Guest View

The first few months of this rainfall season were below average across California, with drought conditions evident statewide. Although the Golden State received a much-needed soaking in late January, moderate drought conditions remain across Santa Clara County.  Valley Water remains focused on preparing for future...

The County of Santa Clara provides the services that hold the fabric of our society together, but are often invisible to the majority of our 1.9 million residents. My colleagues and I on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors recently approved the fiscal year 2017-18 $6.5 billion budget. For South County, I’m pleased to announce that we are funding some key projects including a new Urgent Care Center, a new Animal Shelter, funding for services provided by the South County Youth Task Force and the Fire Safe Council, as well as expansion of the Santa Clara Valley Wine Trail.The County’s $6.5 billion budget provides residents with vital medical services, public health protection, behavioral health care, food safety, environmental protection, child and adult protective services, senior services, family reunification, assistance to those in need, homelessness prevention and treatment, transportation, park and recreation, libraries, emergency response to disasters, the criminal justice system and scores of other services. Many of these are expected by our residents and taken for granted. However, they require a lot of work from a committed workforce of 20,000 employees including social workers, doctors, nurses, park rangers, engineers, firefighters, accountants, librarians, deputy sheriffs and so many more.A new 12,000-square-foot Urgent Care Center will soon be built within recently-vacated space in the existing Gilroy Valley Health Center, located at 7475 Camino Arroyo in Gilroy. The center will offer walk-in style urgent care, including night and weekend hours, and will serve up to 20,000 patients annually. Construction will begin later this year with plans to open the doors in summer 2018. The project is estimated to cost $5 million and will be funded with existing 2012 Measure A revenue.As an animal lover, I’m especially excited to announce that a new County Animal Shelter is on the way. It will be located at the Sig Sanchez County Government Center at Highland Avenue in San Martin. The new shelter will be approximately 34,600 square feet. It will feature multiple kennel and cage animal holding spaces, as well as spaces for administration, veterinary medicine, adoption, food preparation, laundry and storage. It will be able to house up to 90 cats, 70 dogs and multiple livestock on a daily basis. This shelter will cost $26 million, and is anticipated to open in late 2020.Public safety has always been my top priority. I was able to secure $266,000 of funding for the South County Youth Task Force after state budget cuts eliminated their funding. In just four years, the task force has helped to reduce juvenile arrests by an amazing 46 percent by reducing delinquent behaviors and preventing recruitment of youth into gangs. The task force has successfully reduced gang violence overall in Gilroy, Morgan Hill and San Martin.The Loma fire of the summer of 2016 gave many of us a renewed appreciation for fire services. We know that prevention is key. The Santa Clara County Fire Safe Council is a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting communities at risk from wildfire. It is funded by private donations as well as local government agencies. The county is funding a new fully equipped tool trailer to perform hazardous fuel reduction and evacuation route clearing.Since we helped launch the Santa Clara Valley Wine Trail in 2013, it has been enormously popular with residents and visitors alike. The Wineries of Santa Clara Valley recently asked for my help after they identified the need to expand the Wine Trail (with increased signage) to provide better access to the wineries located inside the 29-mile Wine Trail loop. These new signs are scheduled to be installed in time for California Wine Month in September as well as Fall Passport Weekend in October.These new projects and services are just a few of the many ways that Santa Clara County government is providing what I like to call “Real Life Help” to South County residents every day.Supervisor Mike Wasserman was elected to the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors in November 2010, and re-elected in 2014. He represents District 1, which includes Gilroy, San Martin, Morgan Hill, Los Gatos, Monte Sereno and portions of San Jose.

