Santa Claus may come early to if Morgan Hill receives a grant to
reconstruct and beautify Depot Street
– and chances look good.
Santa Claus may come early to if Morgan Hill receives a grant to reconstruct and beautify Depot Street – and chances look good.
The city asked the Bay Area’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission for $2,626,638 and is one of five grant applications recommended for full funding from $18 million available for local projects. A decision will be announced in December, money received in July 2006 and construction completed in March 2007.
The funds would be used to widen sidewalks, install period-looking street lights, bike lanes and street furniture – benches, planters and trash receptacles – and traffic slowing islands and to landscape the previously bleak and cheerless street.
The grant could also fund public art.
The city is required to match the grant with $350,000, not yet reserved in the budget.
Bill Newkirk, analyst for Business Assistance and Housing Services, said, if the city receives the grant, staff will offer the City Council several options for finding the money and council will decide which one to use.
“The grant is for transportation-oriented designs with an emphasis on public transportation, pedestrian and bicycle-friendliness,” Newkirk said. “We can expand downtown by beautifying Depot and give an impetus to develop the Sunsweet site.”
The Sunsweet site between East Third and East Fourth streets was recently rejected by council as a location for the new library. It is owned by The Glenrock Group now planning market rate condominiums and possibly some retail, though plans are not definite.
Depot Street runs parallel to and just west of the railroad tracks, connecting East Dunne with East Main. The Downtown Plan has designated Depot as part of a pedestrian-friendly, walkable grid of streets connecting the new county courthouse just east of the tracks to downtown.
Where it was once an industrial street served by the railroad, development is improving Depot’s fortunes. The award-winning Community and Cultural Center now anchors the southern end at Dunne. Weston Miles Architects is salvaging the old Isaacson’s Grain Co. building near Main, turning it into upscale offices and possibly shops and even a restaurant.
The little station building at the end of East Third Street is now open during the day serving coffee to early morning commuters and lunch all day to nearby workers and walkers. During the past decade or so, Depot acquired new housing and saw others renovated, causing the street to enter the mixed-use category that MTC looks fondly upon.
