Council gives OK for 260-home Rancho del Sol community
While Hollister’s development hands are still tied because of a
state-mandated sewage hookup moratorium, its neighbor Gilroy is
approving affordable housing like gangbusters. On Tuesday the
Gilroy City Council approved an amendment to city zoning policy
that would allow the 260-home housing community called Rancho del
Sol to move forward, a project created by the nonprofit affordable
housing developers of South County Housing. The vote was 6-0, with
Mayor Al Pinheiro recused from the proceedings because of his
business interests with South County Housing.
Council gives OK for 260-home Rancho del Sol community
While Hollister’s development hands are still tied because of a state-mandated sewage hookup moratorium, its neighbor Gilroy is approving affordable housing like gangbusters.
On Tuesday the Gilroy City Council approved an amendment to city zoning policy that would allow the 260-home housing community called Rancho del Sol to move forward, a project created by the nonprofit affordable housing developers of South County Housing. The vote was 6-0, with Mayor Al Pinheiro recused from the proceedings because of his business interests with South County Housing.
At the same meeting, the council also approved a future 24-unit housing/townhouse complex in the downtown area, across the tracks where the old Greyhound Bus Station once operated. It’s part of a larger urban renewal plan called The Cannery project, and will sport four stories with an underground parking garage. Again, Pinheiro recused himself because it’s another South County Housing project, and the vote passed unanimously.
But the Rancho del Sol project didn’t get approved without long discussions among city leaders, including members of Gilroy’s advisory planning commission just a few weeks ago. At issue are two city laws that seem to be at odds with one another: one local ordinance requires all affordable housing projects to be 100 percent affordable; another law, created last year, falls under the Neighborhood District Policy that requires all levels of housing – both market rate and affordable – to be evenly dispersed throughout the city, not bunched up in pockets of low-income and high-income neighborhoods.
Some council members were concerned if the Rancho del Sol development would follow the rule of mixing the different housing throughout the project. SCH representatives assured them it would. The notion of scattering the different housing was also challenged.
“We don’t want to cluster affordable housing,” Councilman Craig Gartman said. “It has to be scattered. Does that mean we’re not going to have any more affordable housing? We went through this with the Village Green. We’re changing everything to accommodate one project and I can’t support this.”
“The Village Green was a for-profit [project],” said Councilman Peter Arellano.
The project, originally to be 303 units, was approved at a recent council meeting, but at the same time the council nixed an amendment to local law that would allow the project to move forward and get around the 100 percent affordable clause.
To get around the discrepancy, the city council hopes to create the Affordable Market Rate Exemption rule, applicable to such cases as Rancho del Sol. South County Housing officials also did their part to get the project launched. They whittled it down to 260 homes. The project will be built on Monterey Street, and stretch north and south of Cohansey Avenue.
But the problem with the 100 percent affordable housing clause still persists, and Gartman warned his fellow council members that sooner or later, the issue would come home to roost – perhaps in the form of a lawsuit. Gartman said a land-use attorney told him he was still pursuing the city ordinance, even after it was shot down in court.
“He said, ‘Guess what? I’m appealing it,'” Gartman said.
When South County Housing builds a project, which enables low-income white-collar workers such as nurses, teachers and first responders to buy into the American dream, they have to build market rate homes for more affluent people in order to pay for the lower-income housing. Since its founding in 1979, SCH has created more than 2,000 affordable homes in four counties, with some 750 in the Gilroy area.
“Eighty percent of our homeowners live and work in Gilroy,” said SCH representative Jan Lindenthal, speaking before the council.
Another project approved, this time with very little discussion, was the 24-unit apartment building in the Cannery Project. The housing complex will feature a modern urban design and have an array of city-type living options, all affordable, including loft-style apartments, condominiums and townhouses.
