Morgan Hill added 1,162 residents in 2006 to become Santa Clara
County’s fastest-growing city, outpacing Campbell by a nose.
Morgan Hill – Morgan Hill added 1,162 residents in 2006 to become Santa Clara County’s fastest-growing city, outpacing Campbell by a nose.
“It is no surprise that Morgan Hill’s population is growing” so rapidly, said Carl Guardino, president and CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. “It’s a great place to live, a city with a true sense of community and a prime location for technology workers with jobs both in Morgan Hill’s increasing tech sector, as well as points north in other Silicon Valley cities.”
The city’s population grew by 3.1 percent in 2006, from 37,256 to 38,418, according to data released in May by the California Department of Finance, the agency charged with compiling demographic information for cities and counties.
Gilroy’s 1.9 percent growth rate was the fourth highest among the county’s 15 cities, with the city’s population hitting 49,649 in 2006. That represents an increase of 902 residents since last year. In the last year, the city saw a number of residential projects move forward in the northwest quadrant and north and central Gilroy.
Several hundred homes are planned for downtown and northern Gilroy in the next few years, but the biggest share of the city’s growth will take place off Hecker Pass and in the southwest quadrant, where more than 2,000 homes are planned to rise in the next decade.
According to city officials, developers built 232 new housing units and the city added 71 additional homes through land annexations.
To some, Morgan Hill’s continuing population growth underscores a need to provide citizens commuting north with options to their automobiles.
Morgan Hill City Councilman Greg Sellers, a board member on the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, said the most significant challenge will center on regional planners’ ability to get residents to jobs further north.
“There is simply not enough space to put all the lanes required to get people through Coyote Valley, and if Coyote Valley is built out as planned, that problem will become significantly worse,” Sellers said in an e-mail. “Caltrain service can increase, but significant increases will require electrification, which is very expensive. Electrification will allow trains to get up to speed and slow down more quickly, thus allowing more trains.”
