Changes to be made in growth-control ordinance?
Though many months were spent discussing how to improve and update Morgan Hill’s residential growth-control ordinance, no one really brought up how to encourage and ease building mixed-use residential housing in the downtown core.
Councilman Greg Sellers, a longtime downtown supporter, wants to do something about the oversight.
“The Planning Commission is looking at how to make changes within Measure C, that wouldn’t have to be approved by the voters,” Sellers said Monday. “We could say that there are three to five years during which you could build outside of Measure C. By doing this you could create a critical mass for downtown.”
Larger changes are policy issues and should come from the council, Sellers said. Most would have to be approved by voters but that takes time and money.
“Now that the Registrar of Voters is charging full retail for elections (because of the county’s budget crunch), we are looking at possibly asking for voter approval when the next library parcel tax measure goes on the ballot,” he said.
The library parcel tax could be a mail-in ballot, Sellers said, but doesn’t know yet if the city could do that with a Measure C update measure. No date has been set for a vote on a parcel tax that could return the Morgan Hill Library to its six-day schedule. No citywide election is scheduled before the statewide primary election in June 2006.
Sellers, and others including the Morgan Hill Downtown Association, have been attentive to successful national trends to revive downtowns.
Among city planners nationwide, the new mantra is mixed use – the idea being that people living “above the store” offer a ready-made supply of customers for neighborhood businesses and restaurants. In New York City or San Francisco, where one often can find a market, dry cleaner or bookstore within easy walking distance, the same mix can work to boost life in a downtown that tends to be all too quiet after dark.
Local neighbors, especially in smaller towns and cities, also provide a safety factor for each other and businesses, because they tend to notice trouble and call the authorities.
Councilman Steve Tate, who was on the Measure C update committee and favors growth control in its Morgan Hill guise, agrees that something needs to be done.
“We need something that doesn’t change the overall growth rate but does accelerate downtown building,” Tate said. “It’s a shame that the issue didn’t show up (during discussions).”
City Planning Manager Jim Rowe said there are ways around Measure C that don’t require ballot approval but wouldn’t destroy Measure C’s intent, which is to allow a population of no more than 48,000 by the year 2020. About 250 residential units are approved each year, though that fluctuates depending on a number of factors.
“One way is to use some of the 50 allocations reserved for affordable projects in 2006-07 (they must be allocated by March 1, 2005) for which we have no applicants,” Rowe said. “Some can be moved to the downtown area.”
Measure C requires that 20 percent of all allocations be setaside for below market rate buyers. The Redevelopment Agency reserves funds to partner with agencies, such as South County Housing, to build affordable housing.
The only problem with using affordable allocations is that the city is required to allow the building of a certain number of residences for low income people. That number would have to be added in future years, taking away from the market rate allocations available for developers of property further out from the downtown core.
Already in the works is a 18-unit mixed-use project (15 residential, three commercial) by entrepreneur Manou Mobedshahi for the parking lot behind the Granada Theatre and the Downtown Mall, which he owns. Weston Miles Architects plan a similar project for land they own on Depot Street at East Main Avenue, which will be available when the Dayworker Center, scheduled to open Dec. 11 or before, moves to a permanent location in three years.
Also possibly adding future housing could be the property where the Flea Market and Associated Concrete are now located, at East Main Avenue between the railroad tracks and Butterfield Boulevard. Santa Clara County will break ground in December for the new courthouse to be build south of the Caltrain parking lot at Butterfield and Diana Avenue.
The residential projects are all market rate and targeted to young singles or families without children, though not exclusively, a population that traditionally has disposable income.
“When the council adopts general plan changes in January, those sites will be allowed to develop,” Rowe said.
Added to that, he said, Measure C already allows 10 vertical mixed units each year – with retail at street level and residential or offices upstairs.
“We are poised for a quantum leap it we do it right,” Sellers said, “but, if we do it wrong or not at all, downtown could slide backwards and we’d all lose.”
In the meantime, owners of vacant land downtown are watching to see what happens before they move forward.
Carol Holzgrafe covers City Hall for The Times. She can be reached by e-mail at ch********@mo*************.com or phoning (408) 779-4106 Ext. 201.
