Neighboring cities, county planners look at proposed boundaries
at ‘brainstorming’ meeting Monday
Morgan Hill – Proponents of San Martin’s potential leap to cityhood won approval Monday of their “notice of intent” to circulate a petition asking local residents to incorporate.
After the petition is launched, proponents have six months to gather signatures from at least 25 percent of registered voters within the pending city. There are about 3,000 registered voters in San Martin. If the signatures are certified by the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters, the community of San Martin must pay for a comprehensive fiscal analysis and an environmental impact report that could have a combined cost of more than $150,000.
The San Martin Neighborhood Alliance, the group formed in 2000 to spearhead efforts to incorporate, is planning a petition “kick off” party Dec. 2, from 4 to 6:30pm, at the San Martin Lion’s Club Hall.
Neighborhood Alliance member Sylvia Hamilton said the success of the incorporation party would be “critical” to San Martin’s future as a city.
“It will be a chance for people to visit with various elected officials, learn about the process … and for registered voters (in San Martin) to sign the petition,” Hamilton said, adding the event would include barbecued food and music.
Approval of San Martin residents’ “intent to petition” for incorporation was granted by the Local Agency Formation Commission at a closed-door meeting attended by Santa Clara County planners and city officials from Gilroy and Morgan Hill.
Authorities hosting the meeting denied requests for press access because the meeting was defined as “staff level.”
Hosted by LAFCO, the session at the local Lion’s Club Hall provided information to neighboring jurisdictions on San Martin’s proposed boundaries and an array of issues tied to forming a municipal government, according to sources who attended.
To incorporate, the community of San Martin must propose boundaries that do not interfere with existing “spheres of influence” for the cities of Morgan Hill and Gilroy.
“It was a brainstorming session to get some expertise on whether the areas where we’re drawing the lines make sense,” Hamilton said, adding that a few revisions were made to eliminate land west of CordeValle. “San Martin is unique. Most cities form because they want growth. We do not want that.”
Molloy-Previsich said overlapping boundaries on south Monterey Road in Morgan Hill presented a “minor issue.” She plans to discuss further details of the meeting with the city’s Regional Planning and Transportation Committee on Friday.
Gibson said county planner Bill Shoe raised a number of general issues, “things the city will have to grapple with,” such as hiring a staff, deciding between local police and fire departments or contracts with the county and whether to build a sewer system for residents.
Members of the San Martin Neighborhood Alliance have said they are not in favor of using local taxes to provide sewer services. The group favors preserving San Martin’s rural atmosphere against county planning decisions that are unpopular with residents, such as the expansion of the San Martin Airport.
Numbering about 7,000, residents of San Martin account for less than 1 percent of the county’s population. A 2003 financial feasibility study shows there are adequate revenues to fund the current levels of services with an initial operating budget of $2.5 million. At the time, the mayors of Morgan Hill and Gilroy and supervisor Gage voiced support for San Martin’s incorporation, according to Sylvia Hamilton, a member of the San Martin Neighborhood Alliance.
This is the third effort to incorporate San Martin. The first attempt was in the 1960s, at which time the population and tax base was too small to fund a city. The second attempt came in the 1980s, by which point LAFCO had established sphere of influence lines for the county’s existing towns and cities. The lines for Morgan Hill and Gilroy converged at Highland Avenue, leaving San Martin with no area call its own. Additionally, the tax base was still too small to support services provided by the county. Those lines have since been redrawn.
LAFCO staff members have described San Martin’s effort to incorporate as a learning process for all involved. The last two cities to incorporate in Santa Clara County were Los Altos Hills and Saratoga, some 50 years ago.
