Sandwiched between the Gilroy chain store maze and proposed
retail megacenters in north Morgan Hill and Coyote Valley, downtown
merchants and some property owners are thinking of paying for
customer-attracting improvements themselves.
Sandwiched between the Gilroy chain store maze and proposed retail megacenters in north Morgan Hill and Coyote Valley, downtown merchants and some property owners are thinking of paying for customer-attracting improvements themselves.
The effort may be the only way to save downtown, according to Brad Jones, a member of the Downtown Association steering committee that developed the plan. Jones also owns four downtown businesses.
“I think that this is a last-ditch effort to survive and that the property owners and tenants should pay attention and get involved before it is too late,” said Jones.
But, first, enough business and property owners must get behind the idea which will cost them, and sometimes their tenants, money.
Gayle Richter and her family own five important properties fronting on Monterey Road downtown and, as with any downtown project, getting Gayle Richter on board is important, according to Gary Walton, a steering committee member and property owner.
At the moment, she is “on the fence.”
“It will be a hunk of money and some (costs) will go back to the tenants,” Richter said. “This is taking on some of the responsibility that the city government should shoulder.”
She said earlier that she would make up her mind after seeing the PBID details and working out the cost. According to the PBID packet she would receive, the Richter trust would be assessed a total of $7,170 annually.
Richter said she does like to see a flourishing downtown and, in fact, worked with the Downtown Revitalization Program in the late 1980-early 1990s along with now Councilman Greg Sellers.
Property owner Jerry DiSalvo said landlords can’t pass the assessment along if the tenants already have leases.
“Besides, the assessment is only for five years,” he said. “I’m willing to spend the money and have agreed to increase my assessment.”
DiSalvo owns the little yellow house at 17265 Monterey Road that was the Art Guild and Gallery and is now the Vintage Pear tea shop.
“We need a unified voice so we don’t lose another opportunity like the library,” DiSalvo said. “We’re a different animal than the Cochrane center.”
Councilman Mark Grzan said he backs the PBID.
“It’s fine,” Grzan said. “In these lean economic times we’re looking to partner with whomever we can.”
He sees a self-governing PBID as giving a possible boost to the city.
“If they are successful in improving the district, it will result in more sales taxes for the city and that will help everybody,” he said. “We’ll help them in any way we can.”
Rocke Garcia, who offered to work with the city to build a new library on his downtown property, is generally in favor of a PBID even though he would be assessed the highest amount – $12,065 – for his large property between East Third and Fourth streets.
“I see it as valuable as long as the group takes it in the right direction, that there are recognizable things that benefit the downtown,” Garcia said.
“Creating an inviting atmosphere is important and 90 percent of the money should be spent there.”
He said resident Laura Brunton described what downtown needs is “Light, not blight.”
Garcia agrees that, for one, adding electroliers to light up side streets and brighten Monterey corridor would be a plus. Electroliers are the vintage-looking street lights on Monterey Road.
Brunton said Garcia must have a long memory because she said that years ago during Redevelopment Agency visioning meetings.
“But I still think that’s the key,” Brunton said.
A PBID also holds the key to continuing the DTA’s work, started in 2002 by the city. Executive Director Dan Craig and his DTA board have promised to find a way to pay the association’s bills without city help and managing a PBID is one way.
“It’s important that we continue the DTA,” DiSalvo said. “We’ve already made so much progress.”
At a recent meeting Walton described a downtown without a DTA.
“Without an association we are like a rudderless ship,” Walton said.
Carol Holzgrafe covers City Hall for The Times. She can be reached by e-mail at [email protected] or phoning (408) 779-4106 Ext. 201.
