As one of the stakeholders in the City of Morgan Hill’s Coyote Valley Project Stakeholders group, the Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce provided the City of San Jose its comments on the Coyote Valley Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) prior to the comments’ June 29 deadline.
Whether you know a lot about this proposed project or very little, if not you, your children and your children’s children will be heavily impacted by what happens in Coyote Valley over the next two to five decades. We think it’s important for you to know what the Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce had to say about this project’s DEIR.
The Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce mission is to provide quality service to our members and promote and develop a strong economic climate in Morgan Hill. Within that context, the chamber believes that the proposed Coyote Valley project would potentially have a favorable economic impact on Morgan Hill, its businesses and especially chamber members. For this reason, the chamber supports Coyote Valley’s development. However, the chamber has very serious concerns about the environmental impacts that will result from this development, as identified in the DEIR. The impacts, which closely match those of the City of Morgan Hill, are as follows:
- Traffic impacts on South County – The DEIR does not show adequate traffic surveys to address the impact of Coyote Valley development on existing South County roads and parks. Unless all public transportation infrastructures are in place, projected increase in the numbers of jobs in Coyote Valley will result in traffic congestion. Local streets and Highways 101, 85 and 87 will have serious regional economic impacts if people cannot reach their destinations in a timely fashion.
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The most critical economic focus is the need to reach employment, followed closely by socio-economic health and welfare needs – hospitals, doctors, schools, shopping, dining, touring, or recreation. South County, and specifically Morgan Hill, will suffer not only economic impacts, but will be subject to potential environmental fallout as well. The DEIR identifies these impacts, but does not propose mitigations to lessen their effect, especially the potential air quality impacts inherent in increased use of U.S. 101. The DEIR should be amended to provide mitigation for these impacts, even if the mitigation does not fully eliminate the identified impact. One Member has suggested a 90 percent mitigation target be set for the most impactful results.
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Housing affordability in Coyote Valley and impacts on South County – The DEIR does not adequately address the need for affordable housing in Coyote Valley, nor does it outline the potential impacts on Morgan Hill and other communities in southern Santa Clara County. It identifies a specified number of homes in Alternative 1 but does not project costs. Its projections do not adequately reflect California and/or Association of Bay Area Government recommendations for low and moderate-income housing. The DEIR should address the impact on housing values and the controlled growth housing market in Morgan Hill in the event there is insufficient affordable housing in the Coyote Valley. In addition, the 20 percent specified affordable housing is a start but another 60 to 70 percent should be designated as below (San Jose or Santa Clara County) median price market rate housing. Single-family home development should be minimized with higher density required.
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Provisions of schools – The DEIR identifies the need for 13 schools, ranging from K through 12, but inadequately addresses how all the new schools will be funded and how the schools will be phased in the project to ensure that overcrowding of existing schools does not occur. The plan does not project costs to construct nor indicate a defined developer contribution toward construction, infrastructure and staffing for the needed classrooms. In addition, the property purchased by Gavilan College for a new campus should be identified on the project’s map and definitely needs to be included as an educational component in any community planning.
In my next column I will share the chamber’s concerns about impacts on existing roads and parks, air-quality impacts, phasing of the project, water supply, the chamber’s recommendation to the City of San Jose and the need for inclusion in the remaining years of this very significant decision making process.
Dan Ehrler has been serving as the Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce executive director for two years and has been the chief executive officer for various chamber of commerce organizations in California for more than 20 years. Contact him at de*****@********ll.org or at (408) 779-9444.
