The intersection of Dunne Avenue and Monterey Road is truly the
crossroads of Morgan Hill.
The intersection of Dunne Avenue and Monterey Road is truly the crossroads of Morgan Hill.
It is the demarcation line where north separates from south and east from west.
Therefore, it is hard to disagree with anyone who labels it as an eyesore. Even when Morgan Hill Plaza was fully occupied it looked old, tired and rundown.
Now with the shuttered Albertsons store, the shopping center can charitably be described as looking like someone’s smile is missing their front teeth.
And, it would be easy to encourage the city to use eminent domain to condemn the properties on the southwest corner of Dunne and Monterey.
But it would be wrong. Think back a few years to Tennant Station and what it looked like.
A beat up parking lot, more vacancies than tenants and a string of owners who didn’t have a clue on how to turn around their investment.
Then a new owner came along who convinced Safeway it needed to be back on that corner.
Today, we have an interesting and busy shopping center with useful shops and a diverse sampling of restaurants.
If the city had eminent domain power back then, we might not have the thriving and bustling corner we have today.
Something does need to be done about the southwest corner of Dunne and Monterey.
Morgan Hill deserves better than a dilapidated and under-utilized shopping area.
I would like the city to convene a meeting of the property owners and have a serious dialogue about what needs to be done – how that corner can once again become a successful shopping destination and the help, like low-interest loans or tax abatements, that could be provided to the multiple property owners and the value that a massive renovation would add to the properties, and eventually to the city’s tax rolls.
You don’t need eminent domain to make that happen. Tennant Station proved that. And I don’t recall seeing any law that required commercial property owners in Morgan Hill to live in Morgan Hill.
Like it or not, the old Albertsons anchored the end of the core of downtown Morgan Hill.
Frankly, without the supermarket, it is now a rusty anchor.
It can be fixed by providing the right incentives for the property owners.
Eminent domain is not one of those incentives.
David Cohen, a member of this newspaper’s editorial board, is a corporate speechwriter. He is a graduate of the 2005 class of Leadership Morgan Hill and serves as president of the Community Law Enforcement Foundation of Morgan Hill.
