MORGAN HILL
– The tug of war between the City Council wanting to build
revenue and some townspeople wanting to avoid more car dealerships
along the highway will continue at Wednesday’s council meeting.
MORGAN HILL – The tug of war between the City Council wanting to build revenue and some townspeople wanting to avoid more car dealerships along the highway will continue at Wednesday’s council meeting.
At the meeting, the Council will consider the “mitigated negative declaration,” a document that addresses potential problems caused by a new business and how to avoid them.
A Ford dealership, owned by Tim Paulus, is proposed for six acres of an 8.65-acre site between Condit Road and U.S. 101, north of East Dunne Avenue, less than one-tenth of a mile away from a residential neighborhood on Murphy Avenue behind Nordstrom Park.
Residents living nearby have expressed concern about lights, noise, traffic in their neighborhoods and hazardous materials stored on site. Residents from all areas questioned locating the dealership in such a visible place.
Scott Lynch, owner of Bob Lynch Ford in Gilroy, objected to the Paulus store enough to hire an attorney to fight the issue.
“The reason Bob Lynch Ford is opposing the new store,” attorney Bruce Tichinin said, “is that it does not appear that there is enough business in the region from which they both draw to afford two stores.”
Tichinin said the council is just now becoming aware of the potential pitfalls of the project.
“Bob Lynch and Paulus will be locked in a struggle for survival,” Tichinin said. Paulus, he thinks, will be the one to go dark, leaving the council with the responsibility.
“Just as it faces with Saint Louise Hospital (two hospitals opened to compete for the same business and only one survived) and for many years at Tennant Station (where Safeway competed with Nob Hill Market, which was located in the Vineyard Town Center), Paulus will be paying top dollar for his land and the building, costs that will become part of his overhead,” he said. “This will set him at a competitive disadvantage with Bob Lynch Ford, whose land and building costs are completely paid off.”
Tichinin said Paulus is the potential fall-guy.
“In a cynical move by the Ford Motor Co. that I think is a miscalculation, there is every reason to believe that Paulus and the City of Morgan Hill stand to lose (the business and sales tax, respectively).”
Paulus could not be reached by press time but has said in the past that a market study of car registrations in the area showed the need for another Ford dealership.
South County Chevrolet, located at East Dunne and Highway 101, has for eight years been in direct competition with Harry Marx Chevrolet in Gilroy and both businesses are going strong. The two dealerships offer different inventory, with Marx focused more on truck sales, Lynch said.
Scott Lynch, said his dealership and the new Morgan Hill store would probably not have a similar arrangement.
The dealership project went before the Planning Commission twice, on May 13 and 27, and city staff reviewed and revised the mitigated negative declaration, which it approved, 5-0, with some modifications. Staff recommends that the Council approve the declaration.
Modifications include a study to ensure that glare from lights is minimal in residential areas and that no light shines directly into those areas. Truck deliveries are restricted to the hours of 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday and must be conducted on the premises, not on the street. Shrubs planted along the street frontage will be a minimum of 15 gallons and there will be no exterior public address systems. Test drives will not be permitted on Murphy Avenue, limiting such drives to Condit Road, U.S. 101 and small segments of East Dunne and Tennant avenues and Cochrane Road. The report does not say how these restrictions will be enforced.
These limitations also will be enforced for other businesses building on the remaining two pads, which are currently reserved for a hotel and a sit-down restaurant.
A traffic study also predicts the dealership would significantly increase traffic at the unsignalized Murphy/East Dunne Avenue intersection, adding to the chances of a 10th stop light on East Dunne Avenue.
Tichinin said the residents who live near the proposed store have canvassed their neighbors. Many were not aware of the potential for problems.
“Murphy reminds us of a little country road,” resident Theresa Finamore said recently. “We lived around the corner from a dealership in San Jose. We were told that people won’t be test driving down our street with the freeway nearby but that is not what happened in San Jose. It was a problem and we moved from San Jose to Morgan Hill to get away from that.”
Tichinin said he expects a fairly large turnout at Wednesday’s council meeting.
Councilwoman Hedy Chang said at an earlier council meeting that the Ford dealership could bring $1 million into city coffers over 10 years. City Manager Ed Tewes said that might be a bit optimistic.
