San Benito County’s population has steadily risen from 55,269 in 2010 to nearly 60,000 in 2021, according to the San Benito Chamber of Commerce. Occupying an area of just 1,390 square miles, San Benito County has a history steeped in cattle ranching and agriculture. Its heart is historic Hollister, with its bustling downtown, traditional buildings, cute boutiques, and restaurants. The county’s main thoroughfare, Highway 25, runs between the Gabilan Mountains and the southern portion of the Diablo Range. Residents will find information for many services. Find facts quickly on this FAQ and put in non-emergency requests on the contact page. Sign up on Nixle to receive alerts from local agencies. And request a public record via NextRequest.
The San Benito County Board of Supervisors meets on Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Meetings are live-streamed, and archived videos are available on the Community Media Access Partnership’s YouTube page.
Meetings are open to the public and held every third Wednesday at 6 p.m. in the Board Chambers, 481 Fourth St. Hollister.
Under pressure from City Manager Don Reynolds and the San Juan Bautista City Council to complete its work, the city’s Urban Growth Boundary Committee voted Oct. 28 to submit the finished draft of its final project, a memorandum of understanding, to the San Benito County Board of Supervisors that would give the city a measure of input into developments on county property near its boundaries.
Measure A, the initiative that would change the way land use decisions are made in San Benito County, is one of the crucial items on the Nov. 5 ballot. BenitoLink reviewed the funding statements that the “Yes” and “No” sides filed with the county’s Election Department.
Ana De Castro Maquiz wasn’t irate over an Oct. 18 article in the Hollister Free Lance that opponents of San Benito County’s Measure A had misreported $189,000 in campaign contributions.The San Jose Mercury News also recently reported that opponents of the measure, which could dramatically impact all commercial development in the county, had raised substantially more than what appeared in a public campaign finance portal for Measure A’s opposition, Neighbors to Preserve San Benito. This is because $189,000 of the group’s $270,000 in donations were filed under its 2022 No on Measure Q campaign.But De Castro Maquiz, who is chief deputy clerk-recorder-elections for the county, told BenitoLink on Oct. 25 that she didn’t believe Measure A’s opposition had been deliberately misleading.
Expanding California’s unprecedented support for local efforts to create long-term solutions to address homelessness, Governor Gavin Newsom today announced that 37 regional grantees representing 100 local communities and organizations statewide will receive more than $827 million in new state investments to create new housing, shelter and support for those experiencing homelessness.
After a two-year-long push and pull, the San Benito County Planning Commission denied the 141 single-family-unit project known as Lands of Lee, proposed for Fairview Road in Hollister.
