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Do you ever wonder about the fate of San Martin? Many who live in this rural, unincorporated community certainly do. Annexation proposals and Urban Service Area boundary requests, submitted by the Cities of Morgan Hill and Gilroy, have been unsettling to those within the unincorporated areas.
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And now, further encroachment may be at our collective doorsteps. How will San Martin be protected from urban development? Remember the time when there were “smoking” and “non-smoking” sections within an establishment? Somehow an imaginary line provided protection to the non-smoker and privilege to the smoker. The design was intended to be “good for everyone.” Or so the argument ran.
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Morgan Hill’s recent request to stretch their urban boundary to include the Southeast Quadrant (SEQ), which is within half a block of San Martin’s border, is promoted as the only way to protect agriculture. The proposal includes taking 220 acres of prime farmland, some of California’s richest soil compositions, and constructing a Sports/Recreation/Leisure facility there. It would include restaurants, hotels and a Catholic High School—all built in the vicinity of Tennant and Murphy Avenues.
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Supporters argue the creation of a regional sports destination in the SEQ will bring up to 10,000 people here every weekend. If that happens, where will the imaginary line between “urban development” and a “rural community” really lie?
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San Martin is a mere 5.5 square miles. But why has San Martin been left out of Morgan Hill’s equation, regarding the impact their proposal for the SEQ will have on our neighboring rural community?
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The San Martin Neighborhood Alliance’s (SMNA) mission is to protect San Martin’s rural atmosphere. Our objective is to monitor growth and encourage new development to be local serving. However, regional proposals continue to be presented in and around the unincorporated areas of San Martin, without regard to the rural occupants’ concerns.
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In November 2015, new county ordinances were passed. Their intended purpose was to protect unincorporated areas in Santa Clara County from excessive growth and the construction of regional facilities. The county created a formula to measure projects based on size, scale and intensity.
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“Intensity” is defined by Webster’s dictionary as “the degree or amount of a quality or condition.” However, individuals throughout Santa Clara County are asking for the ordinance to be corrected so that projects are based on DENSITY, not intensity.
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They are asking for this, because density is defined by Webster’s dictionary as “the average number of individuals or units per space.” Residents and homeowners in San Martin, and the unincorporated region of the SEQ, are at risk of losing the much needed buffer from urbanization. While the current ordinance is a good effort—and should be enforced—there is an argument that this simple modification, in conjunction with regulatory enforcement, would provide clearer guidance.
Trina Hineser is President of the SMNA. She wrote this column for the Morgan Hill Times. SMNA’s next quarterly meeting will take place 6 p.m. April 19 at Andrade Country Meadows, 13755 Monterey Road, San Martin.
