After years of delay, developers looking to build a senior
community with 170 homes on 24 acres between Airline Highway and
Valley View Road are working to lay the foundation for the project
so they can break ground when the building moratorium is
lifted.
Hollister – After years of delay, developers looking to build a senior community with 170 homes on 24 acres between Airline Highway and Valley View Road are working to lay the foundation for the project so they can break ground when the building moratorium is lifted.
The project was put on hold in 2003 after the Local Agency Formation Commission – the agency charged with approving boundary changes in the county – denied a request to annex into the city the final eight acres needed to allow the project because of concerns about availability of city services.
“They denied the application because they said the city could not deliver on a plan for services,” said Marty Miller, who owns the property with local Realtor Marilyn Ferreira and her husband Richard.
But on Tuesday, the city council approved a plan for services – including police, fire, water and sewer to be paid for with developer fees – for the project, and LAFCO will consider an application to annex the remaining property either later this month or in October. This time around, the property owners will argue that the remaining eight acres is ‘substantially surrounded’ by city land and, therefore, is eligible for annexation.
“All I can say is we are hopeful,” Miller said.
The idea for the Annotti Senior Housing Project, as it is tentatively being called, stretches back nearly a decade to when Miller and the Ferreiras purchased an option to buy 24.4 acres located between Airline Highway and Valley View Road near Union Road.
“We were just basically talking about what can be done, in the way of development, that would be a benefit to the community,” Miller said. “It struck us that there isn’t a whole lot of senior housing in the community.”
In 1998, they bought the property with the intention of creating a community for adults over 55. Plans for the project include more than 100 houses and nearly 70 attached units – including affordable housing – as well as private streets, a community center, gardens and outdoor recreation areas.
All of that depends on whether LAFCO approves the annexation of the remaining property.
“Development can’t start until the entire property in annexed,” Development Services Director William Avera said.
According to Avera, the project will not be affected by the city’s growth control ordinance, because allocation for the 170 units was made before the ordinance, which limits new houses to 244 per year, went into force.
Board of Supervisors Chair Reb Monaco, who sits of the LAFCO board, said there is a good chance the annexation will be approved.
“I think it makes sense,” he said. “It should probably be annexed.”
During their meeting Tuesday, city council members seemed eager to see the project come to fruition.
“It sounds like an excellent project,” Councilman Doug Emerson said. “We need to have it.”
If LAFCO approves the annexation of the remaining eight acres, Miller and the Ferreiras will begin serious discussions with the city about how to make their idea a reality.
“We’ll begin talking to the city about details – what the city requires to move the project forward” Miller said.
The developers hope to have those details worked out by the time the building moratorium – imposed by the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board after a 15 million sewage spill in 2002 – is lifted. City Manager Clint Quilter has said that, barring some hang-up with environmental studies, the city will have a new sewer plant by late 2007, which would result in the moratorium being lifted.
“We want to be able to, the day the Regional Water Quality Control Board says you can do some building, be able to break ground,” Miller said.
Luke Roney covers politics and the environment for the Free Lance. Reach him at 831-637-5566 ext. 335 or at [email protected]
