REZONING
SUPERVISORS PROMOTE URBAN SPRAWL
Urban Sprawl
San Benito County's runaway growth has:
• Created traffic jams.
• Destroyed valuable farms and rangeland.
• Endangered our water & environment.
• Put existing local businesses at risk.
• Harmed cultural sites.
16 Commercial & Residential Nodes
Our San Benito County Supervisors have started to rezone 16 rural and agricultural sites ("nodes") in order to allow commercial & residential development. The first 4 nodes to be rezoned are on Hwy 101. The rezone (C-3) allows construction of 120 residential units, 4 hotels, and 400,000 sq. ft. of retail along Hwy 101.
The 16 commercial nodes are identified as colored dots (red, pink or candy-striped dots) in the General Plan map shown on this page. The red nodes are on Hwy 101. The other nodes are located on Hwy 156 and Hwy 25 (near Hollister, Ridgemark, Tres Pinos and Paicines). The acreage of each Hwy 101 node varies, ranging from 29 acres to 159 acres.
Map from San Benito County 2035 General Plan (page 3-11)
(see http://cosb.us/wp-content/uploads/Adopted-2035-GPU.pdf)
4 Hwy 101 Nodes
The first phase of the County's rezoning effort is focused on the 4 nodes on Hwy 101, near San Juan Bautista and Aromas. These nodes are represented by red dots in the map above. See the spreadsheet below for details.
On Sept. 24, 2019, the San Benito County Supervisors voted unanimously to rezone these 4 Hwy 101 nodes to C-3. PORC launched a Referendum (NO on Measure K) overturn their decision.
On March 3, 2020, almost 60% of San Benito County voters supported this Referendum. Unfortunately, the Supervisors refuse to respect the will of the voters and are proceeding to rezone the Hwy 101 nodes to C-1 to allow commercial development. PORC has filed a lawsuit to defend the voters' Referendum decision.
Original Zoning
This spreadsheet shows the original zoning of properties in the 4 Hwy 101 nodes. It includes information about the current property owners.
