Hollister sewer moratorium ends Monday
Gentlemen, start your Skilsaws.
The city of Hollister on Monday can start issuing construction
permits for the first time since 2002.
Hollister sewer moratorium ends Monday
Gentlemen, start your Skilsaws.
The city of Hollister on Monday can start issuing construction permits for the first time since 2002.
It was then that the state’s Regional Water Quality Control Board ordered Hollister to cease permitting any more sewer hookups in the wake of a spill that sent 15 million gallons of partially treated effluent into the San Benito River.
Now, with a $120 million treatment plant running five months ahead of schedule and due for commissioning before year’s end, the state is ready to lift the restriction, with one hitch. Final sewer hookups will still have to wait until the treatment plant is certified, but construction can begin any time, starting Monday.
It’s been a long time coming. The sewer moratorium is widely blamed for job losses and slack business, creating a malaise that long predates the current national real estate downturn.
Hollister City Manager Clint Quilter predicted that some of the first people standing in the permit line might be those eager to begin commercial developments.
“Marriott Hotel just turned in all their applications [for a four-story hotel off Gateway Drive near Tiffany Motors] a couple weeks ago,” Quilter said.
A large inventory of unsold homes may mean that residential construction does not immediately take off, Quilter said, but he still sees the end of the ban as an overwhelming success.
“Not being able to issue building permits has been devastating to the community so the goal has always been to move it ahead as quickly as possible when we could,” Quilter said.
The president of the county’s Association of Realtors said the news should be cause for the whole community to celebrate.
“I believe it means opportunity for our town to create more housing, newer housing, and I believe it will be a benefit to our community,” Renee Kunz said. “There have been landowners who have not been able to build for many, many years and they would like to get on with their lives. It’s only positive.”
There are about 450 homes on the market this week, Kunz said. But part of that inventory is due to foreclosures and short sales, she explained, and that can help drive prices throughout the area down.
“It’s an opportunity for homebuyers and investors,” she said.
When construction returns, it should stimulate job development, creating economic ripples sure to be felt throughout the community, Kunz believes.
“Because of the moratorium, we have not been able to keep local contractors,” she said. “They’re having to drive out of the area to find work. Now … they’ll have more opportunities to bid on local jobs. As we have growth, then more schoolchildren will go to our schools which will get the funding back and hopefully generate more tax dollars. Merchants will hopefully have more people coming to their businesses.”
