Downtown Hollister could be a vibrant destination for the
region, if there is political will
Imagine a downtown Hollister with grass parkways, a year-round
farmers market and businesses and residents benefiting from each
other.
Downtown Hollister could be a vibrant destination for the region, if there is political will
Imagine a downtown Hollister with grass parkways, a year-round farmers market and businesses and residents benefiting from each other.
One Hollister group already has and they’re anxious to get the word out there.
The organization, Hollister New Urban Independent Research Group, envisions a downtown core that contains residential units, plenty of restaurants and clubs that would be a regional draw and provide an atmosphere that encourages walking – a concept dubbed “new urbanism.”
New urbanism is a design movement whose popularity increased in the 1980s and especially the 1990s, according to Jeff Pyle, Economic Development Manager for the City of Hollister.
New urbanism is a reaction to sprawl.
The primary objective of the project was to research the most recent trends and developments in the successful revitalization of city centers and provide people in Hollister with a conceptual vision. A number of town centers and downtown revitalizations have been incredibly successful, said Lanette Lanning a architecture major at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo who worked with the Hollister New Urban Independent Research Group for the duration of the summer designing renderings for how Hollister could put new urbanism into use in the downtown area.
The research group is a nonprofit citizen’s committee that wants to create a vision of what Hollister could look like, once the building moratorium is lifted and the Highway 25 bypass goes through.
The idea is to promote economic stability, physical and social well being and, therefore, enhance the quality of life for all of San Benito County citizens.
The residents on the committee include Tony Ruiz, Chris Breen, Joe Morris, Gordon Machado, Scott Fuller and Scott Morgan. Some of the concepts the group envisioned include a community grocery store, parks with open spaces for people to walk and play a community center, a civic plaza incorporated with government buildings, transit stops, mixed-use building and abundant landscaping – just to name a few of the ideas.
In addition to Lanning’s major in architecture she is also minoring in sustainable environments. She is a former resident of Hollister; born and raised, making her an ideal candidate to develop the renderings of what the city center could look like.
“The idea was to create these renderings and get them out there so people can see what could be. To get the images out there so there are suggestions that people could potentially work from. I had design control and a lot of the things I envisioned are out of the realm of possibility for Hollister, but it’s a start,” Lanning said.
One of the concepts she came up with that excited her most was the farmers market complex – this is a site that could host a year-round farmers market with open space for people to walk and an amphitheater for downtown concerts.
“We really wanted a location that would encourage younger people to come out,” Lanning said.
These are all just ideas, Lanning said. It is her passion to see Hollister succeed and thrive since it is her birthplace and her family lives here, but she said that compared with areas like San Luis Obispo, which have thriving downtowns and businesses that stay open past 5 p.m., Hollister is lacking.
“We’re not just trying to change the downtown, we’re trying to change the way people think in terms of development in Hollister,” Lanning said.
