect everything else in the community? That’s something to look at with these projects.”
