Because two City Council members were only present by
speakerphone at the March 24 meeting, council postponed a decision
on modifying the Urban Limit Line scope of work until all five
could see what they would be voting on.
Because two City Council members were only present by speakerphone at the March 24 meeting, council postponed a decision on modifying the Urban Limit Line scope of work until all five could see what they would be voting on.
The issue will be back before the council Wednesday, with some property owners expected to claim as “unfair” a possible plan for them to shoulder the costs of keeping Morgan Hill’s hillsides open for all to enjoy.
The modification involved the Urban Limit Line Advisory Committee’s suggestion that a plan on how to make a greenbelt program work and how to pay for it would be useful.
David Bischoff, director of community development (planning), explained:
“Originally there was no implementation plan,” Bischoff said. “It was supposed to happen after the line was set. When the committee got involved, they found they wanted a plan.”
Committee member Tim Chiala, whose family has farmed east side land for generations, told council he has hopes for the modification.
“This new scope of work will finally answer questions and clarify what’s really going to go on,” Chiala said. “It will ease some concerns.”
The plan would consider how to deal with potential greenbelt properties outside an eventual urban limit line – in which development (mostly hillsides) would be severely restricted.
The Urban Limit Line is a line designating the ultimate edge of where the city would be allowed to grow over the next 50 years. Land inside the ULL would remain subject to city zoning regulations and have the benefit of city services.
Property outside the line will be unincorporated and under the control of Santa Clara County. The only property outside the ULL and inside the city limits, said David Bischoff, director of community development (planning), is the Boys Ranch on Malaguerra Avenue and part of the Kruse property above Thomas Grade.
The Juvenile Probation Department’s Boys Ranch, he said should cause no problem since it is largely open space anyway and negotiations with the Kruse family resolving differences over its future development are expected to be completed soon.
Certain picturesque land outside the ULL would be called greenbelt and would be subject to rules controlling development, set by the city and the county in joint stewardship and paid for – in one scenario – by an assessment tax on owners of those same greenbelt properties.
ULL Committee member Jan Guglielmo objected to these landowners having to pay for the program.
“They seem to be asking one segment – owners from San Pedro though Maple – to pay for a greenbelt that everyone would be enjoying,” Guglielmo said Monday. “This does not seem to be the democratic way; it’s socialism.
“We all love greenbelts and everyone should pay for it through a parcel tax,” she said. “The city shouldn’t just put a line down that will effect people drastically.”
Pointing out that 2004 is an election year, Guglielmo said people will want to know what council and mayoral candidate views are on property rights.
“The property owners are very concerned,” she said.
Guglielmo is a member of two long-time, landowning Morgan Hill families, the wine-making Guglielmos and the Justinos.
She also objected to newcomers such as Mark Grzan, a nine-year resident and an environmentally outspoken member of the committee, insisting that the hills stay they way they are for his and everyone else’s benefit.
“Newcomers want things to stay the same,” she said. “Morgan Hill was built by people who helped each other out and built the community. Grazn wants the area to benefit him without a thought for the landowners, some of whom are 80 or 90 years old. This (land) is all some of these people have for their retirement.”
Another complication is that there is no money in city or county treasuries to buy any greenbelt land outright or even to buy development rights.
“Why are they doing this (setting up a greenbelt) when there is no money,” Guglielmo asked before the March 24 meeting.
She put her finger on a critical hole in any plan: where to get money to reimburse landowners. Other cities have joined with conservation groups and secured government grants to purchase the land outright or to buy “easements,” but such partnerships often don’t work as well as planned, Guglielmo said.
“Before doing the study they should have made sure they had the money,” she said.
Committee member Alex Kennett, the area’s elected representative to the Open Space Authority, said a partnership with the city to purchase agricultural development rights or property outright is within OSA’s scope of work.
“We are always open to ideas to preserve open space,” Kennett said.
He pointed out that OSA has bought more than 300 acres of Silacci property south of Gilroy, along the Pajaro River, for preservation and has itself partnered with the Land Trust of Santa Clara County to preserve at least 400 more elsewhere in the county.
“However, we have to jump through the same hoops as developers do when they buy land,” Kennett said, “though we grow trees rather than houses. And don’t forget – we don’t have deep pockets.”
The southeast part of the city, south of San Pedro and east of Carey Avenue, being flat and more easily developed became controversial during committee meetings. Property owners in this quadrant pointed out that if their land was in the greenbelt they would never be able to realize much of a financial return on their investment because they could not sell it for development.
Mayor Dennis Kennedy, who chairs the ULL committee, with Councilwoman Hedy Chang as vice-chair, appointed a five-member subcommittee to study the area and to evaluate the possible benefit assessment district. Committee members include Kennett, Anne Beale, George Thomas and Tim Chiala, property owners and Joe Mueller, planning commissioner. Thomas, Beale and Chiala own property in the area.
The city originally awarded a $225,073 contract with consultants Moore Iacofano Goltsman for the entire project with $20,000 set aside for contingencies. Funding for the additional work would come from the contingency account.
The complete Council agenda is available at City Hall and on line. City Council and/or the Redevelopment Agency meets at 7 p.m. most Wednesdays in City Hall Chambers, 17555 Peak Ave. Details: www.morgan-hill.ca.gov or 779-7271. Council meetings are broadcast live on cable access channel 17.
