RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT

From 2018:

Residential development is something I have been intimately working on as a City Planning Commissioner for the last seven years. I helped write Measure S, which passed with over 76% approval and will provide a residential control system to guide us to 2035 with the lowest growth rate Morgan Hill has ever planned.

Controlling the rate of growth is only one aspect, however. We also need to control the quality and location of growth, and we need to carefully assess and measure all impacts from any growth. I have been working on this and will continue to work on the complex issues of residential growth.

We must look at future development through the eyes of those who will occupy it: our children and their children. Do not build for today’s market only! Look to the future and be prepared to make decisions that might run counter to today’s conventional thinking. You don’t have to be young to think young. Think today like you will live in the future.
 

Today in 2022:

My goals to work on over the next four years:

• Revisit recent housing legislation to find ways to return more local control to our city. Continue to press our Legislators to revisit housing bills and look at them for opportunities to better allow Morgan Hill to build the right number of homes for our community in the way and places we want to maintain our character and lifestyle. Currently we could be forced to build more quickly than we can expand our infrastructure including public safety, sewer system, water supplies, reliable electrical service, roads maintenance, and others. There is no funding from the State to help us expand services (this practice is called “Unfunded Mandates”) and they are considering taking away our ability to charge for some service expansions through Impact Fees reduction/elimination. I know we cannot stop the housing crisis legislation juggernaut so I want them to revisit their bills to see where they can be modified to our benefit, and that of others, and to also provide the funding necessary to compensate us for the costs their housing legislation is forcing us to cover at this time.

• Work with City Hall Staff and potential developers to urge them to be sensitive to our community’s love of the character we have developed. We have some developers that will voluntarily work with us to build developments in the Morgan Hill Way. Often simply because their homes will sell better with certain amenities we had been getting through the RDCS competition in our community. Other developers might need some incentives and we should be prepared to negotiate for homes that fit our community’s character.

• Be creative in housing. Push for the creation of another type of housing stock which would allow for affordable single family homes. Morgan Hill is known for it’s large single family home inventory, over 70% of homes are single family leaving less than 30% of our housing stock to be the more space efficient and cost effective higher density multi-family homes. I have been pushing the “affordable by design” idea since I was on the Planning Commission. This would include building homes in the range of under 1,000 square feet (s.f.) to 1,500 s.f. Most single family homes in Morgan Hill are around the 2,500 s.f. and larger. I grew up in a 1,300 s.f. house and my first house was only about 1,200 s.f. so I know it can be comfortable living. I’ve already started the discussion and some developers believe it could be feasible in Morgan Hill, let’s try.

• Make the State act like housing is truly the crisis it’s declared within its own halls. Continue to press our Legislators to treat the “Housing Crisis” like it truly is a crisis at their own State level of government. Provide the funding to have HCD increase staffing to deal with the legislation already in place and sure to come. Simply fund departments that are necessary for us to complete what we’ve been asked and do it in a timely manner. Note: Lack of staffing is the main reason that HCD asked for the rejection of our “Morgan Hill Exception to SB330” see below, let’s see if we can try again.

• Prepare for future trends in housing now. There has been some movement in Sacramento to make cities upzone (increase the allowed density per acre in some zoning types) and convert commercial lands to residentially zoned lands. I’ve seen some of this proposed legislation and some of it refers to making changes in zoning to meet their wishes if the zoning isn’t already in place. Let’s be prepared and make some pre-zoning decisions for some of these areas where higher density makes no sense and work to better protect valuable commercial land.

Simply Put: Fight for more local control, urge and incentivize developers to build the kind of housing we want, be creative in our housing stock, make the State pay for their demands and take the housing crisis seriously, and prepare for legislation that is likely to come.

