Push to amend Measure C continued Monday
Morgan Hill – Rumblings over a possible November ballot item to ease restrictions on downtown housing projects continued last week, sparking differences of opinion on how Measure C fits into a comprehensive vision of downtown.
Local architect Charles Weston was among those at a public workshop June 12 to discuss the matter with city officials and others. Like many developers at the workshop, Weston thinks Measure C housing restrictions should be amended to exempt downtown builders from yearly housing allotment competitions held by the city under Measure C. Current rules allow for 250 each year.
But opposition to an amendment is coming from longtime Morgan Hill Planning Commissioner Ralph Lyle, who thinks some developers such as Weston are trying to skirt the rules to push through projects that meet lower standards than those established.
“A ballot amendment is ridiculous,” Lyle said prior to Monday’s workshop. As he sees it, the issue isn’t lack of allotments downtown. Since 2003, he said, the city has approved more that 350 new housing units for that part of the city. True, other downtown projects were rejected, Lyle said, but those weren’t so good in his opinion. “It isn’t a perfect world for them,” he said in reference to developers.
Meanwhile, several of the participants in Monday’s workshop felt the city’s decades-old Measure C rules are now out of sync with an emerging vision of Morgan Hill’s downtown as a hot spot for younger and even “hipper” shoppers and homeowners.
Weston said rules stemming from the late 1970s aimed at restraining suburban sprawl should not be obstacles for downtown builders today.
“We’re not mortal enemies, the city and developers,” he said, countering notions of rich builders wanting to “rip off” the city or trounce downtown aesthetics. “The city needs developers,” he said. “We need the growth for our general fund, to pay for things like more police officers and firefighters. That’s how it is.”
Morgan Hill City Councilman Greg Sellers said the council is beginning to feel pressure to back a Measure C amendment. However, Sellers said he is not yet sure of his position on the issue. Language for the initiative has not yet been written, and the council has until early August to place something on the Nov. 7, 2006 ballot.
Still, Sellers, who sits on the Community and Economic Development Committee, said he is open to the idea of tweaking Measure C to move downtown projects along quicker.
“We need a better plan for developing downtown,” he said. “Some of the things in Measure C don’t favor downtown development, even the annual competition for allotments.”
Measure C was approved by voters in 2004, functioning as the latest in a series of growth barriers going back nearly 30 years. Lyle was an early supporter of the growth barriers in Morgan Hill, and thinks what voters approved in 2004 lines up with a long history of slow-growth policies favored by residents. Instead of changing the rules, he suggested downtown builders should focus more on zoning rules that conflict with some proposals that have come forward. For example, changing the Morgan Hill General Plan to allow for more density downtown and taller buildings could be helpful to downtown development without requiring a ballot item. Current height limits downtown only allow three-story buildings.
As the debate moves ahead, Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce Director Dan Ehrler said the workshop last Monday was positive and productive.
“The opportunity for questions and clarification was really taken advantage of,” he said. “I am really eager to meeting again.”
Measure C aside, ensuring enough parking downtown for the future remains one of the chamber’s top priorities, he said.
Tony Burchyns covers Morgan Hill for The Times. Reach him at (408) 779-4106 ext. 201 or tb*******@mo*************.com.
