Measure G promotes a shift of future residential development
toward Hollister. While city officials say the population grew too
fast in recent years
– that it’s time to focus on commercial and industrial
expansion.
Those conflicting prospects have been a topic of debate
– among several subjects – regarding the measure on the March 2
ballot.
Measure G promotes a shift of future residential development toward Hollister. While city officials say the population grew too fast in recent years – that it’s time to focus on commercial and industrial expansion.
Those conflicting prospects have been a topic of debate – among several subjects – regarding the measure on the March 2 ballot.
The transferable development credit (TDC) program is one of three major provisions in Measure G, also called the Growth Control Initiative.
Many details of the TDC program have been left open for discussion, according to Janet Brians, a member of the organization that drafted the initiative.
But essentially, it would foster a system that financially compensates landowners of “agricultural productive” land – properties that would substantially drop in value if the measure passes.
Agricultural productive land is currently zoned in 5-acre parcels. Much of it would be bumped to 20-acre parcels – making subdivision, and eventual sale at a premium price, difficult.
Those landowners would be allotted a certain number of credits, depending on how much land they own. They could then sell those, for a yet-to-be determined price, to developers wishing to build in specified urban areas.
The measure would initiate the program with ag productive lands only because, Brians said, “This is what we felt was most threatened in the near future.”
Though other land, such as agricultural rangeland – which would increase in parcel size under the measure from 40 to 160 – may also be considered in the future, she said.
The specific locations for allowed development haven’t been determined either. But Brians said areas directly east and south of Hollister – as well as in the city – seem to be logical spots. Land in such places, she said, “is not the richest farm soil.”
“I would say it encourages (development) in those areas,” Brians said.
She is also on a committee, appointed by the Board of Supervisors, to map out a TDC program. They have been working on the plan since last summer. It is unknown when their proposal will be finished.
Ideally for supporters of the measure, Brians said, Hollister would cooperate with the county and involve itself in the TDC program.
Such collaboration – or at least its potential – is part of the Hollister General Plan that was last updated in 1995, according to Hollister’s head planner Bill Card. And a TDC program of some sort has been a part of the county General Plan for more than a decade, Brians said.
But Hollister is in the process of another update to its growth blueprint, which should be done by this summer. And Card said he doesn’t anticipate there being any mention of a TDC program in that document.
Since TDC programs are so complicated, he said, he doesn’t want the General Plan Steering Committee getting “bogged down in it.”
In recent months, City Manager Dale Shaddox has been vocal about Hollister’s intention to avoid a mass of residential development after the building moratorium expires in 2005.
The current halt on most new building permits was caused by rapid growth and an ensuing breach of the sewer plant causing a 15-million gallon spill in May 2002.
And while Shaddox said he is “not really familiar” with Measure G, he knows he’s not interested in expanding the city’s limits – as Hollister continually did throughout the 1990s.
“If the city is going to be required to provide services, of course it would require annexation,” Shaddox said. “That makes me very nervous.”
He is, however, a proponent of infill development – of land pockets already within city boundaries. But even then, officials would promote commercial and industrial expansion or that of badly needed affordable housing – “certainly not single-family residential subdivisions,” he said.
Brians said she agrees with that philosophy. And, she pointed out, “I don’t think there are a lot of quick bucks for a lot of farmers immediately.”
Meanwhile, Hollister already maintains a growth cap, passed by voters in November 2002, of 244 houses a year. And while the county’s 1-percent growth cap would continue under the measure’s provisions, an additional 1/2 percent would be allowed from TDC developments (another 1/2 percent would also be allowed for affordable housing).
Brians called a potential TDC program a long-term adjustment. And “an awful lot” has not been determined, she said.
“One way or the other,” she said, whether the measure passes, “it will occur.”
The notion of such a program as a land management tool has been around since the 1970s, Brians said. She pointed out that several communities have been successful, including Morgan Hill’s use of TDC’s to protect a mountain.
Shaddox and Card both attended previous meetings of the TDC committee. There weren’t enough concrete answers at the time for any commitments from the city.
“We just simply told them,” Shaddox said, “we’d be happy to review and respond whenever they get to the point of drafting a proposed program.”
