The City Council’s recent approval of Award Homes’ environmental
impact report means the company’s 577-home Hollister project is all
but a done deal.
The City Council’s recent approval of Award Homes’ environmental impact report means the company’s 577-home Hollister project is all but a done deal.
But there is still an opportunity to determine the final shape of this development, and the city needs to take advantage of this last chance to ensure that we get the best project possible for our community.
Award Homes still needs the city Planning Commission to approve its final site map. The matter is expected to be on the agenda for the Planning Commission’s May 24 meeting. This is the point where the details of the development are laid bare one last time – and this is where any final changes will have to be made.
The development agreement for this project was signed in October of 2000 – nearly seven years ago. Even as the City Council approved the EIR, current members of the council acknowledged some misgivings about the development. “If we had been there at the beginning, the project would have looked really different,” Councilwoman Monica Johnson said.
At this stage, it’s important to understand that we aren’t going to see a radical transformation of this project. But the city does still have leverage to require changes to an older plan that would make this housing development a better fit for Hollister’s future.
Access to and through the neighborhood is one point raised over and over by critics. Indeed, this is something that could and should be addressed in the process of approving a final site map.
As originally proposed, the layout would appear to create a development that would exist as an isolated pocket of homes rather than meshing with nearby neighborhoods. Cul-de-sacs feed into collector streets, which feed into a limited number of neighborhood exit and entry points, which feed into existing arterials outside the development. Residents of a neighborhood with this sort of design will rely almost exclusively on cars on get anywhere.
The Planning Commission could remedy this by requiring additional entry and egress points and ensuring that there are more direct routes to Cerra Vista School and other nearby destinations that would not only allow but even encourage the new neighborhood’s residents to walk or ride bicycles rather than having to depend on motor vehicles to get where they need to go.
As it negotiates the final site map, the Planning Commission could also ensure that streets within the neighborhood are built with sidewalks or even dedicated paths to accommodate pedestrians and bicyclists both moving within the development and seeking to get beyond the bounds of the neighborhood.
The Planning Commission’s review of the site map will be the last chance to make the changes that will make this new neighborhood a better fit for our community. Let’s be sure we take advantage of the opportunity still before us.
