Here’s a classic tale of sowing and reaping
…
In the early 1970’s, Morgan Hill had a pro-growth City Council
that approved a number of homes, an apartment complex and several
commercial and industrial projects.
Here’s a classic tale of sowing and reaping …
In the early 1970’s, Morgan Hill had a pro-growth City Council that approved a number of homes, an apartment complex and several commercial and industrial projects.
Some local residents, particularly alarmed over the approved projects planned for the face of El Toro, banded together to halt what they labeled unchecked growth. They called themselves, the Save El Toro Association.
SETA asked one of their members, an environmental lawyer, to file four lawsuits in their behalf (one was against the city and another against the five El Toro property owners scheduled to develop their acreage.) That lawyer was Bruce Tichinin.
The argument used to shut down all approved and future building projects in Morgan Hill for well over a year was a California law requiring cities to have a General Plan with sufficiently allocated open space. Morgan Hill didn’t have one at the time and Tichinin argued that this invalidated all building permits issued since 1974.
Those four lawsuits cost a lot of people a lot of agony and a lot of money.
Based on approved building permits, individuals had gotten loans and were paying interest, mortgaged personal property, planted orchards they couldn’t water and built homes they weren’t allowed to live in.
Frustrated, some sued the city to recover their staggering losses. Some won and were able to hang on for the duration of the moratorium. Some didn’t and couldn’t.
Up until now, I’m only repeating what I gleaned from dusty newspapers published in the ’70s and housed in Gilroy’s museum.
But to give this political debacle a human face, let me introduce you to a couple of ordinary folks who fought for and lost their rights during this litigious melee …
When we moved to Gilroy, an elderly couple, Fred and Helen Kahler, rented a duplex across the street from us. They’d invite us over for Helen’s famous blueberry pie and we’d reciprocate with Dutch Apple. In time, Fred told us his heart-breaking story of prolonged lawsuits and financial devastation.
Fred had been one of the five property owners sued over permitted building sites on El Toro. He wasn’t a corporation or high powered CEO uninterested in aesthetics. He was a self employed real estate agent who lived in the community, worked hard all his life and planned for his retirement by buying prime property in a fast-growing community.
Due to the years of pending lawsuits, moratoriums and the fact that he would never be able to develop or sell his property, Fred lost his home, his retirement and his pride. Additionally, he’d been injured in a tractor accident while making property improvements and was no longer able to work full time.
According to current Morgan Hill city planner, Jim Ropes, Fred was compensated by the city for his unusable 40 acres at “fair market value.” Ropes said, “I’ve always assumed Fred left town a rich man.” (Persistent efforts to find out exactly what that “fair market value” was, remain unanswered.)
Whatever the amount was, it wasn’t enough to keep a roof over their heads. After their rent money ran out, Fred and Helen spent their final years house sitting for friends or living with their daughter.
Why am I writing a column about old news? Because Bruce Tichinin is suing the city again. Only this time he’s a lawyer for developers instead of environmentalists. And, ironically, the current lawsuit involves some of the El Toro open space he fought to protect 30 years ago.
Tichinin represents a client who wants to develop property at the base of El Toro. The council rejected the request because the acreage guidelines for building in an open space weren’t followed. Ropes contends that the pair could have adjusted boundary lines and resubmitted the proposal. Instead, according to news reports, Tichinin tried to prove the project was denied because two council members were having an affair.
When caught and exposed for his part in creating the imaginary scandal, he shifted gears and sued the city for publicly embarrassing him and for the ensuing loss of income.
Tichinin is almost ready for his banquet. But he needs just a little more than “shame, humiliation and defamation” to qualify … He needs to end up destitute and house sitting in his golden years before he’s ready to eat the full harvest of all the thistle seeds he’s sown.
