With the property in its hands and an environmental study under
way, the Catholic Diocese of San Jose is proceeding steadily on its
plans to build a private high school in Morgan Hill. The school is
intended to serve the areas surrounding Morgan Hill, San Martin and
Gilroy, as well as Hollister and northern San Benito County.
With the property in its hands and an environmental study under way, the Catholic Diocese of San Jose is proceeding steadily on its plans to build a private high school in Morgan Hill.
The diocese recently purchased about 20 acres, and is in negotiations to buy another 20 acres in the area surrounded by Murphy, Barrett and Tennant avenues, according to George Chiala, chair of the Committee for a Catholic High School.
Plans are to build South County Catholic High School in phases, starting with about a 150-student freshman class and eventually accommodating 1,600 high school students, Chiala said. The first 20 acres will house the school’s first phase, which is estimated to cost about $30 million.
“The first phase will be approximately 30 classrooms, a small administration building and an assembly area, which will be a gymnasium and cafeteria,” Chiala said.
The committee is working on a deal with the city of Morgan Hill to use nearby public sports fields and the Aquatics Center for high school athletics, though the long-term plans allow room on the future campus for a football field and stadium, Chiala said.
The diocese and the local Catholic community envisioned a private high school in Morgan Hill several years ago, and that vision has progressed along with the city’s plans to expand its service and growth boundaries into the area known as the “southeast quadrant,” annex about 660 acres of property into the city limits and implement a land use plan that preserves a “greenbelt” of open space around the city.
The school is intended to serve the areas surrounding Morgan Hill, San Martin and Gilroy, as well as Hollister and northern San Benito County. A feasibility and needs assessment study conducted by the diocese about three years ago found the demand for a private Catholic high school in the southern Santa Clara Valley is high and will continue to grow.
After the first 125 to 150 students enroll at the new school, the committee expects enrollment to grow by about the same number per year until it reaches about 600 students in the first phase, Chiala explained. “That would trigger us moving into the next phase,” and an eventual capacity of 1,600, Chiala said.
St. Catherine Parish in Morgan Hill and St. Mary’s Parish in Gilroy operate private schools for grades K through 8th. The closest Catholic high schools to Morgan Hill are in San Jose and Salinas.
A start date for construction is still a long way off, and depends on a series of key steps that both the diocese and the city must reach.
For the church, the high school committee hopes to raise about $20 million for construction. Last year, Chiala told sister paper Morgan Hill Times the committee is in the “soft” fundraising phase, meaning it has not yet made a public push for funds. He declined to say how much money they have raised.
The project also depends on a series of drawn-out processes required by the city’s plans for the southeast quadrant. An environmental study of the entire area – which is roughly bound by U.S. 101, Maple Avenue, San Pedro Avenue and Carey Lane – is currently underway and likely won’t be complete until the fall, according to Morgan Hill senior planner Rebecca Tolentino.
That study will consider the general impact of projects currently planned in the area by the quadrant’s property owners, which include the city. Those projects include a sports retail and restaurant complex, a residential development planned by the Chiala family, and about 194 acres’ worth of “sports-recreation-leisure” uses – a new zoning designation under the plan that would include outdoor sports fields, equestrian facilities and indoor facilities such as soccer fields.
The environmental study will include a detailed analysis of the Catholic high school project, including the anticipated impact on traffic, Tolentino said.
Following the study, which is being conducted by consultant Michael Brandman Associates, will be a public comment period, then another series of public hearings to consider permits already submitted by southeast quadrant developers.
The diocese has four permits on file for the high school project – one to include the property in the city’s urban service area boundary, one to annex the site into the city limits, one to change the property’s general plan designation and one to change the zoning designation, Tolentino said. Those permits cannot be heard or considered until after the environmental study is finalized, and furthermore depend heavily on the approval of the county’s Local Agency Formation Commission.
The city’s expansion into the southeast quadrant has been planned for several years, and is intended to use zoning to control growth in the area, rather than allow development to proceed untidily under current regulations imposed on the properties by Santa Clara County, city staff and council members have said.
Advocates for responsible development of local open space do not think the southeast quadrant with its current agricultural uses is an ideal site for a high-impact land use such as a high school, especially when there are “other viable locations” inside the city limits already, according to Julie Hutcheson of Thrive! Morgan Hill.
“It’s hard to do it responsibly when you’re taking up prime farmland,” Hutcheson said. “The Catholic high school project is part of a bigger and unnecessary plan to annex and develop a large portion of our greenbelt. If our council truly wants to grow responsibly, they should find a location for the high school among the abundance of land we already have within our current city boundary.”
She added that the farmlands in the southeast quadrant are “a significant part of our city’s rural charm,” and should remain undisturbed.