Some Background: Our Residential Development Control System (RDCS) was made obsolete on January 1, 2020. California State Senate Bill 330 (a.k.a. SB330 and “The Housing Crisis Act of 2020”) removed our ability to control the vast majority of housing development applications, it completely overrode our RDCS and prohibits any actions that might delay or increase the cost of housing development making most decisions ministerial. Senate Bill 35 (SB35) had preceded it on January 1, 2018 and was basically intended to be the enforcement arm of the State to enforce the Housing Accountability Act and make cities meet their Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA).

Morgan Hill almost escaped most of the impacts of SB330 with what had been called the “Morgan Hill Exception”. I, and others including City Staff, worked with Assembly Member Robert Rivas’ office which drafted language that provided an exception for cities like Morgan Hill who had made the effort to meet their RHNA numbers in all income categories. This exception was accepted by the bill’s author (Senator Nancy Skinner) but Governor Newsom vetoed it at the request of the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD). This bill was intended to be in effect for five years to 2025 but has been extended to the year 2030 with the passage of SB8.

I fought these housing bills not because I didn’t think we needed more housing, we do - just look at our elevated home values - but because they treated our well managed small community like an unwieldy large city. Large cities have all kinds of jobs and public transportation and financial resources - which we don’t. The bills showed no concern about the character and lifestyle we worked so hard to create with things like their building height allowances and little regard for parking needs or our desire for outdoor spaces. Morgan Hill was one of only two to three cities that were actually on track to meet the RHNA numbers but we were treated like those who had not made an effort to build sufficient housing with the broad brush of housing legislations.

Governor Newsom had set a target of 3.5 million new homes by 2025 in 2018 but reduced that number to 2.5 million homes by 2030 earlier this year. Regardless of the number that means we have had a lot of housing focused legislation coming our way that I feel is half baked.

Definitions:

Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA, pronounced “reenah”). Since 1969 RHNA provides a target and commitment for each community to build a certain number of housing units to meet their growth demands. The RHNA numbers are for a specified eight (8) year period during which the assigned number of housing units must be developed. The RHNA numbers are broken down into four categories of housing needs by income: Very Low (Extremely Low), Low, Moderate and Above Moderate (a.k.a. “market rate”)

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

From 2018:

Economic development is critical for any community and is the key to Morgan Hill’s successful future. This is a broad heading that includes anything that creates jobs, brings in revenues to the city’s coffers, and increases the quality of life for everyone.

I participated in the creation of the City of Morgan Hill’s Economic Blueprint, which guides our economic growth with defined goals and milestones. This document is a powerful tool when dealing with businesses that are thinking about moving here, because it shows the community’s commitment to business growth.

I believe that tourism is another huge potential revenue source for Morgan Hill and have helped create an environment to attract tourism-related businesses. I have also worked with the Downtown Association to educate and advocate for businesses about working together to make Downtown Morgan Hill the best business district it can be.

Part of economic development is the effort to bring good and reliable high-speed internet to town, and this is already underway.

Today in 2022:

My goals to work on over the next four years:

My overarching goal is to try to increase revenues through business vitality. Our budget is in a state of decline because of the services we provide versus our revenues. This is due to having the lowest Per Capita Discretionary Tax Revenue of any city in the county (about $600 per capita while Cupertino is about $1,900 per capita at the high end).

• Continue to work to bring employers to Morgan Hill. We still need more revenues, it’s actually more important now than ever because of the housing legislation mentioned above. We need jobs right here in our town where the vast majority leave to go to work north of us. We need not just high-paying jobs but jobs to match the needs of our entire community. I have been trying to bring biotech and innovative food technologies to Morgan Hill and will continue to do so. I will continue to promote Morgan Hill as a city open for business at a time when an anti-business sentiment is being felt by some.

• Continue to promote Morgan Hill and the local region as a tourism destination. I helped create and build the Morgan Hill Tourism Alliance which was the precursor to the current Visit Morgan Hill destination management organization (DMO). I also help work to promote the local wine region through working with the Wineries of Santa Clara Valley wine association. We have so much that others want to be a part of or just enjoy. The best part is we don’t have to build anything or create anything special, it’s all already here and visitors come with the relaxed vacation attitude (purse strings open up…) and then leave.

