A sleeping giant north of Morgan Hill showed signs of awakening
Saturday when dozens of San Jose residents, and a few from Morgan
Hill, toured Coyote Valley and got a hint of the future and heard
of the San Jose City Council
’s dream for the valley.
A sleeping giant north of Morgan Hill showed signs of awakening Saturday when dozens of San Jose residents, and a few from Morgan Hill, toured Coyote Valley and got a hint of the future and heard of the San Jose City Council’s dream for the valley.
The valley, located between Santa Teresa and Highway 101 and south of Bernal Road is poised on the brink of a development that eventually will bring 50,000 new jobs, 25,000 housing units and as many as 80,000 residents. That many people pouring into a now-quiet and rural area is bound to have deep effects on Morgan Hill’s housing, traffic, economic and environmental status.
The biggest impact here will be to the Morgan Hill School District whose boundaries encompass Coyote Valley.
Morgan Hill City Council members, seeing the valley’s huge potential effect on their town of 39,000, have for months been trying for a seat at the planning table. So far they have largely been rebuffed.
The city is represented on the Coyote Valley Planning Task Force not by a council member but by Russ Danielson, a former Morgan Hill School Board member, co-owner of downtown’s Jody’s Junction and a San Jose resident. Danielson has faithfully attended every meeting – the only member to do so, he says – and regularly reports back to the community.
After the bus tour, Danielson said, everyone heard presentations on traffic, housing, environmental, public buildings and places and whether or not farmers will still be viable.
A member of the city’s planning department is on the task force’s technical advisory committee.
“We do need more involvement than just on the technical advisory committee,” said Councilman Greg Sellers.
At a meeting on March 10 at which San Jose planners presented the plan to the council, Mayor Dennis Kennedy specifically asked them to take a polite request to San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales that the council be given a larger role in the discussion.
“It’s important that we have a meaningful way to provide input into the process,” Kennedy said, “and attending a workshop as a member of the public doesn’t offer such an opportunity.”
Two days later Gonzales’ communications director David Vossbrink said the mayor thought Morgan Hill was appropriately represented.
“That’s disappointing,” Kennedy said.
Complicating matters is the Morgan Hill School District boundary that extends north to Bernal Road in south San Jose. While not certain, San Jose city planners told the council the area would need approximately seven new elementary schools and at least one more middle school.
Superintendent Carolyn McKennan said she had not seen the plan.
“We will want to see the plan and are asking them to schedule a time for us,” McKennan said. “I don’t think the number (of new schools required) is a surprise.”
There has been a quiet rumbling in Morgan Hill over the idea that Coyote Valley might form its own school district, alleviating the hard-pressed MHSD from the need to deal with it. City Planning Commissioner Bob Benich attended Saturday’s workshop and brought the matter up.
“I stood up and said one thing to consider is the possibility of forming a separate school district for Coyote Valley,” Benich said. He said he would encourage the school board to take part (in the planning process) before it’s too late.”
The task force will meet in mid-April to review the results of Saturday’s workshop and begin to develop a model for what might be done in Coyote Valley, Danielson said. By June the plan will go to the San Jose City Council.
