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Dear Red Phone,
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What is up with all the digging and landscaping going on at the city’s property between the council chambers and the Development Services Center on Peak Avenue?
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Red Phone response:
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The landscaping conversion projects are part of a widespread effort by City Hall to convert the lawns at public facilities to more drought tolerant vegetation, according to city staff.
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With the state of California in an historic drought, and water customers, including the city, increasingly being called on to reduce their consumption, the City Council approved the series of vegetation conversion projects over the last several months.
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The Civic Center’s expanded water conservation demonstration gardens encompass the Council Chambers’ frontage along Alkire Avenue and the lawn area containing the flag poles along Peak Avenue.
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“While both of these areas have been designed to feature water-conserving plants, their functions are somewhat different,” reads a Nov. 18, 2015 report from Morgan Hill Program Administrator Anthony Eulo. “The Alkire frontage has been designed to be fairly consistent with the existing demonstration area to the east and to create two gathering locations where neighbors or visitors might stop to rest or converse in the garden. The flagpole site has been designed to highlight the linear view up to El Toro and to create small nooks that will be suitable for future art, monuments, or memorials. In addition, this area features a large installation of a new promising water-conserving ground cover, Kurapia, that isn’t commonly found in South Santa Clara County.”
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Staff added that the pavers that will be installed on this site are made from the leftover materials from the East Third Street demolition and reconstruction project, the staff report added.
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This new civic center lawn will be the future site of a bronze statue depicting 2011 drive-by shooting victim Tara Romero, 14, and other public art.
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The council awarded a contract to ValleyCrest Landscape Maintenance worth about $187,000 for that project, and the city received a $41,794 rebate from the Santa Clara Valley Water District.
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A similar project is underway at the Community and Cultural Center, 17000 Monterey Road. The CCC’s water demonstration project encompasses the frontage along Monterey Road and Dunne Avenue, according to city staff. The work includes the installation of new drought tolerant landscaping, drip irrigation, a dry creek bed, decomposed granite pathways and drought tolerant plants.
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The council awarded this contract to Quality Landscape Services for $243,048 at the Feb. 3 meeting.
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Even more drought tolerant landscaping conversion work has been completed at the Morgan Hill Police Station and the Dunne Hill Fire Station. These projects cost the city about $12,000 for fire station landscaping, and about $49,500 for the police station. The SCVWD offered a rebate of $2,856 for the fire station effort.
