It’s 10:00 on a Friday night, and a crowd of people is dancing
to re-mixed Beyonce music three stories above downtown Hollister.
Above them, locals sit in a rooftop lounge sipping cocktails and
enjoying a warm, Central California summer night.
Hollister – It’s 10:00 on a Friday night, and a crowd of people is dancing to re-mixed Beyonce music three stories above downtown Hollister. Above them, locals sit in a rooftop lounge sipping cocktails and enjoying a warm, Central California summer night.
An impossible dream? Maybe. At least for now.
Hollister restaurateur Ignacio Velazquez has abandoned plans for a nightclub downtown, citing safety concerns and the seemingly omnipresent sewer moratorium as hurdles not worth trying to clear.
“We thought it would be nice to have a lounge area where people could watch the sun set every night; we thought it would be good to bring a little more night life into downtown Hollister,” Velazquez said.
In what is currently an empty three-story building across from Velazquez’s restaurant The Vault, he had hoped to set up a large banquet and event area and a westward-facing rooftop lounge. But with a rooftop area came safety worries and the possibility of putting more people in one building than its sewer system could handle.
“People said it might trigger a need for holding tanks,” Velazquez said, referring to the idea of installing temporary but regularly-pumped sewer holding tanks underground until the city’s sewer moratorium lifts. While this isn’t being practiced yet, the city council is looking into allowing it and the Regional Water Quality Control Board has given it the OK.
City Manager Clint Quilter has given the Hollister City Council brief presentations on the possibility of allowing new businesses to use holding tanks to circumvent the moratorium, but the tanks themselves and the regular pumping and transportation of sewage could be a costly short-term investment for new business owners, according to local developer Ken Lindsay, who has helped promote awareness of holding tank idea. Lindsay estimated the construction and installation of a temporary holding tank could cost between $5,000 and $20,000.
But even after the moratorium lifts – which Quilter recently told the council may not be until 2006 or even early 2007 – Velazquez said he won’t start pushing for a Hollister hot-spot again.
“I just don’t have the time,” he said.
Jessica Quandt covers politics for the Free Lance. Reach her at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or at [email protected].
