Hollister
– The city’s Planning Commission will hold a public hearing
tonight on a proposal to rezone 35.5 acres of land near Hillcrest
Road and Meridian Street to accommodate a 150,000-square-foot home
improvement store and 120 apartments.
Hollister – The city’s Planning Commission will hold a public hearing tonight on a proposal to rezone 35.5 acres of land near Hillcrest Road and Meridian Street to accommodate a 150,000-square-foot home improvement store and 120 apartments.
The 35.5 acres are zoned for mixed use. The Commission will consider whether or not to rezone the property at its meeting tonight. Of the 35.5 acres, 3.14 acres are being requested as medium residential for the apartment homes, which would likely be built after the city completes its $120 million sewer project and the state lifts its moratorium on new sewer connections in 2009, according to Planning Commissioner David Huboi. The remaining 32.27 acres would be zoned as general commercial land to be used to build a 150,000-square-foot home improvement store, such as Lowe’s Home Improvement.
Huboi said he hopes to have local residents and business owners present at tonight’s meeting so the Planning Commission can get feedback on the proposal.
“We want to know what people think about this,” he said. “There’s some concern about how this could affect some downtown businesses.”
John Barrett, owner of McKinnon Lumber Co. on Seventh Street in Hollister, said a giant home improvement store would cut into his business.
“It would hurt,” he said. “Those stores attract a lot of people at first, but I think we’d be able to keep a lot of our loyal customers. We perform a lot of services they don’t.”
McKinnon Lumber, which has been a staple in Hollister since the 1870s, would probably take a hit in terms of sales, but wouldn’t be forced out of business if a new home improvement store came to town, Barrett said.
Bob Yant, owner of Enterprise Electric on San Benito Street in Hollister, said he wasn’t worried about additional competition.
“Not at all. Competition never hurts if you run your business well enough,” he said. “But I don’t think we’re big enough to support a Lowe’s here and in Gilroy.”
The meeting will be at 6pm at City Hall.
