Long-planned development along Airline Highway is for
55-and-over
Thirteen years after it was first proposed, a 166-unit senior
housing development on Airline Highway between Hazel Hawkins
Hospital and Fire Station No. 2 has received the go-ahead from city
officials.
Long-planned development along Airline Highway is for 55-and-over
Thirteen years after it was first proposed, a 166-unit senior housing development on Airline Highway between Hazel Hawkins Hospital and Fire Station No. 2 has received the go-ahead from city officials.
Silver Oaks, a nearly 25-acre development by Marilyn Ferreira Real Estate Inc. and Miller Homes, had its tentative map approved at the July 16 meeting of the Hollister Planning Commission. The developers can now move ahead with their infrastructure drawings and move those through the plan-check process, according to William Avera, the city’s development services director.
“There’s nothing at this point that precludes them from beginning the project,” he said. “It’s more about when they can get the funding. I can’t speak for them but can tell you that in the industry as a whole a lot of developments are having a very difficult time getting financing for new development projects.”
Marilyn Ferreira said she and her husband, Richard, are “elated about our project being approved.”
“This is something that will benefit our community,” she said. “Seniors are a segment of our community that hasn’t been addressed” in terms of a housing project like this.
The average home will be just under 2,000 square feet, said Richard Ferreira, with the project including two single-story models and three two-story models.
Every unit will have two bedrooms and two bathrooms on the ground floor, with the two-story units having “flex space” upstairs that can serve as another bedroom, office or den.
“There will be a very large, Mediterranean-style community center in the middle of the project,” Ferreira said. “It’s going to have a pool, exercise room, library and full catering kitchen.”
Each home will have a small yard, as Ferreira said most residents in the 55-and-over project will likely utilize the community center for recreational or social activities.
Original plans called for 40 percent of the development to be comprised of affordable housing units. Avera said the city and the developers struck a deal in which Silver Oaks will instead be a market-rate project and $50,000 per housing unit will be put in an affordable housing in-lieu fund that can be used to help finance or offset costs associated with other affordable housing projects in Hollister.
“This project is the first active adult community that we’ll have in the city,” Avera said. “It’s serving a housing population that we currently don’t serve. We have senior projects” but they are all low-cost or subsidized housing.
Marilyn Ferreira said there is a “pent-up demand” for an active senior community, though she acknowledges that the economy will play a factor in how quickly Silver Oaks breaks ground.
“I want it to happen as quickly as it can,” she said. “Everything is dependent on the recovery. With the state of the banks, I don’t know. But we see a light at the end of the tunnel.”
The development, first proposed in June 1996, was put on hold in 2003 when the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) – which approves boundary changes in the county – denied a request to annex into the city the final eight acres needed for the project. Officials at the time cited concerns about the availability of city services.
In December 2005, LAFCO reconsidered and approved the annexation of the land between Airline Highway and Valley View Road after the Hollister City Council approved the project’s plan for services – including police, fire, water and sewer – that will be funded by developer fees.
The project was put on hold by a building moratorium imposed on the city after a 15 million gallon sewage spill.
The main access for Silver Oaks will be off Valley View Road, with a secondary entrance at the southern end of Memorial Drive, according to Avera. A homeowner’s association will pay for landscape maintenance.
