We think Lynch and its attorney, Bruce Tichinin, are aiming
their litigious fire at the wrong target.
Gilroy’s Bob Lynch Ford doesn’t want a new Ford dealer to open in Morgan Hill, and they’re suing the city to try to overturn its zoning decision that allows a Ford dealership to be developed on Condit Road just northeast of Dunne Avenue and U.S. 101.
We think Lynch and its attorney, Bruce Tichinin, are aiming their litigious fire at the wrong target. If they have a beef with competition from another Ford dealer, they need to take it up with the Ford Motor Co., not the City of Morgan Hill. It’s perfectly within the city’s purview – and a perfectly reasonable decision, we might add – to allow an automobile dealership at this very commercial, freeway visible location. The dealership will bring sales tax dollars and jobs to the city and do it in an appropriate commercial location with excellent freeway access.
If Bob Lynch Ford has some sort of understanding with Ford about geographic proximity to his existing business, then that should be pursued with all vigor – in a lawsuit against Ford, not against the City of Morgan Hill. But City Attorney Helene Leichter is correct to question whether Bob Lynch Ford – a Gilroy auto dealership – has any legal standing to sue over a Morgan Hill land-use decision.
“We are going to challenge this on the basis that (Bob Lynch Ford) has no standing to raise this lawsuit,” Leichter told reporter Carol Holzgrafe. “In order to sue for these violations you have to be directly affected.”
Any issues about noise, light levels and traffic, for example, would impact neighboring businesses and residents, but not Bob Lynch Ford, which is 12 miles down the freeway in another city.
The neighbors were not party to Lynch’s suit, the deadline for filing suit has passed, Leichter said, and any environmental issues will be mitigated as much as possible. The unfair competition state law sections cited would make more sense in the context of a franchise agreement with Ford. It’s not right for Morgan Hill taxpayers to have to foot the bill to fight this lawsuit.
