Morgan Hill area residents get a chance Monday night to tell the
city what they think about the Urban Limit Line Committee
’s work of the past two years. Volunteer committee members have
put in hundreds of hours on this City Council-ordered task. City
staff members have been in attendance for all the meetings. And the
end is not in sight.
Morgan Hill area residents get a chance Monday night to tell the city what they think about the Urban Limit Line Committee’s work of the past two years. Volunteer committee members have put in hundreds of hours on this City Council-ordered task. City staff members have been in attendance for all the meetings. And the end is not in sight.
We still believe the project (for which the council allocated $270,000) is a waste of time and money. It also might well result in more land being developed, reducing the opportunity for open space and greenbelts.
We don’t need the urban limit lines. The present general plan and zoning regulations meet the needs of the city and the future. The community would be best served by the council calling a halt to the project.
An ULL line designates the ultimate edge of where the city would be allowed to grow over the next 50 to 60 years. Land inside the ULL would remain subject to city zoning regulations and the general plan. Property outside the line will be under the control of Santa Clara County and would not be able to have city services, thus limiting development.
The Greenbelt Alliance has advanced an argument that the ULL project could actually result in increased development pressure because the new line is outside the already established Urban Growth Boundary.
This is a cause for concern the committee members need to address.
Back in April 2004 when The Times editorialized on this subject, we were critical of the absence of a funding mechanism to pay for land newly designated as open space or greenbelt. There still is no funding mechanism, and in a time of tight city budgets, none is on the horizon. The southeast quadrant in the area of Highway 101 and Tennant Avenue still has no plan, the most contentious because it has lots of flat, easily developable land, unlike most of the rest of the greenbelt.
The 50-year timeline is another cause for concern. Go back to Morgan Hill 50 years ago. Who could envision how the city would grow and change? To set this kind of limit for 50 years in the future, guessing what the future holds, seems an exercise in futility.
Open space and greebelts are good. They are essential to the quality of life that we enjoy here in Morgan Hill. But we don’t need Urban Limit Lines to have open space and greenbelts. The workshop is at 7pm Monday, March 14, at the Community Center, Monterey and Dunne.
