Commissioners will explore how projects are approved
Morgan Hill – The Morgan Hill Planning Commission is looking to make it easier for developers to build apartments downtown.
The commission has started a two-month review of the criteria city planners use to rate housing projects submitted by developers.
Its focus on downtown construction follows the passage of Measure F in November, allowing for more housing units in the city’s core.
The number of housing built in Morgan Hill is fixed each year by a complicated formula that caps growth at 48,000 residents in 2020.
Projects consisting of about 250 units of housing will be approved next year by city planners, the planning commission and the city council.
For years, developers of downtown projects have complained of an unfair advantage for suburban subdivisions with amenities like parks and sidewalks.
Those amenities are nice, say developers, but downtown apartments should be graded differently because they meet different housing needs.
Robert Benich, chairman of the planning commission, agrees with that point of view.
“You can’t apply the same criteria to a large subdivision that you can for a high-density mixed use area,” Benich said. “The challenge is to look at what would be fair criteria for downtown development.”
A number of people believe a vibrant downtown in Morgan Hill would attract more single residents to live and shop in the city’s core.
Measure F asked voters to allow the city to build 100 additional housing units downtown than its growth control law would have allowed otherwise.
“One of the keys to a vital and vibrant downtown is reaching a critical mass of people,” Benich said. “It’s nice to see people out on the street.”
Reaching that critical mass might be difficult under the points system used by planners.
New housing projects get approved after they are graded by the city using a complex points system that includes parks and recreation, proximity to schools, sidewalks and walkways, quality of construction and public facilities.
Because housing growth in Morgan Hill is fixed to about 250 units per year, higher scoring projects end up with a better chance of getting approved by the Morgan Hill City Council.
Reviewing the scoring criteria used by city planners is nothing new for the commission. Every year, the commission looks for ways to improve the process of meeting the community’s housing needs.
While possibly making it easier for downtown projects to get approved, the commission may also add points for environmental perks like solar panels.
In December, commissioners Susan Koepp-Baker and Mike Davenport expressed a desire to improve energy use and wastewater treatment in developments.
Those environmental standards could be added to the scoring criteria.
Tony Burchyns covers Morgan Hill for The Times. Reach him at (408) 779-4106 ext. 201 or tburchyns@morganhilltimes.
