The city cannot create a successful downtown alone. A thriving
downtown requires the participation of property owners. Now is the
time for folks who own property in downtown Morgan Hill to step up
to the plate
It seems that Morgan Hill’s city officials are doing everything within their power to create the conditions for our community to have a vibrant, thriving, successful downtown.
They’ve poured money into the downtown in various RDA projects from capital projects like the community center and theater, to downtown beautification to facade improvement programs to the county partnership to build the courthouse taking shape on Butterfield that will draw many visitors and workers downtown every day.
They’ve sought grants such as the one that’s funding the Depot Street streetscape improvements.
They’ve sought volunteer help by creating the program that coordinates gardeners who tend the flower boxes downtown.
They’ve tweaked the city’s housing allotment program to allow more housing units to be built downtown and at a faster pace.
In their latest move, they’ve rezoned chunks of Monterey Road north and south of downtown to encourage retailers to locate in Morgan Hill’s downtown core, not on its fringes.
These are all good moves.
But the city cannot create a successful downtown alone. A thriving downtown requires the participation of property owners. Now is the time for folks who own property in downtown Morgan Hill to step up to the plate.
They need to make sure that their property is developed to take advantage of the conditions that the city’s leaders and its residents have worked so hard to create.
Property owners who create mixed-use development with housing above attractive retail and dining space go a long way toward creating the critical mass of foot traffic needed for a vital, thriving downtown.
Property owners who work to attract viable, interesting, and non-repetitive renters – avoiding office and service-oriented businesses more appropriate to downtown’s fringes and Morgan Hill’s business parks – are also working toward the goal of a successful downtown.
Downtown property owners, let’s not let the hard work of Morgan Hill’s leaders and residents go unleveraged. For your sake as well as the community’s best interests, we urge downtown property owners to do whatever they can to work toward the common vision of a vibrant city center.
