Supervisors voted unanimously to further discuss the planning
commission’s recommendation to disallow allocations for the Santana
Ranch project at this time and to award the 50 available allotments
this year to five other builders with smaller proposals. The board
is set to discuss it again at 1:30 p.m. Feb. 3.
HOLLISTER
The San Benito County Board of Supervisors delayed a decision Tuesday over the 1,100-unit Santana Ranch proposal and whether to start allowing some allocations now or wait for an expected overhaul to the growth ordinance and consider it later.
Supervisors voted unanimously to further discuss the planning commission’s recommendation to disallow allocations for the Santana Ranch project at this time and to award the 50 available allotments this year to five other builders with smaller proposals. The board is set to discuss it again at 1:30 p.m. Feb. 3.
The developer, meanwhile, had appealed the planning commission’s decision to the board while pushing for the partial allocations and pointing to the same partial allotment being allowed previously for the San Juan Oaks development.
County officials, though, have been hesitant to give partial allocations to Santana Ranch because they argue it actually goes against precedent, while supervisors are set to consider changes to the growth ordinance that could expand the number of allowable units per year while also exempting certain projects from its regulations. The county’s ordinance currently allows for a 1-percent growth increase each year.
“Without allocations, this project can’t move forward,” said county planner Byron Turner. “It could be exempt in the future.”
The development did have the highest score among applications on the planning department’s scale, as developers have pointed out, but still came away with no allocations.
“We understand what the planning commission took in their decision,” said Santana Ranch project manager Jim Weaver.
He added that a continuance to May would not have any bearing on the project as a whole. The board had wanted to have the continuance on this issue to be until May 12, the date when they could potentially have the growth ordinance amended.
“Our interest is getting our foot in the door,” Weaver said.
Even if the county had enough allocations to award some to the 1,092-unit development, the current growth ordinance says no more than 50 percent of the year’s allocations can go to a single project and 25 percent of the total must go toward minor projects of four or fewer units, planners have pointed out.
The Santana Ranch development is scheduled to be built off of Fairview Road between John Smith Road and Santa Ana Valley Road. The development is planned for 292 acres and would feature the 1,092 dwellings including single-family homes, multiple-family homes, apartments, a school and parks.
“We’d like to come away with allocations today, but we understand the decision,” said Frank Guerra, a co-developer of the project.
Al Guerra, his brother and co-developer in the project, told supervisors the ordinance is unfair and they should allow partial allotments.