• Continue to work on understanding what generates interest in our business opportunities. I’ve attended business seminars where Morgan Hill’s attitude of understanding what the business community needs to thrive has brought businesses to our town. In the past few years we’ve updated zoning to allow things like wine, beer, and even coffee roasting tasting rooms in more areas including limited industrial settings. We now have a high end wine tasting room in an industrial park and one right in our downtown. We have been reviewing what fits best in what locations without creating conflicts with adjacent businesses and residents.

• I will keep an open mind to alternative revenue streams not based upon basic tax revenues from sales and real estate. We may have to look at a fee structure to tax ourselves or businesses if we don’t increase revenues from businesses real estate taxes or their product’s taxes.

• I will continue my attempts to protect commercial and industrial lands from conversion to residential development. We need to keep our non-residential lands as investments for the future, job producing lands in the bank so to speak. There is a movement at the State level to convert commercial and industrial lands to residential lands and we must be prepared to fight this possible trend. Many developers want to convert lower valued commercial/industrial lands to the much higher valued residential lands, which usually includes much higher density limits, and sell it or develop it. This not only potentially reduces the inventory of land for future businesses but also places residential development in areas where it might not be compatible with future commercial/industrial uses. In the past I’ve supported limited conversions but now must take a firm stand against it.

• I will support our Economic Development Teammates doing their job. As a city council, we have always supported economic development and even given specific directions on what we want. Over the last decade or so we have had a very high energy Economic Development team, sometimes only one person, that has done what they’ve been asked. We must support them as they continue to follow through on delivering what we, and the community, have asked for.

• Broadband service: I believe this is one of the issues factoring to some business’ plans in Morgan Hill. We need reliable high speed internet connections not just for the residents but also for the businesses we want to retain and attract

• For some fun: I’ve been asking our Economic Development Teammates, and in some cases directly myself, to ask property managers and developers to lure businesses like a “Dave and Buster’s” for young families so children can be children and adults can be with other adults, we have a growing young family population. Encourage more recreation oriented businesses like outdoor equipment stores, facilities for sports like “pickleball” and volleyball, and try to serve the large equestrian industry around us.

Simply Put: More business = more revenues = more and better city services. It’s that simple. 

Some Background: From a commercial and industrial perspective we tend to be a place that only becomes attractive when building space and lands become scarce in the communities to the north of us. We’ve typically needed an extended period of economic growth or a market that is filling up to the north before we have interest developed in our city.

Times are changing as companies find their employees also take into consideration what is around their working environment. Specialized Bicycle Components reported they use our downtown as a recruiting tool. Captains of industry have moved to our town and decided they want to bring their businesses here too. It has taken a lot of work by our Economic Development team to prove to the business community we are a great place to do business.

We are becoming attractive to businesses now and we must not endanger that with a sense that small segments of our community are against all businesses. We just lost a fast growing automobile builder founded by a native Morgan Hillian because of recent demands we limit certain building types.

I fully supported the reduction of lanes through the downtown on Monterey road. It would’ve provided for a safer downtown environment and it would have generated more business revenues. It would have been an investment in human comfort and safety and business activity. I hope it can be revisited at some point in our future.

I’ve been working on broadband resiliency. We know what it’s like to lose our internet service and everything attached to it - the number of services impacted by the internet service loss was surprising to most of us. Since our loss of service I have met with the staff of the State Senator that is leading the charge in Sacramento to close the digital divide, ensure broadband service is provided to all - including rural areas, and now resiliency in service which includes redundant systems or the ability to reroute services. The good news is that we are now starting to get the competition we needed to assure we are getting the best service at the best prices. We win!

