Southern portion of former Leatherback property could house
community center
The San Benito County YMCA hopes to partner with the City of
Hollister to create a multi-purpose community center on a portion
of the former Leatherback property along Prospect Road.
Southern portion of former Leatherback property could house community center
The San Benito County YMCA hopes to partner with the City of Hollister to create a multi-purpose community center on a portion of the former Leatherback property along Prospect Road.
Local YMCA Executive Director Rochelle Callis recently presented the proposal to the City Council, as the agency and the city enter into talks about the plan, which calls for a campus that would serve youth, teens, adults and seniors and include a fitness center, gymnasium and pool.
“We’re just now starting to have conversations regarding what our collaboration will be,” said Callis, noting that the YMCA still retains an option on a piece of property along Ladd Lane that is owned by the Hollister School District. That option expires next year, so Callis is hoping to have a plan in place with the city by that time.
“We want to provide something for everybody in the community,” she said. “Our vision would be to have a full-facility YMCA with a pool, gym, offices, meeting spaces, kids’ zone, something for seniors, and something for teens. I’d say that’s the dream. The reality may be that it’s done in stages. It’s really going to depend on how much gets behind us.”
The YMCA held its Strong Communities Campaign in February, with a goal of raising $85,000 to help provide financial assistance for people who may not be able to afford YMCA programs. The effort netted $97,000 in pledges.
The quest for a full-fledged center for the YMCA, which currently occupies space in an office building on Fifth Street near City Hall, dates back to 2002. Then, negotiations on a 23-acre site near Marguerite Maze School – which would have included a library and center for the arts – fell through. In 2006, the Hollister School District agreed to sell 7.5 acres of land south of Ladd Lane Elementary School to the YMCA, which had plans to build a nearly $13 million facility. The district at the time said it would give the YMCA up to three years to raise the more than $1 million needed to purchase the land. Last summer, the option on the property was extended until the summer of 2010.
After the Hollister Redevelopment Agency purchased the former Leatherback’s two vacant plants along Hillcrest Road and Prospect Avenue for $4 million, the YMCA began talking with city officials about developing a scaled-back facility on the southern three acres of the former industrial site, which the city will demolish over the next year.
“The city really owns the next steps,” Callis said. “But we’ve opened a line of communication. I’m excited about the new opportunity.”
Callis said most YMCA’s have partnerships with the cities or counties in which they are located.
“Those are the models that we are looking at; a partnership where our RDA or city helps us build this community center,” she said.
During her presentation to the City Council, Callis presented a letter of support from Don Johnson, chief of the department of public safety in Sunnyvale and a former member of the mid-peninsula El Camino branch of the YMCA.
“I offer you my encouragement in pursuing a partnership with the City of Hollister,” Johnson wrote in his letter to Callis. “I know the challenges will be great, but the benefit the YMCA can provide to any city is worth the effort.”
Johnson said the variety of programs offered by the Y – from youth sports and individualized fitness programs to older adult programs – helps fill a number of needs “that would otherwise go unanswered.”
“The YMCA has become a common thread that binds our community together by connecting families, businesses and schools to bring about positive change,” he wrote.
Callis noted that Morgan Hill used redevelopment money to pay for the land and the building for its YMCA, and then the Y runs a portion of the programming in the building. In Aliso Viejo, she said, the city owns the YMCA building and the land on which it sits, but the Y offers all of the programs.
“Right now we are just focusing on getting the location,” Callis said.
In a previous interview, she said that once the property is decided upon, the YMCA will seek input from the community about what programs should be offered.
