A letter from Peter Hellmann, a managing partner of Hollister Enterprise LLC, under the umbrella of Walnut Creek-based Builders Land Group Investments, has been arriving at mailboxes around Hollister the past week giving notice of a meeting that will take place 6 p.m., June 15 at Cerra Vista Elementary School. The letter is an invitation for residents to hear about and discuss Roberts Ranch, a planned 54-acre development that will include 192 single-family detached homes, 35 duplexes and triplexes, and a 2.5-acre addition to Valley View Park, better known as the Whale Park.
Hellmann said the project will also have bike lanes and sidewalks that will connect the project to existing neighborhoods and the school. He said applications have been submitted to the city for a tentative map of the project approval, the Environmental Impact Report has been drafted, and he hopes to appear on the Planning Commission’s agenda as soon as possible.
As has been the case with the other developments, Roberts Ranch has been in the works for a number of years.
“We’ve owned the property and been working on it for four years,” Hellmann said. “Prior to that I’m told that Mrs. Roberts and others having been working on this since 1992.”
He said the company is a land developer and once the project receives the green light to move ahead, it will team up with a builder, which will design the homes. He said the minimum lot size will be 6,000 square feet up to a quarter-acre, which will surround the parameter of the project. He said the project could break ground as soon as the summer of 2018.
“I would imagine the homes will range in size from 2,200 square feet up to maybe 3,500 square feet,” he said. “It’s a nice part of town, across from Ridgemark, so I’d expect the prices for Hollister will be good.”
Hellmann said the company is always looking for opportunities to build in communities that still have a demand for more housing. He said he knows that growth is a sensitive topic in Hollister, but the numbers tell a different story.
“You can look at the building permits and certificates of occupancy issued in Hollister over the past 20 years and each year since 2000 they’ve been well below the growth caps that were under the old Growth Management Ordinance,” he said. “There’s been a lot of building recently, but not as much as people fear.”
Hellman said he expects there will be a lot of people at the meeting who might be unhappy with him.
“I’m sorry about that, but when you look at the actual numbers of the houses that have been completed in Hollister the past 16 years, and I know this flies in the faces of what people believe, but the numbers are the numbers,” he said. “They’re far below what, in my opinion, is the number that will support downtown businesses, schools and parks.”
Hellmann said that in his experience, cities that have grown well — Livermore, in particular — planned carefully for development, and then “rooftops came and then businesses followed shortly thereafter.”
“You go into downtown Livermore now and any reasonable person would think it’s a cool town,” he said. “It would not have happened if they had not let the rooftops in. I will politely debate with anyone whether that’s a good thing for Hollister. I look at Hollister and see a beautiful downtown as far as its architecture is concerned, and it’s crying for a more vibrant, active business climate.”
For information, call 510-612-2027 or email Hellman at phellmann@builderslandgroup.com.