Our city general budget is a great concern and we need business revenues or alternative sources of revenues or we are projects to fall below the 25% budget reserve limit about 2026/2027 and below the 15% reserve limit within a couple years after that. We cannot continue to cut budgets, our city operates at a bare bones level as it is now.

We need to generate revenues to pay for all of the services we need to make sure we’re safe, comfortable and grow and it takes revenues.

Remember: More business = more revenues = more and better city services. It’s that simple. 

TRANSPORTATION

From 2018:

Traffic on our city streets during commute hours has been a growing issue. Much of it is blamed on our own residential growth, but I believe the main problem is regional growth. On the average, our neighbors to the south have been growing more rapidly than us. Since the majority of good jobs are still to the north, during peak traffic hours many commuters use our streets to circumvent the backup on Highway 101. The majority of morning traffic on the east side of 101 (my District) comes from our southern neighbors and not those within Morgan Hill. I have already spoken to law enforcement about policing side streets on both County and City land and will continue to address this issue.

High-speed rail could possibly be the biggest issue to arrive in Morgan Hill in generations—but we just don’t know enough about it right now. I have represented Morgan Hill on the High-Speed Rail Community Working Group since its inception and have attended every meeting. My position is simple. I will continue to advocate for an alignment that impacts the fewest residents, businesses, and open spaces in Morgan Hill. I will demand that construction only takes place after funds have been assured, so we won’t be left with a partially completed railway in our midst. I will also work to make sure that any residents or businesses impacted by the construction work be compensated fairly. And I will strive to have improvements like upgrading our broadband internet service included in the high-speed rail project as part of the community benefit.

I also plan to continue to fight for more CalTrain service at more times and days than the current service. The door at CalTrain appears to be cracked open more now than ever, so we must keep pushing to make this a service that is more convenient and cost-effective for our residents to use.

These and other transportation issues (like private bus services, ride sharing, autonomous cars, and more) are critical to our overall quality of life and should always be on the table for discussion.

Today in 2022:

My goals to work on over the next four years:

• I will continue to work on the issue of cut through traffic: Recent studies indicate 31% of AM commute traffic and 39% or PM commute traffic are out of town motorists leaving Highway 101 to avoid the snarled traffic on the freeway. I have asked for, and will pursue, a regional summit of all local law enforcement agencies to put our heads together to start to resolve the cut through traffic issue. This is a very large and difficult issue for which it is difficult to find a complete solution but we need to start somewhere and my experience has been that bringing a wide range of minds together can create a synergy providing ideas we’ve not found yet. I want to find a way to make it less rewarding for those from out of town to use our streets to get to work.

• I will work with my colleagues and State Legislators to demand CalTrans provide an additional traffic lane on Highway 101: I recently heard that CalTrans owes us another lane on Highway 101, and I agree they do. I’m afraid adding another lane is not the complete solution for our own commute time needs, or the cut through traffic issue, but it is a key element to moving in that direction.

• I will work on maximizing the efficiency or our existing roadways: I believe we should continue to invest in maximizing traffic signal synchronization and placement of stop signs to better smooth out traffic flows. I will ask for an overall review of traffic patterns to not just help make our traffic flow better but become safer for drivers and human powered movement alike. This will include continuing to try to maintain our roads so traffic will flow without concern for missing potholes or rough patches of road that might reroute drivers to roads already busy. Traffic circles could be used in key locations to further provide a smoother and more consistent flow of traffic.

• I will work with my colleagues and State Legislators to demand Caltrans to provide effective passenger train service: This is nothing new but we must be consistent in our demands for proper commuter train service. The State is tying the fact we have a train station to additional residential development allowances like taller buildings and reduced or eliminated parking requirements while not offering the service necessary to serve those additional residents. We need more than just three trains during the morning and during the evening commute hours. Add the fourth train now!

• I will work with my colleagues to urge VTA to provide effective bus service: Again, nothing new but we must be consistent in our demands for proper passenger bus service. We need more busses not just during the morning and during the evening commute hours but all hours so our community can conduct their lives without the need for a car in their own community. We need additional routes, more frequent trips (shorter headway) and we need more express service.

