Public has one more chance to sound off about preferred sit
If Gavilan College lands its campus on the district’s preferred
site near Airline Hwy. and Fairview Road, the current property
owner hopes to see it mostly surrounded by houses.
Public has one more chance to sound off about preferred sit
If Gavilan College lands its campus on the district’s preferred site near Airline Hwy. and Fairview Road, the current property owner hopes to see it mostly surrounded by houses.
Early discussions about the site did not touch on what might surround the college, but more recently, the idea of housing has emerged in district presentations.
The prospect of a housing development is significant because historically, Fairview Road has formed local planning’s Maginot Line, what was regarded as the eastern bulwark of urban development in Hollister. The area east of Fairview carries designations requiring minimum home lots of five acres. But the area is drawing increasing attention from developers. Santana Ranch, a proposal for more than 1,000 homes, would rise east of Fairview between Sunnyslope and Hillcrest roads, if developers hold sway.
Gavilan staff and trustees agree that growth in the area demands that the district expand beyond its Gilroy campus, which is now supplemented by small satellites in Morgan Hill and Hollister. In March 2005, area voters passed Measure E, a bond issue that promised $12.7 million for a new Hollister campus along with funds for a third campus in Coyote Valley and for updating the 45-year-old Gilroy site.
Gavilan first opted for a site just north of Hollister Airport, but public outcry prompted the district to reconsider and the Fairview site rose to the top of the list.
Gavilan proposes to purchase 80 acres of a 136-acre parcel from a Morgan Hill holding company. The Gilroy campus is 150 acres, according to the college district.
The company, Fairview Corners, envisions that the 56 acres not purchased by Gavilan would be developed as single-family housing, according to Richard Oliver, a principal with Fairview.
The last in a series of three public meetings regarding a new Gavilan College campus in San Benito County will take place Jan. 31 at Veterans Memorial Building from 6 p.m. to 8p.m., said Steve Kinsella, president/superintendent of Gavilan College
The campus would include computer and science labs, a career center, library, outdoor amphitheater, theater and sports fields.
The board of trustees has not made a formal decision regarding the site of the new campus, according to Gavilan Trustee Tom Breen, of Hollister.
Although it has not officially been purchased, down payments were made on the site near Airline Hwy. and Fairview Road, Breen said.
The board of trustees will probably authorize the purchase, Breen said.
Neither college officials nor staff from Fairview would build the residential housing, Oliver said. A future buyer would develop the property.
It is unclear how many homes might be built, he said.
“At this point it’s very preliminary,” Oliver said. “We have to work with the college first.”
Those reviews include access on the property to the water and sewer system, drainage, environmental issues, seismic issues, topography and traffic, Kinsella said.
“By the time you get to closing, you know this site will work as a college campus,” Kinsella said.
At the Jan. 31 meeting, the board of trustees will seek public input regarding options for the campus site, layout and programs, Kinsella said.
“We’re going to be an area that is going to be big enough to need a full campus,” Breen said. “We also believe that people in this area deserve all the amenities of a full campus.”
Some residents, including Mark Dickson, do not think San Benito County needs a full campus.
Dickson lives near the Fairview Road site.
“What we need right now is an easy way for kids to take more classes than are offered at the Fourth Street campus,” he said. “It’s just not necessary to have football fields, lights, and everything that they have included on the plan.”
Officials disagree.
“I think most people around here are pretty happy that there’ll be a full campus for the long haul,” Breen said.
The population of San Benito County is projected to increase by 50 percent by 2030, Kinsella said.
“It’s a matter of staying ahead of that,” he said.
The site is also too far out of town, Dickson said.
Breen disagreed.
“It’s not like we decided, let’s get way out of town just to piss a bunch of people off,” he said.
In the short term, Gavilan needs more space to meet student demand, Kinsella said.
“We are out of space immediately,” he said. “We need more space just to handle what we have now.”
The new campus would be built over a 15 to 25 year period of time, Breen said. The time period depends on factors that are not in the board’s control, he said.
“Mostly population,” he said. “Also state budget issues.”
Kinsella agreed.
“The actual timeline is hard to give you, because any number of delays can come up,” he said.
Officials are also planning a full campus in Coyote Valley, which is located south of San Jose, Kinsella said.
The site is two years into an environmental review, he said.
Currantly undeveloped, Coyote Valley is the future site of a full community that is being planned by officials from San Jose.
Officials would spend more to buy the Coyote Valley site than the site in San Benito County, Breen said.
“It cost more,” he said. “The land was just more valuable.”
