The sounds of downtown Morgan Hill are an echoing symphony of jackhammer staccatos, hissing hydraulic legatos, a fortissimo of heavy equipment reverse alarms and the booming clank of debris hitting the bottom of dump trucks.
So far this week, construction crews led by city contractor F&H Construction have been demolishing the East Third Street pavers and installing giant pre-cast, 40-foot long concrete posts at the Fourth Street Garage site, which sits behind a row of restaurants between East Third and Fourth streets.
The construction, some of which is expected to last into the early fall, will undoubtedly affect local business, according to some downtown restaurant owners.
Huntington Station owner Dan Creighton commended the city for making some accommodations to soften the impact of construction on his customers, in part by installing a row of trees between his outdoor patio and the Fourth Street Garage site. An $8.5 million three-story, 270-space parking facility is underway behind the restaurant.
“That was a huge help, with noise and dust and looking at the thing,” Creighton said. “We are very concerned about how (the construction) will impact our business. We’ve been in several meetings with the city and they have done their best to minimize the impact on us.”
Starting Thursday, July 16, another crew from Stockbridge General Contracting will begin the $2.1 million Monterey Road “streetscape” project through downtown which will upgrade electrical and irrigation lines and make other improvements to the street, according to Morgan Hill Communications Manager Maureen Tobin. That will result in the closure of the outside travel lanes (which have been transformed into buffered bike lanes for the last five months), and on-street parking.
Rosy’s At The Beach restaurant, near the northeast corner of Monterey Road and Third Street, is also pinned between construction projects.
Owner Rosy Bergin said there is no doubt the infrastructure will impact her business. She is encouraged that the city has said the work on Monterey Road will take place largely late at night and in the early mornings, when businesses are closed.
“My feeling is, we just have to get this work done, and we’re going to try to embrace it,” Bergin said. “It’s like pulling a band-aid off, but it’s going to be beautiful. At least we know it’s coming, so it’s not like it’s a surprise.”
Next week, yet another crew will begin utility undergrounding work on the south side of East First Street, Tobin added. And later this month, a complete reconstruction of East Fourth Street, also starting with utility upgrades, will begin.
These projects are like a “giant puzzle” with city staff and contractors taking care to ensure each piece proceeds and reaches completion as smoothly and with as little disruption to business, vehicle traffic and pedestrians as possible, Tobin said.
And they are part of the city’s roughly $25 million “placemaking” strategy for the downtown, in which the city is using its bond proceeds left over from the defunct Redevelopment Agency to revitalize and beautify the neighborhood, according to city staff.
Popular downtown restaurants Huntington Station, Trail Dust and Toto Trattoria, along the 17200 block of Monterey Road, will at times be surrounded by the sights and sounds of heavy construction this summer.
East Third Street will be closed to through traffic during the daytime for the rest of this month as the contractor, hired by the city, corrects flaws built into the original project in 2009 with more than $3 million RDA funds. The city is in litigation with the original contractors to recover some of that cost, but will front the price of the current project with the leftover bond proceeds.
Other downtown projects implemented by the city are intended specifically to welcome visitors despite the construction, Tobin added.
These include the public art “mini-grant” program that produced high-visibility pieces, such as murals adorning the walls of the former liquor store at Third Street and Monterey Road and the rear wall of the Granada Theater. The welcoming effort also includes a temporary “pop-up” park in front of the liquor store building, which hosts public art as well as a bike repair station and play areas for kids.
Furthermore, the city will augment its downtown promotion signage with signs notifying passersby that downtown businesses will remain open despite the construction, Tobin added.
Plus, the city has been working with the Morgan Hill Downtown Association over the past few months to encourage more economic activity along Monterey Road. One attraction this collaboration has borne is the monthly “Indie Market” street vendor event that takes place the last Sunday of each month, Tobin said.
“There will be impacts, but we are working hard to focus attention on the benefits and excitement of what’s to come after a very intense but brief construction time,” Tobin said.
Complete streets
The Monterey Road streetscape improvement project will bring an early end of the city’s six-month “complete streets” lane reduction, traffic calming and buffered bike lane trial through downtown. But it won’t speed up vehicle traffic as the construction will keep one lane in each direction closed until the project is complete.
Still, the city council is determined to make an ultimate decision on whether to make the one-lane trial configuration permanent later this year, or revert back to the pre-trial layout with two vehicle lanes in each direction. On Aug. 5, the council will hear a final report on traffic, parking, noise, pedestrian, cycling and business data collected since the trial started Feb. 17.
Downtown businesses contacted by the Times are mixed on the impact on their sales since February.
“Our business is down almost 10 percent, consistently, since … the lane reduction started,” Morgan Hill Cigar Company Manager Jeff Burrus said. “With the upcoming project, disrupting the street and parking, I don’t see it picking up at all. I foresee that we will continue to lose business.”
Bergin, however, said her business has been up “8 to 10 percent” during the lane reduction trial, compared to the same time last year.
Creighton speculated that while downtown restaurants might not be affected by the traffic calming effort, retail merchants might be the ones suffering. He noted that in Willow Glen, the city of San Jose implemented a similar trial but went back to two lanes when the business community almost unanimously reported plummeting sales.
