SAN MARTIN
– A San Martin community group’s research into incorporating its
rural hamlet into a legal
”
township
”
with its own municipal government is continuing in a serious
way.
SAN MARTIN – A San Martin community group’s research into incorporating its rural hamlet into a legal “township” with its own municipal government is continuing in a serious way.
Members of the San Martin Neighborhood Alliance have raised nearly half of the roughly $23,000 they need to pay for a study that would determine whether incorporation is a financially feasible concept in the community between Morgan Hill and Gilroy. The group has pulled in at least $10,000 so far.
The study would help determine whether incorporation is financially viable before members decide whether they should support it and proceed to community outreach and more formal studies needed to pursue the legal switch.
“We want to separate fact from fiction,” said Barry Shiller, the alliance’s vice-president. “We want to determine whether it’s financially feasible. If it’s not, that’s the end of the story. … If it is feasible, then you start a dialogue in the community.”
A feasibility study would determine whether the community has the tax base to pay for the existing level of services – such as police and fire – that would become the new township’s responsibility. Taxes can’t be raised to form the township.
Shiller stressed the group is merely fact-finding and said no decisions about whether to actually pursue incorporation itself have been made. The alliance is fund raising mainly within its own membership of several hundred residents at the moment because leaders want to determine the feasibility before approaching the wider community.
“We’re just at the very, very beginning of this thing,” he said. “We’re trying to get away from the emotional side and trying to get some information and analysis.”
Before incorporating, eventual proponents would have to secure signatures from 25 percent of voters or landowners in the affected area, pacify county and state requirements, develop a business plan and possibly do an environmental impact analysis. The concept would then go to the ballot for voters to decide.
Incorporation has been a topic of discussion for at least the last year in San Martin, and has arisen several times in past years. But the idea is getting a closer look because the alliance has more research capabilities among its membership and because incorporation is seen as potentially the most viable way to address problems seen by the organization.
The alliance has outlined ongoing concerns over an influx of certain industrial and commercial businesses it considers inappropriate, the absence of an integrated development plan and lack of a viable voice in decision-making. An elected town council would be a major benefit of the move.
District 1 County Supervisor Don Gage has said incorporation is a good idea and a way for the community to have ultimate control over its fate. However, he has expressed concern about whether San Martin could afford the expense.
