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Politics & Government

Sign Ordinance Committee Coming, South Valley Pool Nixed

The Gilroy City Council also voted unanimously to move forward with a joint usage agreement with the school district for the Christopher High School Aquatics Center.

The , missing councilman Bob Dillon due to an illness, tackled some lingering issues during a special study session April 30.

The items brought before the council were:

  • A review of Zoning Code Section 37, better known as the
  • An update on the
  • The Draft Joint Agreement with the

City clerk Shawna Freels said that 11 business owners and community members addressed the council during public comment regarding the sign ordinance.

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The mood among them, she said, was that the ordinance is too restrictive and needs a rehashing.

“The outcome of the comments for the council was the belief that a lot of change needs to take place,” she said. “The council has decided, unanimously, to form a committee made up of different stake holders in the community to vet out questions and concerns regarding the ordinance.”

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Councilmen Dion Bracco and Peter Arellano volunteered to be the council’s representatives on the committee.

The committee's make-up and its purpose will be discussed in greater detail during the council’s May 21 meeting, Freels said.

Freels said that in addition to business owners and community members, the committee could potentially consist of representatives from the city's Planning Commission, Bicycle Pedestrian Commission and the Physically Challenged Board of Appeals.

On the second item, city manager Tom Haglund informed the council that the GUSD Board of Trustees declined to accept the city’s offer, decided during the council’s April 16 meeting, to provide the district with $117,000 for repairs and capital funding for the South Valley pool over the next three years. 

The council agreed to the amount after the GUSD board informed the city that they would need $147,000 to repair the South Valley pool in addition to having an ongoing annual operating cost of $140,000. 

Jaime Rasso, a GUSD board member, apologized to the council for the district’s dire financial situation and subsequent closure of the pool.

“What it has boiled down to for the school district is that the financial crisis that we are in is so severe for the district that the board could not have any certainty about our funding going forward,” he said. 

No action was taken by the council regarding the pool and because no agreement on how to pay for repairs or operation could be reached between the city and the school district, the South Valley pool will close.

Lastly, the council unanimously approved to execute an agreement between the city and the school district regarding joint usage of the aquatics center at Christopher High School.

The school district, Haglund said, will be proposing several revisions to the agreement related to the reciprocal use of the activity pool, ownership of the restrooms adjacent to the activity pool and a modification regarding fees for city use of the competition pool.

Haglund said that city staff will review these provisions if received in a timely fashion from the district and present a final draft to the council during its May 7 meeting.

The district, he said, has agreed not to charge the city for use of the competitive pool this summer and that charges for the activity pool and competitive pool will be revisited periodically.

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