Opinion

While Panwala asserts that the city is interfering with the right to referendum, it is actually Panwala and his coalition who are exploiting the referendum process for the benefit of one family at the expense of the residents and voters of Morgan Hill.

You may not have realized this, but the City of Morgan Hill is updating its zoning code. In the proposed code, the city will allow hotels near U.S. 101 to be as high as 65 feet. (Chapter 18.24.030). One may ask, why do we need 65-foot hotels in Morgan Hill?Perhaps you’ve heard the argument we need taller structures because land is scarce. This type of development will not ease the housing crisis nor provide affordable housing. Instead, it will increase the wealth of developers at the expense of harming our existing hotels and changing our landscape forever.The city’s proposed height requirement is a reminder to local hotels that they “doth protest too much.” In 2015, when the city attempted to provide a $2 million windfall to an out-of-town developer by changing the zoning to more valuable one, the Morgan Hill Hotel Coalition collected more than 2,500 signatures for a petition for referendum. The city refused to place the ordinance on the ballot, and spent nearly $200,000 of your money fighting against your Constitutional right to approve or reject the ordinance. The court of appeals agreed that you have the right to vote to approve or reject the zoning ordinance, but instead the city asked the California Supreme Court to review the case, thereby spending more of your money.When it came time to update the zoning code, the city decided it would allow any developer to build a hotel twice as tall as the current hotels. If you drive on Condit Road, nearly every hotel is 35 feet high and three stories tall.The city admits it restricted us. In fact, the 35-foot height restriction still applies to every other type of building other than hotels under the proposed zoning code. So the city is clearly singling out hotels.Under the new code, newly developed hotels would have a huge economic advantage over the current ones because they will build twice as many rooms on the same amount of land. When the current hotel owners expressed their concern that the city was providing an unfair advantage, the city’s response has been, “too bad, times have changed.” The hotels even suggested a compromise at 50 feet, but the city declined.Why are hotels different from all other commercial buildings? Is this the way we treat family businesses that have invested in our community for decades and employed dozens of people?  Or is this what happens when the hotels stand up to the city?Perhaps, you really want a series of 65-foot hotels lined up along the highway? When you drive by on 101, instead of El Toro, your view will be changed to high-rise buildings. Is that how you would like people to remember our town? I hope not.Asit Panwala is a spokesperson and attorney for the Morgan Hill Hotel Coalition. He can be reached at [email protected].