Money would go for new sidewalks, streetlights and bike lanes on
historic street
Morgan Hill – The Bay Area’s premier transportation and financing agency is set to approve a $1.7 million grant Wednesday to pay for a renovation of Third Street.
The grant would go for new sidewalks, streetlights and bike lanes, making Third Street a more attractive link from Monterey Road to the Caltrain station on Depot Street.
The proposed street project is among 11 grants totaling $16.6 million that were endorsed earlier this month by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s programming and allocations committee. The full commission – which oversees transportation planning, coordination and financing for the nine-county Bay Area – is slated to vote for the approval of the grants at its meeting this week.
“Community-based projects like the Third Street Promenade bring new vibrancy to the surrounding area by providing for a range of transportation choices, including walking, biking and transit,” said county Supervisor Jim Beall in a written statement. Beall is part of the 19-member policy board that guides the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.
Morgan Hill city officials applied for the grant in June to turn the historic side street into a colorful pedestrian promenade that could help rejuvenate the downtown shopping district. A downtown plan adopted in 2004 recommends building the promenade.
“Third Street has always been the link” to downtown Morgan Hill, said Joyce Maskell, manager of Morgan Hill Business Assistance and Housing Services. “It was designed especially wide to be a special place. We were encouraged strongly by MTC to apply (for the grant), and we took their advice during the application process.”
Third Street, once known as Nob Hill Avenue, was once the center of downtown. It was built 20 feet wider than other east-west streets to allow for a vibrant market place next to the rail road tracks.
During the last 25 years the street has languished even as city officials have worked to upgrade Monterey Road and other areas of downtown through the creation of a redevelopment agency and the appropriation of state and federal grants.
City officials view the renovation of the street and the ability to build more mixed-use housing after voters approved Measure C in 2004 as big steps toward a livelier downtown.
“It will beautify the area to attract more businesses and more people,” Maskell said. “This is the project that will make a big difference.”
Downtown property owner Rocke Garcia, who is in the pre-planning stages of building condominiums, townhouses and commercial space at the corner of Depot and Third streets, said retooling Third Street would enhance downtown’s atmosphere.
“We’re just excited as all get-out,” Garcia said, adding the addition of the new court house on Butterfield Boulevard would help generate the foot traffic needed to fill a decorative promenade. “That emphasis on (Third Street) is going to benefit all of downtown.”
The city is currently using a $2.6 million grant from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission to reconstruct Depot Street between Main Avenue and Fifth Street. City officials expect the long-awaited work on Depot Street to be completed in January 2007.
The Third Street project would likely be completed in late 2008 or early 2009.
While cheering efforts to draw businesses downtown, some property owners have raised concerns over parking dilemmas. Third Street has long accommodated overflow parking for downtown shoppers, but the renovation of the road would eliminate about half the parking spaces. Businesses such as Poppy’s Fish, Poultry & More and United Academy of Martial Arts have said they might lose customers.
City officials say future parking issues would be worked out in time with the possible addition of new public lots. Maskell said renewing the city’s redevelopment agency would go a long way toward funding future parking projects.
“That’s certainly on our minds right now,” Maskell said.
The city council is expected to vote on the extension of the redevelopment agency in November, deciding whether to raise caps on property taxes to fund the agency’s capital improvement projects.
Tony Burchyns covers Morgan Hill for The Times. Reach him at (408) 779-4106 ext. 201 or tb*******@*************es.com
