A group of San Benito County residents submitted more than 3,500 signatures Jan. 21 for a referendum petition that aims to reverse an end-of-the-year city council decision to expand Hollister’s sphere of influence for potential future development.
More than a dozen local residents—including representatives of the Hollister Guardians and Protect San Benito advocacy groups—dropped off the signatures at the Hollister City Clerk’s office.
The petition “protests the adoption of a Resolution of the City Council of the City of Hollister adopting the 2040 General Plan,” according to a summary of the proposed referendum. Specifically, the referendum’s proponents are protesting the General Plan resolution because it expands the city’s “sphere of influence” into about 3,000 acres of county farmland, according to Mary Hsia-Coron of Protect San Benito. The referendum sponsors fear that such a designation opens the door to the future development of agricultural land and open space to residential and commercial development.
Hollister City Clerk Jennifer Woodworth said the referendum’s proponents are listed as Larry Rebecchi, Samuel Ramos and Bella Rosales. When they dropped off more than 160 pages of petitions, they told Woodworth and others that it included 3,562 signatures.
The petition needs a minimum of about 10% of the city’s registered voters’ signatures, which is about 2,281, according to Hsia-Coron.
“We needed 2,281 valid signatures for our referendum to challenge a terrible 2040 General Plan which expanded the ‘sphere of influence’ by 3,000 acres into the farmland surrounding Hollister,” Hsia-Coron said in an email to this newspaper.
Woodworth said the submitted signatures need to be verified, which is the responsibility of the county registrar of voters office. That office has 30 days to verify the signatures after the city clerk hands them over, and if enough signatures are verified the referendum goes to the Hollister City Council for further consideration.
The council could either vote to rescind the General Plan resolution with a majority vote, or place the referendum on a ballot for the voters to decide, Woodworth explained. If it goes to the voters, the question could be placed on either a special election ballot or the next scheduled general election in November 2026.
Hsia-Coron added that the referendum’s proponents gathered a surplus of signatures in case some cannot be verified.
“The General Plan (approved by the council) allowed for 3,000 acres of development on farmland in the county on Fairview, Union and Buena Vista,” added Sarahi Andrade, another supporter of the referendum. “Basically our infrastructure now is not ready for more development—traffic is bad, schools are overpopulating. We first need to resolve those issues before we can grow more.”
Proponents added that the General Plan approved by the council in December—one of the last acts of a body that included members who lost reelection on Nov. 5—seems to defy the will of the voters. They cited the results of Measure A on the Nov. 5 ballot, which requires a future vote of the electorate for any effort to redesignate agricultural land to other uses.
Measure A passed in 2024 with more than 54% of voters casting “yes” votes.
According to various county Local Agency Formation Commissions in California counties, a sphere of influence is a city’s or county’s ultimate physical boundaries and service area—even if the land within those boundaries are not currently under a different jurisdiction. The sphere of influence typically includes a broader area than the city limits, and taps those lands for potential future annexation into the city limits.
Theres a reason why 3 members of the previous city council, including the now former mayor, Mia Casey were sent packing. The people sent a resounding and quite chilling message in both the primary and November elections to both city and county politicians that they are done with being ignored. when it comes to the matter of uncontrolled growth and a general plan that does nothing to address the near-term needs of Hollister proper and those who would be impacted in the county by unbridled growth. The lack of regard that the outgoing politicians showed for the community during their terms, in favor of pandering to developers who have little to no regard for the well being of our residents in both Hollister and SB county contributed to to some humiliating defeats at the ballots. Hats off to the people and those who fight for a better SBC!