With only two meetings left before three San Benito County
Supervisors leave office, the board approved a controversial
ordinance to restrict hillside development by a vote of 3-1
Tuesday, disappointing the majority of community members who had
come to speak against it.
Hollister – With only two meetings left before three San Benito County Supervisors leave office, the board approved a controversial ordinance to restrict hillside development by a vote of 3-1 Tuesday, disappointing the majority of community members who had come to speak against it.
At least one Supervisor-elect plans to openly oppose the ordinance once he is seated in January. Dist. 5 Supervisor-elect Jaime De La Cruz said the adoption of the ordinance was premature and showed a clear defiance of public sentiment on the part of the supervisors.
“It saddens me that the outgoing board pushes their teeth into the public efforts. Even going out, they refused to listen to the public’s will. This ordinance went along with Measure G, and the voters rejected that by 70 percent,” said De La Cruz. “When I get on the board, I will make a motion to push it forward and overturn the ordinance.”
The ordinance will constrain the design, size and development of homes to be built in subdivisions of more than five houses on hillsides with a slope of more than 15 percent, according to Assistant Director of Planning Fred Goodrich. Under the new restrictions, homes can’t have floor areas of more than 10,000 square feet and will have a height limit of 28 feet.
“I think the public comment was that we should study the ordinance more. But we’ve been looking at this ordinance for three years as far as I know, and at some point I think it’s just time to adopt it and say we’ll work with it and tweak it as we go,” said Supervisor Pat Loe.
The restrictions of the ordinance are intended to maintain the rural character of the county’s hillsides and preserve viewsheds from private residences, according to the ordinance. Now that it has been adopted, the ordinance should take effect after 30 days, said Supervisor Reb Monaco, who cast the lone vote against the ordinance.
Plans for the ordinance started about 16 months ago when the Board of Supervisors directed the planning department to investigate the impact of ridgeline construction, Goodrich said. During that time, the planning department held three public workshops on the ordinance.
“The overall consensus of the people at these workshops was that they opposed the ordinance,” Goodrich told the board members, then reminded them of the planning commission’s Nov. 3 recommendation that they reject the Hillside Ordinance.
Monaco said after the meeting, “I think it still needs more planning and there are still a lot of questions to be answered.”
Various speakers at the meeting raised questions including how ridgeline development constraints will affect the more agriculturally productive farmland below, how the proposed Transfer of Development Credits program will fare if the value of hillside property is reduced and what will happen to the owners of hillside lots bought years ago for the specific purpose of building homes.
Several speakers lambasted the board, saying they did not have the community’s best interest in mind in supporting the ordinance.
“If (Gov.) Arnold (Schwarzenegger) were here today and he saw this board of supervisors, he would say ‘You people are being selfish,'” said Joseph Zanger, who said his family has lived on one hillside since 1900.
Zanger was one of about 40 county residents who came to the public hearing Tuesday. The majority of those who spoke were opposed to the ordinance.
Still, there were a few members of the community who spoke out in favor of the ordinance. One, Ruben Lopez of San Juan Bautista, said not passing the ordinance could cause safety hazards.
“I watched the Oakland hills burning years ago from a hilltop in San Francisco,” Lopez said. “A friend of mine had a house up there, and it was completely destroyed. The fire trucks couldn’t get up the hill, and the wind didn’t help matters. If you’re going to build a few houses on a hillside, that’s fine, but don’t build hundreds,” Lopez said.
Supervisor Richard Scagliotti was not at the meeting.
Jessica Quandt covers politics for the Free Lance. Reach her at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or at [email protected].
