At a community workshop on the City of Morgan Hill’s ongoing General Plan update Thursday, residents were presented with three conceptual strategies for future growth that would concentrate new residential and commercial development in preferred areas in the city limits.
Participants were then asked to break into groups and put their creative skills to the test, using different colored magic markers to fill in their own suggestions on three maps representing the different strategies.
The City and its General Plan Update Committee are several months away from settling on a growth strategy for the next 20-plus years, and the purpose of Thursday’s exercise at the Community and Cultural Center was to gather input on each of the current options, according to David Early, consultant with the Planning Center/DC&E who was hired by the City earlier this year to assist with the three-year General Plan update process.
The General Plan update process – known as “Morgan Hill 2035” – is an effort by the City to update its growth, conservation and development goals for the next 20-plus years. Cities in California are required to update their General Plans every 10 years.
The three different growth strategies presented Thursday share numerous common goals and patterns, but their differences were summed up by Early as follows, according to Planning Center and City staff:
– “Complete Neighborhoods”: Future growth would be concentrated in existing neighborhoods along Monterey Road and near U.S. 101. All types of development – residential, office, retail and other commercial – would be encouraged in each neighborhood.
– “Downtown and Corridors”: Downtown Morgan Hill would be extended north and south on Monterey Road from its current boundaries at roughly Main and Dunne avenues. These areas, as well as the “corridors” on Cochrane Road and Tennant Avenue between Monterey Road and U.S. 101, would be the focus areas for new growth for the next 20 years.
– “New Neighborhoods”: All types of development would be concentrated in areas that are currently sparsely developed. Specifically, these areas would include East Main Avenue, east of U.S. 101; the southwestern foothills in the area of West Edmundson Avenue and LaCrosse Drive; and areas north of Cochrane Road between U.S. 101 and Monterey Road.
All three strategies, as proposed, share a strong focus on high-density residential development in downtown Morgan Hill, as well as fulfilling the City’s established Downtown Specific Plan to revitalize the downtown with a mix of retail, office and transit-friendly development and amenities, according to Early’s presentation.
Each growth strategy would also strive to maintain Morgan Hill’s “small town feel,” strengthen the City’s major east-west routes, preserve a “critical mass” of industrial and other “job-generating” lands, allow residents to live and work in Morgan Hill, preserve land for potential future higher education development and focus large-scale retail around freeway interchanges, among other traits, according to Early.
After the 30 or so members of the public in attendance at the meeting broke up into five groups to add their own suggestions, most reported back that they agree with the City’s focus on revitalizing downtown Morgan Hill and attracting new residents there.
Others suggested that more affordable housing should be a focus in whatever long-term growth strategy the City settles on, and that future housing developments should not be high-density.
Morgan Hill resident Icarus Sparry, who has lived in Morgan Hill almost seven years, found Thursday’s workshop “informative,” and he wished more people had attended.
“It’s important that Morgan Hill retains its small-town feeling,” Sparry said. “Obviously it has to grow, but that’s the important thing that makes it attractive. Big-box stores on Monterey Road (for example) would be a bad thing.”
The meeting was the second of six scheduled community workshops on the City’s General Plan Update process. The next one is scheduled for Winter 2013, on a date and location to be announced.
In addition to the community workshops, the 17-member General Plan Advisory Committee will continue to meet at least once per quarter over the next two years, in order to process and provide input and make recommendations about the long-term plan to the Council.
The update process also includes stakeholder meetings and Planning Commission and Council study sessions.
The next GPAC meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Oct. 24 at the Community and Cultural Center, and a joint Planning Commission/City Council study session is scheduled for 6 p.m. Oct. 30 at the Britton Middle School auditorium.
Another way for residents and stakeholders to provide input on the City’s long-term goals and vision, on their own time without attending a meeting, is through an Open Town Hall web forum sponsored by the City.
This interactive Open Town Hall forum, a full schedule of meetings and volumes of information on the General Plan update process can be found at www.morganhill2035.org.