• Continue to try to introduce reality into the project called California High Speed Rail project: We know it will be virtually impossible to bore a tunnel to parallel Pacheco Pass to travel out to and return from the Central Valley, run it to meet the travel time requirements, overcome dozens of lawsuits, or operate it profitably. However there is a chance that we can get some benefits without it ever coming here. Before the HSR system is complete they will be electrifying our passenger trains from San Francisco to the Diridon Station in San Jose. I’m working with my colleagues to urge the CA HSR to electrify passenger train service to Gilroy and provide other benefits like a path for more and more reliable high speed internet cables as a part of mitigations. I will continue to push the CA HSR team to address the concerns and needs of our community.

Simply Put: Work on traffic issues with the other agencies that can help us meet our traffic reduction and flow goals, work to modernize our traffic control systems for better flow, work with our Legislators so they understand what services are direly needed, and never stop pushing to get better public transportation and mitigate High Speed Rail’s impact.

Some Backgound: We have long dealt with commute traffic, from the days before Highway 101 was widened and Monterey Road was a primary route (remember turning at The Capri?), to the ebb and flow of increased traffic due to economic factors (like a recession or a pandemic).

Many, including myself, have become somewhat resigned to dealing with a commute that can daily take hours away from our lives, wear our cars out and run up fuel bills, and just generally make us miserable.

We live in a beautiful place just far enough away from the hectic Silicon Valley goings on but still close enough to enjoy the trappings of a large metropolitan center when we want. We are the ones closest to the jobs as you move into the rural Santa Clara County and beyond. Many can’t afford to live where they work, want to be close to family and friends, or prefer a more relaxed lifestyle so they live in communities to the south of us. They constitute the majority of our commute traffic woes as they try to survive in this incredibly expensive but so attractive place.

There is much we can hope for in the future with the potential for another lane on Highway 101, increased effective public transit service, autonomous cars and ride sharing, and more time working from home.

But is there something more we can do now?

Our issues are not new and we’ve been working on them all this time. I will continue to push to make things happen and look for new solutions to our transportation woes. I just feel everyone needs to know there is no silver bullet, no predictable timeframe for real improvements, no cheap or easy way to solve for our traffic issues.

PUBLIC SAFETY

From 2018:

Public safety is the social infrastructure of our community. Our Police and Fire departments create a safety blanket that we need to feel comfortable and safe in our community. 

I have never taken for granted the great work our Police Department does to protect and support us. MHPD does an outstanding job using a modern approach of predictive policing and community involvement. While I feel they do an incredible job meeting and exceeding the community’s needs with the budget provided, I hope to develop more funds so we can support even more important non-essential services and bring even more of the community into acting as the eyes and ears of the police.

Having had many conversations with the Police Chief (Chief David Swing), I now understand that recent increases in crime are not due to our increased population, but rather to a growth in highway-based crime in communities like ours that are affluent and easily accessible by freeway. I plan to work with our local law enforcement agencies to address this growing problem.

Cal Fire provides fire services for Morgan Hill on a contract basis, which saves our citizens money. We are presently considering opening another fire station closer to the middle of town. I will work to secure funding for the new fire station as well as ongoing operations and personnel.

Today in 2022:

My goals to work on over the next four years:

First let’s all agree that properly supporting “Public Safety” is the ”Holy Grail” of public services in a city. So often you hear a city’s greatest responsibility is to keep its community safe with an effective police department and fire department - I agree. But what does that mean?

• I will continue to provide the moral support our police department deserves. When protests over the murder of George Floyd brought attention to our police department I supported them with recognition they are some of the finest. When another council member demanded we “reprioritize their budget” (a.k.a. Defund the Police) and participated in a protest rally which included the leader yelling “F… the police” I fought it. Now that member has changed their story after much pressure and now supports the police fully which will make my job of continuing to fund the police easier. I took donuts to the PD Headquarters for the morning shift and egg rolls for the afternoon shift on Christmas Day 2020 after learning they had their vacations canceled and were presented with additional overtime commitments.

