Morgan Hill’s City Manager Speaks at SCRA

Date: Thursday February 19, 2009
Posted in: real estate, Santa Clara County, Realtor, Morgan Hill, housing market, City of Morgan Hill

Several times in the past (July, 2008 and October, 2008) I have written about Morgan Hill’s City Manager speaking at our Wednesday morning South County Realtors Association meetings. Ed Tewes does an excellent job on updating us on the current issues affecting Morgan Hill and environs. As would be predicted, the number one topic was how Morgan Hill is braced to handle the existing economic recession.

Mr. Tewes began with the good news. Although the Santa Clara Valley Water District had been on the brink of enforcing mandatory water conservation, it appears that we may escape that restriction as the latest rainfall brings us much closer to the seasonal normal amount. However, that doesn’t allow us to water with impunity, don’t forget.

One of the questions that the city is mulling over that is of interest to many citizens is whether there should be a movie theater downtown. We have an excellent multi-plex at Tennant Station that should serve the city’s needs. The City Council is considering a downtown cinema, but not at the old Granada Theater site. The new structure would be at the corner of 2nd Street and Monterey Road. My personal opinion is that we shouldn’t stretch our entertainment dollars too thin and shouldn’t over-leverage our tax dollars by constructing a new theater downtown.

The City Manager’s brief presentation then focused on the four areas the City Council was currently considering:

Capturing new regional economic growth: be prepared to attract future growth by investing in our infrastructure and redevelopment
Focus on the downtown corridor: subsidize growth and use redevelopment monies
City Council workings: should all council-members participate in policy workshops rather than sub-committees?
Ongoing economic issues: how should the city deal with the revenue reduction due to no development fees, lower property taxes, transfer taxes, and sales taxes

The City Manager stated an interesting fact regarding development fees and why there were currently none being collected. For the past 6 months, there have been no new construction building permits pulled in Morgan Hill. This is a record. (As an aside, previously I was a civil engineer and was the Morgan Hill plan check engineer for a brief period. Although I’m sure there are currently tenant improvement permits, remodel permits, and a host of other types of building permits being applied for, it’s hard to fathom no new construction permits.)

The last topic Mr. Tewes covered is how Morgan Hill was handling the economic crisis. There have been staff layoffs and compensation reduction. An interesting turn of events is that the City of Morgan Hill and the City of Gilroy are meeting to discuss ways to share costs and services. The cities will be considering regional fire and police protection as well as shared environmental and recreation programs.

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