SAN MARTIN
– The sleepy community nestled between Gilroy and Morgan Hill
will be home to about 50 block parties between now and spring.
SAN MARTIN – The sleepy community nestled between Gilroy and Morgan Hill will be home to about 50 block parties between now and spring.
The San Martin Neighborhood Alliance announced it would host on Thursday the first of a series of neighborhood meetings designed to take the pulse of the community on the issue of cityhood. The Neighborhood Alliance is a group of San Martin activists that want to secede from the county to make their 5,800-resident community an independent city.
“This is the second step of the incorporation process,” SMNA member Barry Shiller said. “The idea of these meetings is to discuss issues, get input and brainstorm possibilities for the industrial/commercial area as well. We want to look at what might make good business sense for San Martin.”
In July, the alliance funded a $23,500 study that revealed San Martin could survive on its own tax revenue if it left Santa Clara County. The study was step one toward formally seceding from the county and incorporating as an independent city – a process that needs approval by more than 50 percent of San Martin voters and the county’s anti-sprawl agency called the Local Agency Formation Commission.
Now comes step two – the neighborhood meetings.
Shiller said more than 25 San Martin residents are volunteering to be “block captains” over the next few months. The captains will invite neighbors into their homes to discuss the financial feasibility study and the process of incorporation.
Shiller said the captains will not be trying to land petition signatures – one of other requirements to put the incorporation issue on a future ballot.
“That’s the next stage,” Shiller said. “We want input right now. We want to present the feasibility study, its pros and its cons, and take the community’s pulse.”
Shiller said if the pulse beats a tune of cityhood, the alliance would begin a petition drive and start designing a city plan, both of which would be presented to LAFCO.
If LAFCO accepted the cityhood plan, San Martin’s incorporation could be placed on the ballot. Shiller said the earliest the matter would go to the voters would be in the November 2004 election.
Once on the ballot, voters would have to approve incorporation with a simple majority vote.
Shiller said 20 more captains still are needed to cover each section of San Martin. Those interested in hosting a meeting should call 683-2667 or in**@********or.org.
