As the City Council gets ready to discuss Wednesday where to put
a new library, behind City Hall or downtown, fans of both sites are
lining up their teams of support. Thursday the Chamber of
Commerce
’s Economic Development partnership unanimously voted to support
the downtown site. Plenty of other people support the Civic Center
site, saying they like the quiet neighborhood and that the site is
large enough for easy expansion needed in 10 or 20 years.
As the City Council gets ready to discuss Wednesday where to put a new library, behind City Hall or downtown, fans of both sites are lining up their teams of support.
Thursday the Chamber of Commerce’s Economic Development partnership unanimously voted to support the downtown site.
Plenty of other people support the Civic Center site, saying they like the quiet neighborhood and that the site is large enough for easy expansion needed in 10 or 20 years.
The Civic Center faction, many of whom – but not all – live near the Civic Center site, has traditionally been quite vocal in announcing its preference and are expected to be out in force.
Chamber Interim Director Alex Kennett said there are three reasons why the committee voted the way they did.
“It creates a major focal point for downtown,” Kennett said, “and downtown needs a kickoff.”
Second, he said, the downtown site, wrapping around the East Third and Depot street corner – and immediately east of The Morgan Hill Times building – is more centrally located than the Civic Center site.
“This will give a big boost to business (the Chamber’s function is boosting business) and help the library out as well, being more visible,” Kennett said.
The downtown area was planned to handle traffic, Kennett said. The site is located well away from the busy Monterey Road but near the railroad tracks though they are totally fenced off on the Depot Street side.
“We were concerned about the additional traffic in that residential area,” he said. “We are told that a new library automatically brings at least twice the traffic, plus, Public Works plans to move into the vacated current library building and that would increase traffic more.”
The Civic Center is near two elementary schools and a neighborhood with many small children, he said.
Previously the Morgan Hill Downtown Association approved the revised plans developed by Rocke Garcia of Glenrock Group.
The Library Commission voted to back the Civic Center site because, chair Jeanne Gregg said, they were told to consider only what was best for the library, not what was best for the rest of the community.
Council will not make a decision Wednesday because Councilman Greg Sellers will be out of town; Sellers wanted to be part of the decision. Council members say they expect chambers to be filled with proponents of both sides.
