Happy New Year

With 2024 in the rear-view mirror, on February 12 at 9am the new Gilroy City Council will meet for our bi-annual strategic planning session. This is where the 2026-2027 Legislative Work Plan and City Council goals will be established. This will be the foundation for the upcoming two-year budget process.

This year I will focus on continuing to move Gilroy into the 21st century, building upon the relationships I’ve made, legislative items in our work plan, and introducing new items. We will focus on our Zoning Ordinance (Bike Parking, Noise Impacting Residentially Zoned Properties), Tobacco Prevention, Inclusionary Housing Ordinance, Accessory Dwelling Units, Opportunity Sites/Programs in our Housing Element 2023-2031, Parking Management/Enforcement, Transportation Demand Management/Vehicle Miles Traveled Policy/Climate Action Plan, Safe Storage of Firearms, Community Plan to End Homelessness, Transit First Policy, Plan for the Community Center/Youth Center and Civic Center Master Plan, and State Legislative Bills.

Year-to-date my office has worked with our State and Federal legislators to secure $5.2 million for project funding that directly benefits our residents, from a bike/ped trail extension on the westside, San Ysidro Park on the eastside, and an enhanced crosswalk for senior housing on the southside. We will begin to break ground on these community projects in 2025. 

I am proud of the future housing plan that the Gilroy City Council, Planning Commission, staff and the public have approved. We commit to advancing the 40 opportunity sites for multi-family homes, downtown expansion district and First Street mixed-use corridor flexibility program, 429 corner lots for the middle income housing program, housing for farmworkers program, and our inclusionary housing ordinance. Empowered through our local control, we will implement these programs and follow through with what we have promised to our residents. By doing this we will become eligible for funding toward implementing our programs and provide housing for all. We are now pulling in the same direction as the region’s long-range plan for housing, transportation, economy and the environment known as Plan Bay Area 2050. It calls for creating compact walkable communities by promoting high-density housing and mixed-use development near transit stations and in existing urban areas. 

We advocate for building and planning that considers future generations as well as current residents who don’t own cars. Advancing mobility options reflects what we are teaching the youth in our community through Safe Routes to School and why we are nationally recognized as a Bronze Bicycle Friendly Community from the League of American Bicyclists, as well as recognized by the World Health Organization as an Age-Friendly Community. The City of Gilroy is a Complete Streets and Recreation Destination community by resolution. 

My office sponsored, tabled, hosted a booth, and attended more than 100 community events in 2024. We provided free resources, bike lights, bike helmets, and listened to constituents, at events including Chalk Fest, La Ofrenda Festival, Registrar of Voters High School Education Events, Free Bike Repair and Bike Days, Community Posadas, and School Family Resource Fairs. 

La Ofrenda Festival

Nestled in the heart of Downtown Gilroy, the La Ofrenda Festival | Gilroy’s 2nd Annual Día de Muertos Festival & Wellness Fair on November 2 1-7pm will be an extraordinary event and is more than just a day of festivities; it’s an immersive experience that embraces the essence of Día de Muertos – a time when families come together to honor their departed loved ones and celebrate the eternal bond between the living and the deceased. With vibrant ofrendas (altars) adorned with marigold flowers, moving performances, a community bike ride, and a variety of talented artists, our festival promises an unforgettable experience that will leave a lasting impression on the South County community and beyond. La Ofrenda Festival is made possible with a Gilroy Elevate the Arts Grant, a program of SVCreates, with support from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, City of Gilroy, County of Santa Clara and fiscally sponsored by Local Color, 501c3. https://www.laofrendafestival.com 

Gilroy’s La Ofrenda Festival is bringing together a cross section of sponsorships and partnerships from government, education, health, private sector, arts, transportation, culture, non-profits, labor workforce and more. Arts are alive in Gilroy. In 2021, I was contacted by SV Creates (Santa Clara County Arts Council) to build a relationship that wasn’t here prior in Gilroy. From those first initial meetings blossomed into an Arts Círculo held at 6th St Art Studios and around the corner at the Neon Exchange. Today we have a monthly Arts Roundtable, Third Friday Art Walk, Chalk Fest, La Ofrenda Festival, and doors continue to open. 

