242 homes to be built in Morgan Hill next year
The Morgan Hill Planning Commission approved developers’ requests to build a total of 242 housing units in the city limits for the 2017-18 fiscal year, and for the first time in recent memory the allocations include a large number of market-rate apartments for rent.The allocations approved Jan. 12 by the seven-member commission represent the maximum number of homes that can be built in 2017-18, under the city’s Residential Development Control System. The commission also approved 85 specific housing units for 2018-19, but more allotments will be awarded for that year in the coming months as the competition among developers is ongoing, according to city staff.The housing allocations for 2017-18, which will be found in 14 projects throughout the city, include a mix of single family detached homes, multi-family attached condominiums, “micro projects,” affordable housing and apartments. Some of the approved allocations will add to existing projects, such as five single family homes awarded to Ventura Investors’ Altimira project off Altimira Circle in northeast Morgan Hill.Planning Commission Chair Joe Mueller said a unique aspect of this year’s residential development competition is the San Pedro Presidio apartment project, which is cleared to build 80 units next year in the “multi-family rental” category. It was also awarded 85 multi-family rental units for the following year. At full build-out, that project will include 168 apartments at the northeast corner of San Pedro Avenue and Condit Road.The developer is Presidio Evergreen, LLC, which was also awarded 30 condominium allotments for a separate project at San Pedro and Murphy avenues in the “open/market” (not restricted by residents’ income) category for 2017-18.The unusually high number of apartment requests also resulted in a “tighter competition” this year, Mueller said.“It’s the first time we had an apartment project for the open market in a very long time,” Mueller said. “We need market rate rental housing because our vacancy rate is very low, and market rate rentals will help attract young engineers (and other professionals) to our town.”Each project still has to go through the city’s entitlement process, which includes site plan and building permit reviews.Morgan Hill Community Development Director Andrew Crabtree said the projects ultimately to be presented could change slightly from what the planning commission approved Jan. 12. But the developers are required to maintain the “score” they received in order to win the allotments.The voter-approved RDCS ordinance requires developers to compete for the limited number of annual housing units they want to build in Morgan Hill, under a complicated scoring system that awards points to each proposed project based on its housing quality, enhancement of public services, energy efficiency and other categories.The allotments approved by the planning commission Jan. 12 do not require city council approval. However, the applicants may appeal the commission’s decision to the council, Crabtree said.The ordinance, originally known as Measure C, sets a population cap above which the city cannot climb as of 2020. That cap is 48,000 people, which has allowed about 250 housing units to be built annually in recent years.With the ordinance set to expire in 2020, city officials are working on a ballot initiative to present a renewal of the RDCS for the November 2016 citywide election. City staff, consultants and residents who have been working on the city’s General Plan Update for the last 18 months have said the RDCS renewal would ideally set a new cap for the year 2035. That new population cap is currently proposed at about 65,000, but discussions and public review could change that number in the coming months as the city prepares a formal draft ballot measure.
