Goal is to make it easier to build dwelling units in
downtown
Morgan Hill – The Morgan Hill Planning Commission took steps Tuesday to implement amendments to the city’s growth-control system and soften building requirements for dwelling units in downtown Morgan Hill.
Under Measure F, passed by voters in November, the city’s Residential Development Control System allows for up to 100 additional units downtown.
About 250 units of housing are allowed each year under the growth-control system, which sets the population at 48,000 in 2020. Developers compete for those allotments each year and the city uses scoring criteria to approve or reject projects.
Commissioners will review scoring criteria for new residential developments during the next two months. Areas scored include schools, open space, public facilities, parks and paths, housing needs, quality of construction and environmental concerns.
Proponents of new scoring criteria include developers who think it’s too difficult to get mixed-use residential buildings approved downtown.
“The original scoring criteria was based mostly on a single-family house,” said Morgan Hill architect Charles Weston, who wants to develop land he owns at the corner of Depot Street and Main Avenue. “It had a back yard and a lot of things you could score points with … but when you go downtown, you don’t have a back yard.”
City planners suggest recalibrating points for recreational amenities for higher density developments like dwelling units with ground-level shops.
The commission will also consider whether open areas on rooftops should be counted as open space, giving vertical mixed-use projects more points.
On-site community rooms for after-school programs may no longer need to be 960 square feet, the size the Morgan Hill Unified School District requires.
Goals may also be set for renewable energy and double plumbing for recycling grey water from sinks and dishwashers, a trend in other cities.
Commissioner Joseph Mueller said other criteria may be reviewed and the work plan is not an all-inclusive list.
“It isn’t a limiting list, but a starting point,” he said.
Commissioner Ralph Lyle said the commission should focus on ways to get residential units built faster. A number of projects that win approval from the city end up lingering in development for five to 10 years.
“We have to find something to encourage or make sure that the projects that come forward are projects that get built,” Lyle said. “Part of the intent is to get retail or mixed-use projects. How do you encourage that? That’s another thing for the subcommittee to consider, how to achieve that objective.”
Lyle also said minimal scores for the 100 additional units should be established.
“What happens if less than 100 apply, and you have to take all of them, even if half of them are terrible for the city?” he asked.
A three-person subcommittee consisting of commissioners Lyle, Susan Koepp-Baker and Mike Davenport will review the scoring criteria and report back to the commission in March. City planners expect the commission to finalize the scoring criteria in April.
The planning commission reviews the criteria using input from builders.
“Every year they look at it a little differently,” Weston said, adding the commission may emphasize solar power and energy efficiency more than in the past.
In other action, the commission voted 7-0 to allow Dance Unlimited Performing Arts Studio to relocate to an industrial warehouse.
The commission approved a conditional use permit for the studio, which will move from 15650 Vineyard Blvd. to 15750 Vineyard Blvd.
Tony Burchyns covers Morgan Hill for The Times. Reach him at (408) 779-4106 ext. 201 or tb*******@mo*************.com.
