San Juan Bautista
– The Mission City is moving forward with plans that could lead
to the development and annexation of more than 650 acres south of
Highway 156 to include a hotel and business park.
San Juan Bautista – The Mission City is moving forward with plans that could lead to the development and annexation of more than 650 acres south of Highway 156 to include a hotel and business park.
On Tuesday, RBF Consulting presented the City Council and Planning Commission with preliminary work on the South San Juan Specific Plan, which will guide development in the area.
Proposed projects for the land include a business park and a hotel resort. Councilman George Dias said the hotel and business park projects could give a huge boost to the city’s economy.
“If it was just my vote, I would give (the developer) permission to build today,” Dias said.
Of the four alternative plans presented by RBF Consulting, many speakers at Tuesday’s meeting said they prefer alternative four, but city leaders directed the consulting firm to prepare an environmental study of alternative one. Among other differences, alternative one includes a proposed hotel resort, while alternative four does not.
Project manager Mark Davis emphasized that the environmental study does not “set anything in stone.”
After the meeting, City Manager Jan McClintock echoed Davis’ comments. Studying the alternative with “the most options” will provide councilmembers with more information, she said.
“It doesn’t do you much good to study an EIR that doesn’t have any changes,” McClintock said.
Tuesday’s meeting was often combative, with planning commissioners and residents complaining that developments are being pushed forward without enough discussion or study.
“I don’t like any of these options,” Planning Commissioner Mike Ostrowski said. “And I don’t like the way the council is ramming this down everybody’s throat.”
Resident Rebecca McGovern said the city needs to work harder to preserve its history, rather than erasing that history with more development.
“If we want to keep (the city’s history), we can make it economically viable,” McGovern said.
Many also wondered about how proposed developments would affect the city’s economy.
The specific plan will cost between $250,000 and $300,000, McClintock said. Most of that money will come from property owners wanting to be annexed into the city.
Once the environmental study is finished this fall, McClintock said the City Council can discuss what’s next.
“Now that (the city’s water improvement project) is about to be finished, we can look at whether or not development is appropriate,” McClintock said. “Otherwise people are going to keep coming to us and asking us, ‘What if?’ and ‘Why not?'”
