Draft plan revealed
– now comes the hard part
A dazzling plan for downtown Hollister was revealed last week
after months of work by a consulting firm. Hired by the Hollister
Downtown Association, planners and designers from RBF Consulting
spent quite a while talking to business owners, residents and
others with a stake in renewing the downtown corridor last fall.
And those comments received during design charettes, after-dark
flashlight tours and other meetings were reflected in the
PowerPoint presentation they put together for a recent breakfast
meeting at Paine’s Restaurant.
Draft plan revealed – now comes the hard part
A dazzling plan for downtown Hollister was revealed last week after months of work by a consulting firm. Hired by the Hollister Downtown Association, planners and designers from RBF Consulting spent quite a while talking to business owners, residents and others with a stake in renewing the downtown corridor last fall. And those comments received during design charettes, after-dark flashlight tours and other meetings were reflected in the PowerPoint presentation they put together for a recent breakfast meeting at Paine’s Restaurant.
The artist renderings show a picture of what things could be like in downtown – a picture that inlcudes a central plaza on the north end of town, a paseo along a southern San Benito Street alleyway, a park that connects McCray and San Benito Streets.
The consultants chose many easy-to-imagine changes such as new trash and recycle bins to match existing benches, sign posts that direct pedestrians and drivers to landmarks and new bike racks.
Other projects will take a lot more work and a lot more money to get off the ground. These include a possible civic center for community events, revamping San Benito Street to make it two lanes to allow for more parking, and remodeling the Granada Theater into a venue for live performances.
But superficial changes are just the start of their plans. The key element is that doing all these things needs to be accomplished while adding new businesses, restaurants and ways to bring people downtown to boost the economy in Hollister.
The ideas are great, but they can take us only so far. The consultants will continue to work on the draft plan, and a key part of their next step is to talk about ways Hollister city staff, HDA members and residents can implement the changes.
And that’s the hard part. The meeting was attended by many of the likely suspects – politicians, city and county staff, business owners, property owners and newspaper staff – and it is great to see such an interest in the future of Hollister. But it also means that there are many hands to stir the pot – and they all have their own interests in mind.
The consultants said now is the time for the community to consider a business district where property owners and businesses pay a fee for the upgrades and services they will receive. Many attendees seemed concerned about the balance between building and adding new businesses and increasing profits. But a vital downtown means more people shopping, dining and visiting entertainment venues.
Now is the time for each group to put aside their own interests and think about the greater good of the community. The planning has been done for us. We need to keep the momentum.
