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Correction: A previous version of this article stated incorrectly that supervisor Kollin Kosmicki did not address affordable housing during the meeting. It was corrected on Feb. 25.
On Feb. 21, the San Benito County Board of Supervisors held a special meeting at Paine’s Restaurant in Hollister with state and federal representatives. The goal was to seek their support for some of the board’s priorities, including the widening of Hwy 25, housing, tourism and the condition of the county’s jails.
Among those present were 29th District Assemblymember and Speaker of the Assembly Robert Rivas, along with staff members representing state Senator John Laird, Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, and U.S. Senator Adam Schiff.
For more than an hour, supervisors and county staff presented some of their main concerns, all aligned with the county’s 2025 priorities.
Hwy 25
The first to speak was Binu Abraham, executive director of the San Benito Council of County Governments (COG). She discussed the impacts of recent climate legislation on the county, specifically on the project to widen Hwy 25.
In 2013, the California Senate passed SB 743, also known as the VMT bill, a law aimed to battle climate change by reducing greenhouse emissions. The bill, which began to be implemented in 2020, redefined how the traffic impact of new projects is assessed. Instead of measuring transportation through traffic congestion, it introduced a new metric: vehicle miles traveled. The goal was to discourage projects—such as road widenings or car-centric housing developments—that increase driving and, in turn, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.
In a rural county like San Benito, Abraham said, this policy created an unintended burden. As a region dependent on agriculture and long commutes to the Bay Area, the bill, according to Abraham, obstructs essential road improvements, including on Hwy 25.
“For rural counties, the issue is that we don’t have a job-and-housing balance,” she said. “So we have to travel a long way to get to our [jobs], and we also don’t have as many medical facilities and higher educational opportunities. So, there is something about SB 743 that is good—but at the same time, the needs of the community are slightly different.
“There is something to be said about adding lanes that meets our needs. There has to be some flexibility in how rural and urban counties are looked at so that we are not constrained to the same standards.”
In 2018 San Benito County voters approved Measure G to raise revenue for improving Hwy 25, but SB 743 is making this harder by increasing the costs of the project.
Supervisor Ignacio Velazquez said the state has changed the rules. “The problem we’re having here now is we promised something to our voters—that we would widen Hwy 25—and then the state basically says your $240 million project is now going to cost you $800 million.”
Abraham asked the state and federal representatives to help the county fund the expansion of Hwy 25 and to pressure the state to make exemptions for road improvements for rural counties.
“Help us find some flexibility in dealing with SB 743 so that we are not constrained to the same tight regulation that is needed at the urban counties,” she said.
Rivas said he was aware of the problem and was committed to finding a solution.
“No one in Sacramento stands in a closed-door room saying ‘how can we penalize rural counties,’” Rivas said. “There are always unintended consequences to policies. And this is one of them. The cost escalation of this project could be attributed to some of these policies that we can fix and are working really hard to address.”
Housing
On housing, county staff and some supervisors held differing views.
Abraham Prado, the county’s director of planning, building, and code enforcement, spoke about the need for affordable housing. He said that, from 2015 to 2023, the county issued 1,300 residential building permits—yet only 30 went toward moderate or low income projects.
In the current housing cycle, which goes from 2024 to 2031, the county has issued 180 permits for above moderate priced housing and 11 for extremely low income projects.
“Within the first year, we have met and exceeded the numbers of above moderate, but there’s a big disparity for the affordable housing aspect of it,” Prado told the representatives. “We would just like to ask for your assistance on affordable housing regulations to allow for more affordable housing.”
Supervisor Angela Curro backed Prado’s request. She said “governments have to put up something” to build affordable housing and that it can’t just be put “on the backs of developers.”
“We have to bring affordable housing developers into our community, there is a give-and-take that has to happen,” she said. She said she has proposed an agenda item for a future Supervisors meeting to invite affordable housing developers to do a presentation.
Supervisor Kollin Kosmicki asked the representatives to urge the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) to “approve a higher threshold than 20” percent, which is the minimum percentage of affordable housing developers need to invoke the “builder’s remedy”— a provision in a state law that allows projects to bypass existing zoning rules.
Every five to eight years, HCD sets housing targets for jurisdictions across the state. For the current cycle, HCD assigned San Benito County a total of 5,005 units, to be distributed among Hollister, San Juan Bautista and the county’s unincorporated areas. Kosmicki called the target “extremely unrealistic,” questioning whether the county could meet this goal within the next six years.
“The request, from me at least, is that we look at some of these housing mandates and find a way to give exemptions or ease up, and open the door for policy exemptions for communities like ours with specific challenges,” Kosmicki said. “Because there’s no coincidence that we have Hwy 25 and housing as back-to-back topics because they’re interrelated.”
Tourism
This year, Kosmicki, as board chair, placed the promotion of tourism on the list of the county’s top five priorities. On Feb. 21 he asked the state and federal representatives for “any sort of funding available for tourism promotion in our community.”
Kosmicki said county staff was considering rebranding the county as “the home of Pinnacles National Park” and exploring the possibility of renaming Hwy 25 to Pinnacles National Park Highway.
Curro urged the federal representatives to help the county secure a meeting with the Bureau of Reclamation to talk about San Justo Reservoir, which was closed to recreation 17 years ago after zebra mussels, an invasive species, were found.
“All we need is your help to get it reopened. It’s a very important part of our community. It will give our residents a place to go on the weekends and spend time with their families,” Velazquez said.
Jails
Sheriff Eric Taylor called San Benito’s jails “the biggest liability” in the county.
Currently operating a jail with a capacity of 142 inmates and a rehabilitation center with a capacity of 72, both facilities are understaffed, Taylor said, adding that a recent state audit found that a minimum of 40 correctional officers are required to serve that number of inmates. The county currently has 18.
He said this problem is likely to worsen after the November 2024 passage of Proposition 36, which increases sentences for certain drug and theft crimes. “Basically, what that means is we’re going to have more people in our custody,” he said.
Taylor said that will also put more stress on the overburdened jail medical care system.
“One of the biggest issues that we’re facing right now is our medical care in our jail and our behavioral health response in our jail,” he said. Currently, inmates receive medical care only 12 hours a day.
“This comes down to funding,” Taylor said. “Our behavioral health system is no longer able to support our jail.” He also said that without sufficient staff and proper inmate care, the federal government could step in and take control of the jail.
“That has happened in Monterey County and Alameda County; it has happened all around us through lawsuits. My fear is that if we don’t get there, the federal government will take over our facility, and they will spend our county dollars for us without any local control.”
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