Two Wheelin’ . . . with Zachary Hilton: Commission working on ordinance to compel apartment bike parking

Families, young adults, and seniors all need a safe place to store their bikes

Families enjoy riding their bikes together during the warm days of spring and summer.

By Zachary Hilton

Zachary Hilton

All residential development bike parking in California is voluntary unless a local jurisdiction has an ordinance on the books. This was confirmed at our city of Gilroy Bicycle Pedestrian Commission (#GilroyBPAC) Jan. 28 meeting by city of Gilroy’s Building Official Hipolito Olmos.

The need for this ordinance began in August when we found out during a review bike parking in multi-family residential is voluntary according to the California Green Building Code. The residential developer at First Street and Kern Avenue (AS 19-12) stated Gilroy needed to reference a code that stated bike parking was required. It’s even more important after SB330 came into law January.

Imagine having a family and forced to live in an apartment because you can’t afford a home. You, your spouse, and kids want to ride bikes … well where do you store them? That right there makes people rely on cars and doesn’t keep them local for our Gilroy economy. You will get in the car and drive somewhere else if that’s more convenient.

In today’s housing market not all families are able to own a home, and some will stay in these apartments indefinitely. Families, young adults, and seniors all need a safe place to store their bikes and incentives to not drive their cars.

The statement in a recent Gilroy City Council study session by our new Community Development Director Karen Garner sums it up.

“Some of the new legislation requires monitoring and reporting to the state,” she said. “Staff time must be dedicated to these tasks to ensure compliance with these requirements. This is in addition to the staff time, including the city attorney, to review legislation, analyze how it affects current city ordinances and policies, revise ordinances, policies and other documents, implement the new or modified processes and outreach to the public on these changes.

“Staff is committed to working through these changes and ensuring city ordinances and policies are reflective of state legislation as well as keeping the public informed.”

We need clear objective language to be up to speed with SB330. Residential development projects that meet our current objective standards, general plan, and ordinances will be deemed complete on submittal. This ordinance defines a clear objective and takes all the subjectivity out.

I drafted a bike parking ordinance using strong language from several bike parking ordinances across California and in our region. It was introduced and approved at our GilroyBPAC meeting in January. This ordinance is not ready for the city council’s approval as it needs to be reviewed by the city attorney’s office and staff. It then would need to go to the planning commission since it’s a land-use ordinance. All that would prep it up for a good discussion at the city council level once everyone has provided their input.

The GilroyBPAC has continuous professional development training through webinars, conferences, and meetings that provide the ability to meet other like-minded people. That is what gives us the opportunity to bring projects, legislation, and funding back to the city.

I truly feel that we are the experts when it comes to bicycle parking in Gilroy. We understand the needs of the community and we are the ones who utilize bike parking daily in Gilroy. I’ve personally read more than a dozen of strong bike parking ordinances and have been to study sessions regarding them. While drafting language for an ordinance might seem out of ordinary for a commission, it’s not.

In 2017, while only a few months into my first year as chairperson, we were passed up when it came to reviewing the city’s capital improvement plan.

I was told it wasn’t in our powers and duties. None of us knew where our powers and duties were listed until it was discovered that we were governed under an ordinance and not the city charter.  I drafted up what we wanted our ordinance to look like, and introduced it to the city council. In 2018 our updated ordinance was approved by city council. In February we are reviewing the capital improvement plan for bicycle and pedestrian facilities and will make recommendations to the city administrator and city council.

Change is always possible, especially when it comes to empowering public transparency. If I were to hold the office of a city councilmember I would personally host an annual “Their Ought to be a Law” competition each January where a citizen can identify a problem that needs a solution and pitch their solutions to the problem.

We are actively embracing, advancing ideas, and projects that promote the concept of free-range people in the city of Gilroy. 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 Bicycle Friendly Community from the League of American Bicyclists, as well as recognized by the World Health Organization as an Age-Friendly Community.

Zachary Hilton is a chairperson of the Gilroy Bicycle Pedestrian Commission (#GilroyBPAC). He wrote this column for Gilroy Life.