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In a 3-2 vote on Jan. 14 the San Benito Board of Supervisors rejected a proposal that would allow gas stations and alternative fuel stations to be built in the county’s rural areas. Introduced by county staff and the county’s Planning Commission, the proposal was part of a structural modification to the San Benito Code of Ordinances, the set of laws governing traffic regulations, finances, public health and building codes.
The amendments were first presented to the supervisors in November and had been in the works since March 2023. They aimed to change substantial parts of the county’s land use policies, including allowing some commercial development on land zoned for agricultural use.
Board members decided on Nov. 26 to postpone most of these changes until they considered the General Plan’s Agriculture Element, an overarching policy the county is creating and expects to complete by the end of the year.
At the Jan. 14 meeting, a board majority agreed to remove the consideration of gas and alternative fuel stations from the discussion. Planning commissioners said the proposal was conceived as a way to ease difficulties getting vehicles fueled in the county’s rural and most remote areas.
Supervisors Mindy Sotello and Angela Curro opposed the ban.
Sotello said she worried the county was going “to shoot itself in the foot” with the policy. “I’m concerned about possibly limiting our infrastructure that would be supportive for the tourism industry that we’re hoping to attract,” she said.
She also noted that between Hollister and Pinnacles National Park there is only one gas station. “If we’re trying to promote people to invest here, we’re going to need more businesses to open that will be welcoming for the tourism industry and encourage more people to come here.”
Curro said she was concerned about leaving the most remote areas in the county with no fuel stations.
“If you’re stranded somewhere in south county, unless you have a nice neighbor that comes by and saves you, you can be stranded for some time,” she said. Allowing gas stations should be an exception, she said, but the county should not do “a complete removal.”
Supervisors Dom Zanger, Ignacio Velazquez and Kollin Kosmicki voted in favor of excluding fuel stations from all of the county’s agricultural lands.
Velazquez proposed that existing businesses in these areas, such as wineries, be allowed to have their own charging stations. He said people traveling are doing it “for a reason.”
“Maybe they’re going to go taste wine, so they’re going to park the car, they’re gonna plug it in. The services will be there.”
Currently, principal planner Arielle Goodspeed said, a developer aspiring to build a fueling station on a property with ag zoning has to go through the process of having the zoning changed to commercial. The developer must pay around $20,000 in deposits to the county for this, which adds to the costs of developing infrastructure in rural areas. In drafting the amendment, county staff had aimed to lower those costs.
Kosmicki opened the door for future zoning changes. He said that to promote tourism, the board could consider changing the zoning of some ag lands to commercial, instead of just allowing certain developments on ag lands. To rezone an area designated as agricultural, supervisors would now have to win the support of county voters. Measure A, which passed in the Nov. 5 election, prevents switching ag lands to commercial without voter approval.
“If somebody wants, if there is a will, to rezone an area between Tres Pinos and Pinnacles, I think the public would probably get behind something like that, because it would be promoting tourism,” he said. “I think that was part of the intent of Measure A.”
The county, Goodspeed said, is still studying the implications of Measure A on county development. The topic will be discussed in a February meeting.
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