MORGAN HILL
– The future of the Coyote Valley will be decided mainly by San
Jose officials and residents, leaving Morgan Hill officials out of
the process.
MORGAN HILL – The future of the Coyote Valley will be decided mainly by San Jose officials and residents, leaving Morgan Hill officials out of the process.
The valley, located south of Bernal Road between Santa Teresa and U.S. 101, is poised on the brink of a development that eventually will bring 50,000 new jobs, 25,000 housing units and as many as 80,000 residents. That many people pouring into a now-quiet and rural area is bound to have a significant impact on Morgan Hill’s housing and traffic, as well as the city’s economic and environmental status.
The biggest impact will be to the Morgan Hill School District whose boundaries encompass Coyote Valley.
Morgan Hill City Council members, seeing the valley’s huge potential effect on their town of 39,000, have for months been trying for a seat at the planning table.
So far they have largely been rebuffed.
The city is represented on the Coyote Valley Planning Task Force not by a council member but by Russ Danielson, a former Morgan Hill School Board member, co-owner of downtown’s Jody’s Junction and a San Jose resident. Danielson has faithfully attended every meeting – the only member to do so, he says – and regularly reports back to the community.
At a meeting on March 10 at which San Jose planners presented the plan to the council, Mayor Dennis Kennedy specifically asked San Jose officials to take a polite request to San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales that the Morgan Hill council be given a larger role in the discussion.
“It’s important that we have a meaningful way to provide input into the process,” Kennedy said, “and attending a workshop as a member of the public doesn’t offer such an opportunity.”
Two days later Gonzales’ communications director David Vossbrink said the mayor thought Morgan Hill was appropriately represented.
“That’s disappointing,” Kennedy said.
Complicating matters is the Morgan Hill School District boundary that extends north to Bernal Road in south San Jose. While not certain, San Jose city planners told the council the area would need approximately seven new elementary schools and at least one more middle school.
Superintendent Carolyn McKennan said she had not seen the plan.
“We will want to see the plan and are asking them to schedule a time for us,” McKennan said. “I don’t think the number (of new schools required) is a surprise.”
There has been a quiet rumbling in Morgan Hill over the idea that Coyote Valley might form its own school district, alleviating the hard-pressed MHSD from the need to deal with it. City Planning Commissioner Bob Benich attended Saturday’s workshop and brought the matter up.
“I stood up and said one thing to consider is the possibility of forming a separate school district for Coyote Valley,” Benich said.
The task force will meet in mid-April to review the results of a workshop held last week, and begin to develop a model for what might be done in Coyote Valley, Danielson said. By June the plan will go to the San Jose City Council.
