As the city debates becoming involved in a theater project
downtown with the aim of jump-starting development in the city’s
center, we urge everyone to remember that an important piece of the
puzzle is housing.
1. Support kick-starting development
As the city debates becoming involved in a theater project downtown with the aim of jump-starting development in the city’s center, we urge everyone to remember that an important piece of the puzzle is housing.
A successful downtown has lots of people living in and near it. Morgan Hill’s downtown is lacking that attribute, in part because of density restrictions and a housing allotment competition that does not encourage downtown development.
City officials placed Measure H on last November’s ballot and then backers let it languish – no campaign to educate or persuade voters -and paid the price for its penny-wise but pound-foolish decision with a heartbreakingly narrow loss of just 10 votes.
While we continue to have concerns about the wisdom from a business perspective of a theater project, we support the concept of the city helping to catalyze downtown development with some sort of project.
2. Measure H was a missed opportunity
But we’re no-holds-barred enthusiastic about getting the proposals that made up Measure H enacted, and that will require putting a similar measure before voters.
Measure H would not have cost residents a dime, and would not have changed the city’s growth-control population cap. Instead, it would have made it easier for developers to build downtown mixed-use housing projects by exempting 500 units from the annual housing allotment competition. The projects would be higher density and near transit, making them good for downtown and for the environment.
3. If at first you don’t succeed
However, without a campaign to explain the benefits of these changes to residents, enough voters were in a “No to everything” mood that this no-cost, common sense proposal fell 10 votes short of passage.
And that means that, even in these tough economic times, the city needs to place a similar measure before voters and then backers need to campaign hard for its passage.
We know that housing is in a slump right now, but if we don’t position ourselves properly to take advantage of the recovery as soon as it begins, we’ll have missed an important opportunity to create a vibrant, exciting downtown.
