Downtown Morgan Hill is suffering from a job half done.
Businesses are having trouble surviving because the finished
product hoped for through the use of Redevelopment Agency funding –
downtown as a destination for local living, shopping and
entertainment – is incomplete. With an upcoming vote on renewing
and extending the RDA, the Morgan Hill City Council can take the
steps necessary to fulfill its side of the promise.
Downtown Morgan Hill is suffering from a job half done. Businesses are having trouble surviving because the finished product hoped for through the use of Redevelopment Agency funding – downtown as a destination for local living, shopping and entertainment – is incomplete. With an upcoming vote on renewing and extending the RDA, the Morgan Hill City Council can take the steps necessary to fulfill its side of the promise.
The RDA is a tool for keeping local tax dollars at home for use in redeveloping blighted and poorly developed areas to maintain and improve a communities’ cohesiveness and effectiveness in serving its citizens. To complete the job of creating a Los Gatos-like downtown destination, the council will have to vote to extend the RDA and to retract its previous pledge of not using eminent domain to fulfill the overriding needs of the community. Eminent domain allows a public agency to assert extreme public benefits as a reason to force the purchase of private land for higher public uses. The land is paid for at prevailing market rates, making it a fair economic deal for the landowner.
I am not an advocate of wholesale use of eminent domain, but there are times when it does serve a high enough purpose to justify overruling private ownership rights. This country has a long history of controlled use of public benefit versus private rights to serve public good in a fair and equitable way. An example of this would be the anti monopoly laws that have kept private corporations from running roughshod over labor and consumers; maintaining a balance of private control and public benefit in the use of our countries resources.
Downtown Morgan Hill now has a situation that is comparable in the balance between private rights of ownership and public need and benefit. The former Albertsons store location and the associated properties that constitute the corner of Monterey Road and Dunne Avenue is an empty eyesore. Albertsons has closed and services for those living in this part of town are being lost. The six to eight owners of this corner shopping area, including the shopping center, gas station and apartments, are not local residents and have little interest or incentive for improving and upgrading this site which occupies the primary entry to the City of Morgan Hill. It is the front door to our city.
This crossroads of Morgan Hill, which has the potential to be a beautiful site occupied by thriving businesses and upscale apartments, is instead three fourths empty and a drag on the local economy. Properly developed as a part of the new downtown Morgan Hill, this corner could anchor our downtown as a desirable destination for local inhabitants and businesses. It could be a source of property tax and sales tax revenue for the city, maintained by happy and industrious occupants. Instead it is an eyesore and an area that requires more than its fair share of public safety attention.
It is now time for the council to display the leadership it always claims it will at election time. Responsible use of eminent domain through the RDA is exactly what this location and our downtown needs to survive, thrive and serve local needs. Local interests and needs must now prevail over disinterested absentee owners.
Veterinarian John Quick is the owner and operator of the Animal Care Center of Morgan Hill. He is a founder of the Wildlife Education and Rehabilitation Center and Furry Friends Foundation and was the Morgan Hill Male Citizen of the Year in 2003.
