The city of Morgan Hill is preparing to begin an overdue update of its general plan, a voluminous document that guides how the city will grow for the next 20 years or so.
The process will include evaluating whether or not certain properties or sections of the city should be zoned with different land uses based on growth trends and the use of surrounding properties over the last 10 years, and how the different uses will be tied together through transportation options.
On Dec. 5 the City Council will consider a recommendation by city staff to hire a consultant team to begin the update process and negotiate a contract with the consultant, according to City Manager Ed Tewes.
After that, the city will put together a committee of citizens, staff and elected officials to consider the many aspects to the plan that might require updating – such as transportation and traffic projections, residential and commercial growth projections, housing needs and land use changes.
Tewes said that committee could be formed as early as January 2013, and the process for forming that advisory body is yet to be determined.
The city is required to update its general plan every 10 years, and Morgan Hill is more than two years behind its last update which was adopted in 2001 and covers the “community’s vision” for the city’s future up to February 2010.
City staff and council members have said they have not had enough money to update the general plan since the recession that started in 2008.
The general plan update is a lengthy, tedious process that usually lasts up to five years. Tewes said this time the City could finish the update within about three years, partly due to the completion about three years ago of the traffic element of the plan.
The general plan update is “long overdue,” according to real estate broker John Telfer of South County Realty.
As an example, Telfer cited the rising instances of individual property owners requesting zoning changes in the last couple years, which mark the end of the last general plan span. For example, some property owners this month have requested their properties be changed from industrial to residential zoning.
“A lot has changed in the last 10 years,” Telfer said. “This (current) general plan anticipated certain things, and some are not relevant any longer.”
Telfer, who has been directly involved in Morgan Hill general plan updates in the past, thinks the upcoming update should include a land inventory of the availability of property in each zoning designation. That would clarify and possibly refute claims made in recent years that the city has an inestimable supply of undeveloped residential land in the city limits.
“We’ll probably find we have more industrial land than market studies show we need,” for example, Telfer said.
And for certain residential uses – particularly for apartments – Telfer thinks there is a shortage of undeveloped, appropriately zoned land in the city limits.
Another key aspect of the general plan update will be the city’s growth control ordinance, an “incredibly complicated and cumbersome” policy that is designed to keep the city’s population capped, and requires residential developers to compete for projects by incorporating amenities or public improvements into their plans.
“I’d like to see more enticement for creativity, and more modern projects,” Telfer said.
Another problem with the current growth control ordinance is the competitions take place two years before construction can start, and in that time the market changes and buyers might want a different product by the time the homes are built.
The City wants to maintain its growth control goals, and Telfer thinks it should, but developers and council members have said the ordinance should be streamlined and made easier to understand.
