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2018
pRIDE PrOGRESS A SPECIAL SECTION OF THE HOLLISTER FREE LANCE
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sanbenito.com
What is Hollister’s future?
Robert Eliason
CITY CENTER Intersection of Fourth and San Benito streets looks east, where new houses sprawl across Hollisterís rural landscape.
CITY LEADERS WRESTLE WITH INEVITABLE GROWTH Michael Moore Reporter
bring higher-paying jobs to the area is the development of a new Technology, Education and Library, or TEL Center, Velazquez said. The new educational campus would be focused on high-tech education, equipping students for better jobs. Velazquez also hopes the city’s economy will be based more on tourism by 2030, and Highway 25 will be a four-lane highway. The mayor’s wish list for 2030 continues: “We would have the new sports park built. We’d have our regional park built, which would include fishing facilities… We’d have a budget in place that ensures there’s funding to fix our roads on a yearly basis. And a budget that makes sure all of our needs accounted for first, to ensure we do not have the ups and downs as experienced in the past. We’d have a downtown that has a central community gathering place outside, to hold events and have our residents come out and enjoy their town. We’d have a beautiful city ➝ Progress 2030, 2
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Hollister Mayor Ignacio Velazquez was excited to answer the question, “What will Hollister look like in 2030?” “Everybody wants the instant gratification, and it’s why we’re always in trouble,” Velazquez said. Not unlike many public officials and planners in the region, the mayor’s number one priority over the next 12-plus years is to keep growth “in check.” “We would have important smart growth measures, making sure all developments are completely paying for themselves at the time of their development, and into the future,” Velazquez said. That’s an implicit acknowledgment that growth is going to continue in Hollister and San Benito County, even if some want to make it stop. Hollister’s population grew from 34,741 in 2010 to 38,404 in 2017, as estimated by the U.S. Census
Bureau. During the same period, the county’s overall population went up from 55,532 to 60,310. The San Benito County General Plan Housing Element cites the need for 2,194 more homes throughout the county, from 2014 to 2023. In Hollister, 1,316 new homes will be needed for the growing population through 2023. There were almost 17,000 households in San Benito County as of the 2010 Census. Much of this new housing will have to cater to lower-income residents and farmworkers, promising that the region’s agricultural heritage will continue to thrive over the next several years. But the mayor and other local officials would like to see future jobs pay more for both new and future residents. One way Velazquez hopes to achieve that by 2030 is to establish commuter rail transportation in Hollister—not only to ease the locals’ commute, but also to bring commuters into town for the higher-paying local jobs that the mayor hopes to attract. Part of the strategy to
COUNTY VIEW San Benito County Supervisor Robert Rivas and other county leaders have seen surge in county growth.