We provide year-round bicycle, pedestrian, and transit education and encouragement opportunities through programs and policies that promote our community leaving their car at home and choosing to walk/bike/roll/ and take transit. This helps teach our residents safe walking and biking skills, reduces traffic and air pollution, and helps you get more physical activity. La Ofrenda Festival will have many experiences for you including a Community Bike Ride, Bike Valet, Bike Rodeo, Helmet Fittings, Bike Education, Wellness Vendors, next to our Transit & Mobility Plaza. This year’s presenting sponsor Silicon Valley Clean Energy (SVCE) will be bringing their Dream Home mobile demonstration, where community members can learn about and interact with electric equipment and appliances.

Advancing mobility options reflects what we are teaching the youth in our community through Safe Routes to School and why we are nationally recognized as a Bronze Bicycle Friendly Community from the League of American Bicyclists, as well as recognized by the World Health Organization as an Age-Friendly Community.

                                         

The City of Gilroy celebrates the role that the arts and creativity play in helping us navigate a pandemic, amplify the need for racial equity, and highlight the power of the arts to change our lives for the better. The Gilroy Arts & Culture Commission and SV Creates work in partnership to support the arts and creativity in Gilroy as an essential part of our thriving community. SV Creates partners locally with the Gilroy Arts & Culture Commission and Gilroy Arts Roundtable to include the City of Gilroy with a network of leaders who care about the resilience of our arts ecosystem and its impact to our community. They are conveners, promoters, incubators, and funders of the arts with a mission to elevate Silicon Valley’s creative culture. The City of Gilroy recognizes that the arts and creativity support student success and life-long learning, provide key job skills, and bring joy to our community while strengthening our connections; and values partnering with SV Creates and State-level organizations to promote unified support for the arts.

Public Transit Is Cleaner and Faster

Growing up in San Jose, public transportation was not as widespread and commonly used as other cities. While many use and rely on the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA), this system is not as efficient or as popular as it should be. The main choice of transportation for people in the Bay Area is driving, which has caused a severe traffic issue here. Back when I was in high school, I was not able to drive which placed a serious block on my ability to travel around San Jose. Eventually I did learn to drive, and while it is an important skill to know how to drive, there are many factors that play a role in hindering people’s ability to drive or even own a car. Owning a car is a costly endeavor, which many people cannot afford to allocate in this time of inflation and high costs of living, especially in the Bay Area.  

Once moving up to San Francisco and learning around the Muni system, I witnessed that public transportation can be just as fast as a car and a reliable source of transportation. As a young person in the United States, the increasingly worrying situation with our climate is on the forefront of my mind. Over the past five years, this issue has been increasingly more known and talked about. The increase of more intense and dramatic weather patterns has also caused many of my peers and I to look for more ways to reduce the reliance we have on fossil fuels and live in a more sustainable way. While it is important to acknowledge that the cause of the problem is not on us as individuals, the first and most simple thing for me to do was to take BART or Caltrain more often. However, I found myself struggling to rely on transit here and found myself mainly driving when I was in the South Bay, until San Jose implemented its transit-first policy.  

As the South Bay grows in population, the streets are more congested than they were a decade ago and there are simply more people that now rely on public transport, and the need for efficient public transportation is growing. With the increase of speed with trains and buses, there will be a decrease in the number of trains and buses needed. The speed and frequency in which buses and trains operate are integral factors to whether or not people choose to use these services. This allocation of funds from a high volume of trains and buses also allows for later hours of operation and newer train routes that span farther throughout Gilroy, Morgan Hill, and San Martin.

Since San Jose implemented transit first policy, there has been an uptick in ridership, VTA reported a 22% increase in 2023. That equates to 21.8 million riders, which is significantly above the national average of 18%. I believe that each person living in the Bay Area is entitled to transportation that can effectively get them to where they need to go, and providing accessible, reliable public transportation is critical to building safer and more united communities, as well as contributing to the growth of our community. 

We both know that cities can help improve transit in their community by adopting policies that control the factors that determine the quality and quantity of transit service: street space allocation, signal timing, and signal priority. Giving priority to public transit—in the form of transit lanes or preferential signal timing— speeds up transit and makes it more desirable for potential riders and helps cities meet their climate change goals. Maintaining the status quo endorses the current outcomes. Making no changes to transportation or land use policies will likely result in slower transit as congestion increases on city streets.

Zach Hilton is a Gilroy City Council Member. Soraya Alavi is a junior at University of San Francisco majoring in psychology and minoring in both legal studies and philosophy, a member of women in prelaw and Khandan (USF’s South Asian student association), and interning with Council Member Zach Hilton.