Land use designs for three or four more auto dealerships moved
ahead when the City Council heard from business and property owners
and from experts in the field of dealership design. Tonight the
city will hear from the residents who live closest to the Diana
Avenue area near Courtesy Chevrolet.
Land use designs for three or four more auto dealerships moved ahead when the City Council heard from business and property owners and from experts in the field of dealership design. Tonight the city will hear from the residents who live closest to the Diana Avenue area near Courtesy Chevrolet.
On the positive side, Serene Drive would, for the first time, connect Diana with East Dunne Avenue, allowing residents easy access to Highway 101 and the East Dunne Avenue stores. On the negative side, neighbors will have to deal with the potential noise, light and traffic from car stores that may want to locate north of East Dunne Avenue, west of the freeway.
One couple living near the end of Serene Drive is upset about the changes.
“We are totally livid about this (development),” said Frank Noriega. “Residential would be acceptable but not another sea of cars from auto dealers.”
The workshop considered a potential change to the formal land use plans covering several parcels west of Courtesy Chevrolet (formerly South County Chevrolet) and north of Walgreen’s and Lyons on East Dunne Avenue. The formal plan is called the Walnut Grove Planned Unit Development (PUD).
Since Courtesy Chevrolet wants to expand into an area north and along the freeway and council wants to offer other auto dealers a chance to locate in the area, council asked Mark Sumf of ROEL Auto Advisory Group and Rick Cartel of Autopilot Development Services to see what changes in zoning and/or roads would appeal to auto dealers.
A PUD is a road map to development: what kind of uses can particular land be put to, what landscaping and signage and, to a certain extent, architecture, will be allowed. The PUD is established before an area can be developed and is designed to reduce the “hodgepodge” and jumbled look that can occur if every builder does his own thing with no attempt at a kind of unity.
Joyce Maskell, manager in the city Business Assistance and Housing Services (BAHS) department, led the workshop and introduced the workshop’s goals.
“We want council’s direction in prioritizing,” Maskell said, “direction on flex(ible) space and buffer areas and your preliminary thoughts on design themes.”
Sumf and Cartel came up with four plans. The first two found favor with property owners and the council.
Option one would create one new site for a dealership, allows Courtesy to expand and shortens the existing Laurel Road (the road that turns right from Walnut Grove Avenue and continues to the Courtesy Chevrolet parking lot).This option follows the original Walnut Grove PUD.
Option two would create two dealership sites north of Courtesy and west of Walnut Grove Drive, both outside the existing PUD. The plan would extend Laurel Avenue west and adds a new retail site fronting on East Dunne Avenue.
Option three includes two dealership sites but shifts Lauren drive to the north and creates two new retail sites south of Laurel.
Option four also extends the PUD, but creates a loop road connecting with Dunne and creates wider sites with significant street frontage plus a retail site and two new auto dealership sites.
Maskell said the first two options are preferred by property owners because they respect existing property lines, create the least number of parcels to sell or lease and contain the fewest roads. Courtesy, she said, also approves of the third option. Option four remained an orphan.
Using the popular PowerPoint program, Cartel showed council why some control over the exteriors of businesses can be important. He displayed auto dealerships with and without control – stores with huge balloons, skyscraper-sized flags and the occasional 20-foot Godzilla and others with effective signage and vehicle display that did not bring carnivals to mind.
The point of the study, Cartel said, was a unified destination image, reduced traffic conflicts, improved brand identification, aesthetics and curbside appeal, and ways to display vehicles without offending sensibilities.
“Vehicle visibility is a premium,” he said.
He discussed berms and landscaping, signage that is effective and attractive, all designed to make dealers, nearby residents and the city happy with increased tax revenues.
Mayor Dennis Kennedy laughed when he commented on taxes.
“That’s the elephant in the room, isn’t it?” Kennedy said.
The city treasury receives sales taxes from all retail sales within Morgan Hill city limits. The money goes into the general fund that pays for police and fire protection, some city administration and recreation.
Maskell said she thought the presentation did the job.
“I’m pleased that we will be moving forward and meeting with the neighbors,” Maskell said. “I look forward to getting their thoughts.”
She said she didn’t think the neighbors would have too many objections, especially since the area newly occupied by Courtesy Chevrolet would have a berm and landscaping wide enough to be classified as a small park. The area would only be used for vehicle storage and would use low lighting on the neighborhood side.
Julie Noriega said Courtesy Chevrolet has not been the problem neighbors originally expected because it is farther away than the property now under discussion.
“We are very disgusted with this,” said Julie Noriega. “The City of Morgan Hill should know better. Car dealerships are an eyesore – they are so tacky.”
Neighbors of a planned Ford dealership across the freeway, on Condit Road, rebelled last year and forced the city to impose light, noise and travel restrictions on Ford and to forbid any further dealerships from locating on the parcel.
Scott Lynch of Bob Lynch Ford in Gilroy is suing the city for allowing Ford to pose unfair competition to his dealership. The firms, he claims, are too close together for the available business. An request for an emergency hold on Ford construction is waiting a decision by the California Supreme Court.
Tonight’s meeting for notified residents is scheduled for 7-9 p.m. in El Toro Room of the Community center, 17000 Monterey Road at Dunne Avenue. A follow-up meeting is scheduled for June.