The City of Morgan Hill is set on selling an option they own, “Depot Center/BookSmart,” to City Ventures, a developer from Southern California. The company has developed many great projects but this one will not be good for Morgan Hill. This project will be a net loss for the community. A small group has offered to match the offer from City Ventures for the option and keep Depot Center as it is. If this happens the owners of Depot Center have agreed to do major repairs to the property and do everything they can to keep the present tenants intact.Several years ago the city bought this option for about $1.7 million. Today they are offering that same option to a developer for $100,000 dollars. So the price is set at $100,000. What will the community get for $100,000? You will get some townhomes and a small amount of retail space. Here is how I see it:Morgan Hill will only get 8 to 10 percent more property tax from the new project than they are receiving now on the property.Sales tax will be far less than what the city is getting now because they are only building 3,000 square feet of retail space. The property currently holds about 25,000 square feet of retail space.Existing tenants draw many more people downtown than the proposed project.Occupants of the residential component of the project will be gone all day at work, so that is a loss to downtown.Very few retail businesses will be able to afford the rents that need to be charged for new construction.There are more employees working at the current site than what is being proposed.Seven or 8 long-time businesses, which have supported the downtown for more than 100 years collectively, will be displaced. The City of Morgan Hill will spend up to $1 million in relocation funds (already earmarked by the city council).The city has developed a relocation plan that may help some of the tenants but will be onerous for others.They have no plan to keep these businesses downtown during redevelopment or to bring them back after. The downtown needs businesses just as much as it needs housing (maybe more!).The City Ventures plan for the Depot Center property is very nearly the same type of project (townhouses and a little retail) that was denied last year for the property adjacent to Depot Center and the new parking garage. If this type of development is not right for one, why is it OK for the other?I appreciate that the city has a lot to do and in a short matter of time but they shouldn’t cave in and put a bad plan into action just because time is short.Contact your elected officials directly, not through social media. Directly speaking them to them pulls more weight than sniping on Facebook.Cities need to keep older buildings for the reason Jane Jacobs said in her book, “The Life and Death of Great American Cities.”The following is an excerpt from Jane Jacobs on old cities:“If a city area has only new buildings, the enterprises that can exist there are automatically limited to those that can support the high costs of new construction...Enterprises that support the cost of new construction must be capable of paying a relatively high overhead—high in comparison to that necessarily required by old buildings.”Brad Jones is co-owner of BookSmart, 80 East Second Street in downtown Morgan Hill.

It’s no surprise that our lives have become more hectic and fragmented each day.As part of our daily existence, we look to snippets of information in our community circles. Whether by news reports, friends, family or the increasing dependence on social media to stay connected, small bites of information we receive are the key to staying informed.Some time ago, I started working on specific Facebook Groups and other digital communities to help keep busy folks informed. These concerned the areas that mattered most to others and myself—one of which was our community here in Morgan Hill.  As the founder of the Morgan Hill Community Group Page (MHCG) on Facebook, there was growing need for our residents to have a centralized place to receive rapid information in our community from fellow residents. “By the residents, for the residents” is our credo, without City or government influence. Beyond other current happenings and discussions, topics like growth, crime and where can I find specific goods, services and more, has now become valuable to the group.Over the past year, the Morgan Hill Community Group page on Facebook has experienced growth. The once silent voice of residents is now rising up to engage many topics they previously didn’t have time or a venue for. This new-age way of communicating through social media is something I have advocated for many years. It provides each of us a simplified, fast and low-impact way to share our input in a massive venue.Another interesting aspect of the MHCG page is that more residents are engaging with each other to form smaller sub-social groups that use the page as a conduit for social good. More than once MHCG has joined residents together to save lost pets, help homeless in need and build community around our concerns of city growth. Even Bay Area news channels have fed off the good coming from the Morgan Hill community and MHCG page.While it’s not perfect, it’s shaping to become a catalyst that will change our view on Morgan Hill’s direction and commitment to a better community. In polls placed on the MHCG page, majorities are extremely biased on core areas of growth, city expenditures and lack of resident involvement in large decisions. This socialized communication is the shape of the future, and how the silent majority finds a voice again to reflect what “community” means to them.It’s also easy to envision how this model could allow our City Hall leaders a certified resident “e-vote” system to shape the residents’ desires for our future. This is another important topic I greatly advocate we consider.Being a native of Santa Clara County, I’m proud that our residents have stepped up to the plate recently through the MHCG page on Facebook and made Morgan Hill a community others wish to model. That spirit resides solely in each of those engaged positively in the group and helps make in a small way our Morgan Hill community a wonderful place to live.Steve “Papi” Chappell is a Morgan Hill resident and business owner. He is also a record holding champion in Land Speed Racing and the founder of the Morgan Hill Community Group Page on Facebook, which can be found at facebook.com/groups/MorganHillCommunityGroupPage/.