MORGAN HILL
– Officials charged with determining how far Morgan Hill can
expand are close to reaching a boundary agreement over the growing
city.
MORGAN HILL – Officials charged with determining how far Morgan Hill can expand are close to reaching a boundary agreement over the growing city.
The tiniest glimmer of agreement appeared at Monday’s Urban Limit Line committee meeting, allaying fears of a stalemate. Conflict has arisen among members, most of whom own eastside property currently under discussion and are afraid they won’t be paid for land reserved for a greenbelt, and others who are more concerned with preserving the environmental beauties of the area.
In earlier meetings, the 17-member committee moved along at a smart pace, drawing lines around the city’s north, west and southwest sides, marking off land and sections on which little or no development will be allowed, avoiding hillsides lined with the “ticky-tacky little houses” of Malvina Reynolds’ legendary song. Or any houses at all.
However, when it came time to draw the line for the east side, a previous meeting turned contentious. The property owners, many of whom are hanging on to a dwindling agricultural industry, balked at not being able to sell or develop the property when they need to in the future.
“The development potential of his (a farmer’s) land is his retirement plan,” said Warren Uchimoto, who summed up the property owners’ situation during the public comments period. Uchimoto said he owned several acres southwest of Tennant Avenue and Hill Road but was speaking for his neighbor farmers.
“Farming is no longer a viable occupation,” he said. “Flowers and strawberries were once good here and are now gone; flowers come from Columbia and strawberry farmers moved to the Pajaro Valley where the parcels are bigger and the weather is cooler.”
Uchimoto told the committee, underlining what they themselves had said earlier in the evening, that small, local farmers simply cannot compete with large corporate farmers in the Central Valley and elsewhere.
“The economies of scale are simply not there for the urban farmer,” Uchimoto said.
The issue of compensation finally entered discussion, at the 10th meeting.
Committee member and attorney Bruce Tichinin started the meeting off with a vivid comment.
“The cost of funding this greenbelt is the great bogeyman,” Tichinin said. “Fear can’t raise funds and unless we face that issue, we’ll end up polarized.”
And that’s the direction the committee was headed toward its Oct. 3 meeting.
Tichinin also brought up the committee’s unbalanced makeup that contributed to the conflict.
“It’s the greens versus the property owners and the greens are clearly outnumbered (four or five of the 17). If we do the money first, we stand a much better chance (of reaching consensus).”
Mayor Dennis Kennedy said the committee had so far been successful drawing a line around two-thirds of the city.
“We’ve done quite well until now,” Kennedy said.
Alex Kennett, a committee member and the area’s elected representative on the Open Space Authority, waved a draft proposal on the City of Gilroy’s policy on agricultural mitigation. He proposed a partial move.
“We could buy the conservation rights from the farmer or developer-in-waiting without buying the land outright,” Kennett said.
That way the farmer could continue to use the property until ready to move on but the land would be reserved – now – for perpetual greenbelt.
George Thomas, whose family owns property between Hill Road and the hills and elsewhere in the area, said he agreed with the Gilroy plan and encouraged local control over the land.
“The greenbelt issue should be controlled by the City of Morgan Hill and not by the county,” Thomas said.
Councilwoman Hedy Chang asked the question hanging over everyone’s head.
“Where will the money come from?” she asked.
Kennett mentioned the Open Space Authority’s habit of forging partnerships with the Nature Conservancy, the Sierra Club and other agencies and organizations committed to preserving green areas. Those groups frequently pool their funds to buy important pieces of land.
Parcel taxes and enlisting Measure P were proposed wherein a developer would earn points toward building allotments by contributing money to an “in-lieu” pot, to be held by the city and used when a parcel came up for sale.
The possibility of compensation leavened the mood until the meeting concluded with the intention of finding a way to pay fair market value for the land instead of the property owners’ vision of government moving in on their futures.
“Forcing a greenbelt is not very different from eminent domain,” Uchimoto said, “and eminent domain is with compensation.”
The city’s consultants will work put together a compendium of possible places money might be found to be presented in November.
Besides the eastern hill limit line, the committee also continued its discussion of a potential business park near Hwy 101 in the Tennant/Murphy/Maple area. No decision was made.
The next Urban Limit Line meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Oct. 27 in The Villas behind City Hall. Details: www.morgan-hill.ca.org or 779-7271.
