Guest View

On Feb. 17, the Morgan Hill City Council once again displayed a lack of foresight and financial wisdom in handling Ordinance 2131. You might recall that last spring, voters signed a petition to suspend the ordinance that would change the zoning for a three-acre parcel of land on Lightpost Way and Madrone Parkway from “light industrial” to “general commercial.” The petition required the zoning change to be approved by the voters before it could be enacted. Instead of following the California Constitution, the city terminated the petition in an attempt to aid an out-of-town developer who bought the land cheaply. That developer will now make a windfall with the city council rezoning the land to commercial, which is worth more. Now the city is being sued by the Hotel Coalition for failing to abide by the requirements of the Constitution. Who will pay the bill to defend the city? You, the taxpayer.

If there’s any silver lining to the North Bay fires, it’s the overwhelming outpouring of compassion and volunteerism in support of victims and first responders. In our darkest days, the very best in us came pouring out.As was made painfully clear, fire does not discriminate. We are all equal before the flames. Given the toxicity of national politics, it was refreshing and deeply moving to see how the North Bay responded to the catastrophe. It felt good to do something, anything, to help.Food and clothing drives popped up overnight. Restaurants offered free meals to first responders. People opened their homes to displaced strangers. Local kennels took in homeless animals free of charge. Banners thanking fire fighters went up on freeway overpasses.The question “How are you?” has become much more than a throwaway pleasantry, because, one way or another, we’ve all been affected by the fires, whether or not we lost our homes or loved ones. It could have been any one of us trapped in a burning home with no way out.The horror of the fire revealed our common humanity. America prides itself on its rugged individualism, but in times of crisis like this, it’s clear we are not strong because we stand alone; we are strongest when we depend on each other. The fire revealed that we are rugged dependents who support each other through the worst of times.Eventually, the smoke will clear and fire victims will go about the hard work of rebuilding their lives. There will be talk of a return to normalcy, and that’s good. But let’s hold on to the part of our common humanity awakened by the fires.Stett Holbrook is editor of the North Bay Bohemian, based in Santa Rosa.

I am a past President of Gilroy-Morgan Hill Bar Association, a member of the Transportation Lawyers Association, and past Chair of TLA's Legislation Committee.I have practiced transportation law in the South County for 38 years, and have done post-doctoral study of transportation law and policy at the Norman Y. Mineta International Institute for Surface Transportation Policy Studies, and at Transportation Research Board, Georgetown University; and at the Library of Congress. I am a graduate of SJSU, and the University of Santa Clara Law School, and I have 52 years of transportation industry experience dating back to my junior year at Cupertino High School, when I worked for the SPRR, and later at UPRR in San Jose (1970-1980).My comments are personal, and not made on behalf of a client or any professional organization to which I belong.For a state that cannot afford adequate fire suppression, or water storage, it is bad public policy to add to the public transit boondoggles that the taxpayers (mostly motorists) already shoulder, under the worst tax/fee burdens among all the states.What the California High Speed Rail Authority is doing, which is not what voters voted for in Prop. 1A in 2008, is contrary to the conclusions of both the President's Blue Ribbon Commission on Transport Funding, and the California Transportation Commission. Both of them concluded that we ought to fund transport with "user fees."Giving away transit rides, by any mode, with fares near zero, diverting the costs to motorists' gas and diesel taxes, is unfair, unsound, and unsustainable transport policy. Taxing people out of their cars is a public policy plunging us down the Road to Serfdom, intended to cripple our state's economy.We already pay our taxes for many wasteful boondoggles like Amtrak, Caltrain, ACE Train, BART, Light Rail and county transit, when it would be much cheaper for taxpayers if we just purchased each transit rider his own BMW, or paid his taxi fare, or his Uber fare.California's voters voted for self-sufficient high speed rail, not a Supermassive Black Hole added to the already intolerable public sector transit Black Holes that our lost leadership forces us to subsidize.This bad public policy is making California into Northern Venezuela. I urge local leaders to support the repeal of Prop. 1A.Caveat viator.Joseph Thompson is an attorney whose law offices are in Gilroy. He can be reached at [email protected].

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.