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Greenbelt Alliance In the News

March 11, 2005

Panel drafts MH urban limit plan

Public hearing to be held before plan is sent to council

Two years and 23 meetings later, a special panel has completed a draft proposal designed to preserve Morgan Hill's rural setting and prevent urban sprawl from replicating San Jose.

The Morgan Hill Urban Limit Line Committee authored a 50-page proposal that covers three key areas: An urban limit line, which delineates a permanent boundary for city growth; areas to be included in a greenbelt,; and a proposed study for an urban development plan of the area near Tennant Avenue, known as the southeast quadrant.

The committee will hold a public hearing on March 14, and meet again March 21 to finalize the proposal and send it on to city council, which will hold an April 20 public hearing on the plan. The goal is for council to adopt a plan by the end of the year, said David Bischoff, the former community development director and planning consultant on the committee.

"We have heard from property owners in the areas being discussed," Bischoff said. "We want to hear from the average citizen — to see if [the proposal] goes too far, or not far enough."

Among other things, the committee worked on developing greenbelts — pockets of land outside the Urban Limit Line — and if approved will comprise either low-density development or be preserved as open space.

Most of the land identified in the greenbelt area is outside city limits and is under county jurisdiction. And not all of the land designated outside the urban limit line is in a greenbelt, Bischoff said.

The proposal supports that the county allow development in the unincorporated areas consistent with their low-density zoning practices, said Bischoff .

"We recognize some development [will occur] in the greenbelt but at rural densities," he said. "Some new homes will be developed in the greenbelt."

However, Mark Grzan, committee member and city council member, said the draft proposal is not what residents want.

"The proposed [urban limit] line expands the urban growth boundary," he said.

The new line adds about 2,500 acres of land outside of the Urban Limit Boundary established in 1996 by Morgan Hill. Much of that land is used for farming and agriculture, and opening it up to development troubles Grzan and others. Concerned with protecting open space and the rural feeling that drew Grzan and his family to Morgan Hill, he said there is no reason to include land outside of the Urban Boundary Line. The city has enough land available for development — especially for a city with a slow-growth plan in place that allows only 200 new homes per year, he said.

The committee has identified the so-called "southeast quadrant" as potentially developable, which has been a point of contention since the proposal process began. These 1,250 acres border San Pedro Avenue on the north, Highway 101 on the west, Carey Road on the east and Maple Avenue on the south. The proposal calls for 375 acres, or a third of the quadrant, to be preserved as open space, Bischoff said.

Maple Avenue also is the dividing line between San Martin and Morgan Hill. Committee members say developing it will eliminate the "break" between the two towns, and soon South County will look like the Peninsula, where it is often difficult to differentiate between one town and the next because sprawl pushes growth right up to city borders.

Currently the quadrant comprises property used for agriculture, ranches and undeveloped land, Bischoff said. The proposal calls for future studies of the area to determine how development should occur. Commercial and industrial uses have been included in the discussions.

Tim Chiala, a local farmer and committee member, said his family has property in the quadrant but he said it's too early to speculate on the affects the ULL will have on the quadrant.

"It's still in the works," he said.

Michelle Beasely of the Greenbelt Alliance, who joined the Urban Limit Line committee four months ago, agreed the issue is not a done deal.

"We want to preserve farm land and prevent Morgan Hill from running into San Martin,"she said. "We believe that maintaining the rural character of Morgan Hill is important."

An alternative line will likely be proposed by the Greenbelt Alliance at the March 14 meeting said Beasely. It will include a new Urban Limit Line, call for developing closer to downtown and have a plan to preserve greenbelt and open space areas.

One suggestion might be that Morgan Hill adopt a policy similar to that of Gilroy's. The Gilroy plan calls for developers to preserve one acre of open space for every one they develop said Beasely.

Some property owners in the greenbelt areas might be forced to give up their right to develop land to its fullest potential value under the draft proposal, and the city will need to decide how to compensate them.

Included in the roughly 3,000 acres of proposed greenbelt are El Toro Mountain, Coyote Lake, The Bear Ranch, Anderson Lake County Park, The James Ranch for Boys, Coyote Creek County Park and The Baird Ranch.

Although the proposal allows for some development on El Toro Mountain, it is consistent with the city's policy of preserving open space 500 feet and above on the mountain.

The committee also suggests that certain sites they have identified as "prominent" within the proposed greenbelts should be purchased by the city or other agencies to ensure open-space preservation.

Though not specifically identified yet, two areas of interest are El Toro Mountain and the hillside west of Holiday Lake Estates, near Anderson Lake, because of their "visual prominence," said Bischoff.

Committee members say they have worked hard to address all issues, but that doesn't mean they've thought of everything.

"It's been really, really tough. We have been trying to put together something that is fair for the land owners, the city and the environment," said Chiala.

A meeting to review the proposal and hear from the public will be held at 7 p.m on March 14 at the Community and Cultural Center in Morgan Hill and is open to the public.

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