• I will continue to fight for more funding for both MH the Police Department and MH Fire Department (manned by CalFire). As ridiculous as it may sound we have had to fight to retain funding with two council members challenging how the MHPD hires and directs their budget. Good news is I believe both are back to recognizing our PD is one of the best and they are doing an admiral job. MH Fire Department has never had its budget challenged so it’s been easy to make sure they received the most complete funding.

• I will encourage searching for alternative funding sources. City of Morgan Hill staff are always looking for grants that could continue to supplement budget needs. Grants are typically for specific short term needs but every bit helps. Do we consider a “fire protection district” which would increase fire protection funds without taking away from other services? When times get tough everything should be on the table.

• The third fire station is on track but will need firefighters to serve there and we need the funds to do so. We need ongoing operating funds after the new fire station is complete. This is a challenge now and will be for some time. Can we find revenues in a private/public partnership that is feasible? Should we look at Fire District fees? The writing is on the wall, we need to find revenues for ongoing operations.

• I will fight to retain funding in any future budget reductions. With the potential for unpredictable economic conditions I will fight to keep current funding levels as long as possible by budget cutting in other non-essential services first. If we get to that point we will be very limited in where to cut with the current level of funding levels we have now.

• I will continue to work on a safe egress routes for the residents of Jackson Oaks and Holiday Lake Estates neighborhoods. I have had discussions in the past about a second exit from the eastern neighborhoods which were evacuated in 2020. There have also been discussions about “safe havens” as a last resort. I will follow up on the possibility of using an existing road intended for use by County Park services and cautioned could be congested with fire fighting equipment in case of a fire. There is also an old road from Holiday Lakes Estates I have been invited to see recently.

Simply Put: We need to feel safe where we live and public safety is the city’s number one commitment to us that should never waiver. I will work creatively to find the necessary funds police and fire need to be completely staffed with the most modern equipment.

Some Background: Our police department has not been fully staffed in the time I have been dealing with them, about the last ten years. Several years ago then Police Chief Swing said he felt they were doing a good job no matter the level of funding. But he said there were programs they could be doing if they had more complete funding in addition to being fully staffed. Today our PD is just about fully staffed (not to the highest level for a city of our size but sufficient) and they are getting funded so their budget can include more technology and other means to better do their job with fewer staff.

I was appointed by the CalCities President to a Public Safety Task Force in the wake of the George Floyd murder to study what we could do to create legislation or better understand legislation that targeted making California’s police departments more in tine with modern needs and practices. The group worked primarily with the Six Pillars of 21st Century Policing based upon President Obama’s 2014 Task Force. I was so proud to find out Morgan Hill PD is already following the recommendations of that task force. Our PD is a leader in policing in the region with officers from surrounding communities coming to learn from our PD!

Our Morgan Hill Fire Department is manned by CalFire which also brings equipment resources in their contract. On top of that equipment is the expertise of a statewide agency with tremendous resources. Our Morgan Hill Fire Chief (Chief Huang) is also in charge of the SCU (Santa Clara Unit) which is synonymous with firefighters which fought the SCU Lightning Complex Fire. We continue to have great resources and should feel very comfortable the best are watching over us.

Morgan Hill has also taken the unique step of purchasing our own ambulance. We live in an area where traffic could mean losing precious life saving time if an ambulance had to fight it to reach a person in need or deliver them to a hospital within the “golden hour”. We share this ambulance with other jurisdictions on a compensation basis. This is a unique option most cities have not explored.

I will fight for proper funding of our police and fire departments regardless of the economic pressures. I will support our police and fire departments, in person if necessary, to help keep moral high. I want our community feel safe and be safe.