The city has backed off designating land for industrial growth
outside of its limits, inching ahead in establishing a permanent
greenbelt around the whole town.
Morgan Hill – The city has backed off designating land for industrial growth outside of its limits, inching ahead in establishing a permanent greenbelt around the whole town.
Last year, the Morgan Hill City Council approved a greenbelt and growth boundary that has a missing piece – the so-called southeast quadrant. The city left the greenbelt unfinished to explore a recommendation from its Urban Limit Line-Greenbelt Advisory Committee, which asked the city to designate space for a 200-plus-acre business park south of San Pedro Avenue and west of U.S. 101, which is rural unincorporated land.
The city council on Wednesday voted 5-0 to leave the land in the southeast quadrant as is – for now.
The city commissioned a study, the Industrial Lands and Southeast Quadrant Market Study, to see if job demand in 20 years would warrant the park. The study, released in December, reveals the opposite, showing plenty of room for new jobs without the development.
Completed in December, the study shows there’s enough vacant buildings and land in Morgan Hill’s borders to satisfy job growth for 30 years, and possibly 67 years. There are 556 acres of industrial land within city limits and vacancy rates at business parks have risen to about 20 percent in recent years.
Given that information and the city’s recent focus on downtown development, environmentalists applauded the city council’s decision to back off requests for the potential business park from property owners looking to develop their old farms.
“While some people might try to quibble with what the consultants say, I think it’s safe to say you could table this plan for 10 years and still find you don’t need the land” for jobs,” said Brian Schmidt, a member of the Committee for Green Foothills.
All five council members also asked city planners to work on identifying agricultural portions of the southeast quadrant best suited for the incomplete greenbelt. The criteria include long-term farming viability. Planners were also asked to work with the Santa Clara County Open Space Authority, property owners and other stakeholders to recommend land-preservation tactics for last segment of the city’s greenbelt.
Planners will announce a schedule next month for completing the urban limit line and greenbelt process, which includes exploring land uses such as sports and recreational areas in the southeast quadrant.
In 2003, the city council appointed the Urban Limit Line-Greenbelt Advisory Committee to recommend policies for creating an urban limit line, the last boundary to which all future development could occur. Between that boundary and what’s known as the city’s sphere of influence line – drawn by a regional land-use agency – an agricultural and rural greenbelt would lie. In 2006, the city approved areas for its greenbelt with a missing piece – the unincorporated southeast quadrant containing roughly 1,250 acres.
Tony Burchyns covers Morgan Hill for The Times. Reach him at (408) 770-4106 ext. 201 or tb*******@mo*************.com.
