The question has lingered for more than a year, and the city
council is scheduled to tackle it at a regular meeting next month:
Should Monterey Road through downtown Morgan Hill be redesigned and
rebuilt, or maintain its current layout?
The question has lingered for more than a year, and the city council is scheduled to tackle it at a regular meeting next month: Should Monterey Road through downtown Morgan Hill be redesigned and rebuilt, or maintain its current layout?
Residents, city staff and hired consultants discussed the advantages and disadvantages of three different options on the table at a final community meeting on the subject Tuesday.
City hall began the public outreach and input gathering effort on a possible remodel of the thoroughfare in January 2010 as part of its ongoing, long-range plan to revitalize downtown Morgan Hill as an attraction for visitors and new residents. The city hired urban design consultant Callander Associates to conduct public outreach on a new street design.
Starting with a list of five rough designs with a mix of outdoor features, bike lanes, sidewalk dimensions and other details, the consultant brought the initial results of their public outreach – including surveys – to the city council in February.
The council narrowed the options down to the three configurations that consultants presented Tuesday with wall-sized printed depictions and a room-sized slide show.
“Alternative One” would polish and improve the street’s existing four lanes, 22-foot median, 10- to 12-foot sidewalk widths and add “sharrow” markings to one lane on each side indicating it can also be used by bicyclists. The estimated cost for that option is $5.4 million to $6 million.
“Alternative Two” is the “hybrid” option requested by the council in February. It would be four lanes with “sharrow” markings, a 16-foot median in some places and a 22-foot median in others, and sidewalks varying from 10 to 20 feet wide. That option is estimated to cost $7 million to $7.7 million.
“Alternative Three” would narrow Monterey Road down to two lanes all the way from Dunne to Main avenue, widen the sidewalks to 20 feet and leave the median at its current width. That option would add a bike lane, and would cost $7.5 million to $8 million.
Funding for the project, including about $245,000 paid to Callander Associates so far, will come from the redevelopment agency.
Each alternative would have differing impacts on traffic flow, pedestrian comfort, visibility, and bicycle safety, explained Brian Fletcher of Callander Associates. He said in his “professional opinion,” alternative three is the best option to create the kind of downtown envisioned in the city’s downtown specific plan, which calls for easy travel and access for pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists, as well as an attractive entertainment and shopping environment.
Some residents in attendance at Tuesday’s meeting asked why the two-lane option is still on the table when previous survey results indicate the plurality of respondents preferred that the road remain four lanes.
Fletcher responded that combined responses to other options in the survey showed that “almost as many people are interested in change as in no change.”
A key issue that will be considered if the streetscape effort reaches design and construction is the removal and planting of trees on Monterey Road, Fletcher said. Residents have repeatedly said they enjoy the canopy created by the existing trees downtown. Based on an arborist’s study conducted as part of the outreach effort, 18 of the trees in the median are unhealthy and would likely have to be removed in the construction phase. Plus, some of the trees in the existing raised brick planter boxes on the sidewalks are unhealthy.
But many more new trees would be planted no matter which of the three options is enacted, and all three designs would result in an overall increase in the number of trees downtown, Fletcher said. Options one and three would result in a net increase of 32 trees on Monterey Road, and option two would bring a net increase of 10 trees.
Other details that will be further examined are the use of “cafe zones” on the inside of the sidewalks, and “flexible use zones” on the side of the street that can be used for parking or blocked off with movable planters for outdoor dining.
Furthermore, the raised earthen berm running along the existing median would likely have to be removed at pedestrian crossings under all three alternatives, in order to improve walkers’ safety, Fletcher said.
One resident said she is “appalled” that the city spent $245,000 on the streetscape study while cutting other, basic services that residents depend on now.
“The city paid you a lot of money” to conduct the public outreach, Shirl Steindler told Fletcher. “Now we want you to take your money and leave.”
The planning commission will discuss the streetscape options and the public reaction at its regular meeting Sept. 13.
The city council will take up the matter, and possibly vote on whether or not to go forward with a design for one of the options, at its Oct. 19 meeting.
The streetscape effort coincides with the city’s attempts to redevelop downtown properties purchased in recent years by the redevelopment agencies. Those properties include the building containing Royal Clothier at Monterey Road and Second Street, the “Depot Center” property on Depot Street between Second and Third streets, and the former site of Simple Beverages at the corner of Monterey Road and Third Street.
Other city-owned properties include the Granada Theater building, Downtown Mall, and a stake in the Butterfield Boulevard Caltrain parking lot.
The city wants to redevelop the properties with mixed-use projects containing retail, dining, residential and office uses, with a cinema at the Royal Clothier site.
