Hollister citizens will get a chance Nov. 5 to voice their
opinions on growth
While local candidates have made headlines recently, a citywide
growth cap measure has been something of a wallflower this election
season.
Measure U will limit the number of new homes in the city to 244
a year once the new sewage treatment plant is built, presumably in
2005. A minimum of 40 home allocations will be used for low income
and very low-income housing. It will stay in effect for five years
after that.
Hollister citizens will get a chance Nov. 5 to voice their opinions on growth
While local candidates have made headlines recently, a citywide growth cap measure has been something of a wallflower this election season.
Measure U will limit the number of new homes in the city to 244 a year once the new sewage treatment plant is built, presumably in 2005. A minimum of 40 home allocations will be used for low income and very low-income housing. It will stay in effect for five years after that.
Earlier this year the measure made a lot of noise as it went through the machinations of the political process.
Its creators, J.J. Vogel’s WATCHDOG group, had worded the original ordinance in such a way that the city attorney felt it would be challenged in court. Working with City Attorney Elaine Cass, the group reworked the ordinance to make it legal under state law.
Last year the slow-growth group had gathered signatures for the initiative from 10 percent of city voters, which automatically qualified it for the ballot in November. The only difference between Measure U and the growth ordinance already in place by the city council is that Measure U cannot be overturned – except by the voters.
The city’s current growth cap, adopted in Sept. 2001, can be tossed out at any time by a majority vote of the five-member council.
Vogel said he hasn’t been walking door-to-door cheerleading for Measure U because he believes it sells itself. Public awareness of the city’s infrastructure and the out-of-control building boom has grown, he said, since the Regional Water Quality Control Board mandated a building moratorium on the city because of its overburdened sewage system.
“With what all the city government has put the people of Hollister through, hopefully it was enough to wake the voters up,” said Vogel.
Attorney Cass agrees, somewhat.
“I think that the voters clearly wanted a growth measure on the ballot,” said Cass. “At least the people who signed the original initiative.”
Measure U is on the Nov. 5 ballot for all voters living within city limits.
