But that growth can have negative repercussions
Published in the April 1-14, 2015 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Larry Carr
Larry Carr
The community of Morgan Hill serves as an important part of Silicon Valley, a region considered by many to be the high-tech hub of the world. Many of our city’s residents commute daily to jobs in the northern section of Santa Clara County to work at Apple, Google, E-Bay and other technology-driven companies. But several high-tech firms also exist in Morgan Hill such as Anritsu, Digital View, Infineon Technologies and Paramit.
As a Morgan Hill City Council member and as the executive vice president of Joint Venture Silicon Valley, I see daily the impacts of local issues affecting our region’s economy and quality of life. I joined Joint Venture in August and focus on the operations of the organization, growing our base of supporters, and working with our CEO Russel Hancock on the vision for the organization into the future.
Every January for the past 20 years, Joint Venture Silicon Valley releases its Silicon Valley Index which measures the economic story of Silicon Valley. Joint Venture serves as home to the Silicon Valley Institute for Regional Studies, and its Vice President and Senior Research Associate Rachel Massaro gathers the information and develops the index report with a large advisory board to help guide the work.
The 2015 index shows that it’s clear the valley’s economy is hot and getting hotter. While that’s a positive thing overall, it does bring challenges we all have to deal with — and that includes the South Valley region. For example, in order to buy a home, people are living farther and farther from where they work. This brings increased traffic to our already crowded freeways and local streets.
According to this year’s index, job growth in Silicon Valley has continued on an upward trend and has reached a decade high. This has a significant impact on our South Valley region in terms of local economic growth as well as changes in Morgan Hill.
In the South Valley, we are looking for ways to take advantage of this growing regional economy. We have identified our strengths, and are looking to go after sectors of the economy that make sense for Morgan Hill and South Valley. A large technology firm employing tens of thousands of employees would overwhelm us here. That’s why we believe manufacturing firms, startups and other businesses are better matches for us.
Agra-tourism and sports, recreation and leisure activities also have been identified by residents as areas to focus on. These can provide opportunities for local residents as well as the added benefit of bringing in tax revenue from outside our community as people come to visit.
One stand-out trend that the index has tracked over the years is the move toward mixed-use communities where Silicon Valley gives workers alternatives to driving and increased access to workplaces. Silicon Valley as a whole is moving toward more urban development. If you think about the geographic confines of the region — such as the mountains and the bay — we have to build more mixed-use and more density. Mixed-use developments are a way to build more density while providing the services needed for those communities. Growth has focused around transportation hubs and corridors, which is smart growth.
In Morgan Hill we are faced with the same challenges. Through our current General Plan update, we are dealing with the sometimes conflicting questions of how to maintain the right mix of housing (such as single-family homes versus town-homes, condos and other multi-family residential) while being careful not to expand our city limits too much into our precious open spaces. We can stay within our current city limits if we allow more density and height in developments. If we continue to build more single-family homes with little density, we will need to expand our city limits.
Morgan Hill is the first community south of San Jose, the 10th largest city in America. Dividing the two cities is the rural Coyote Valley greenbelt, which demonstrates that Morgan Hill’s unique blend of agricultural and technology heritage helps it fit in a dynamic way into the northern Silicon Valley’s more urban culture. Here in the South Valley, we value our environment, our open spaces, and our agricultural roots as one of the most important aspects of our quality of life.
Many of us commute north for jobs that may engage us in other communities for employment. But people choose to live in Morgan Hill and they want to be engaged in this community as well. For example, the amount of input I have received about public art on the new parking structure we are building has been tremendous. Morgan Hill residents really care about their community and how the town is run, how it looks, how others receive it, and how they can be a part of it.
As a Silicon Valley native, what inspires me most about our region is its people. We are a collection of smart, committed, passionate people including visionaries, families, young urban professionals and public servants from varied backgrounds and nationalities. We enjoy the precious environment that our region provides us and we want to be at the cutting-edge of new ideas. We tend to be pragmatic in our approach to politics, while solution-oriented when addressing issues.
Silicon Valley is full of people with interesting and varied backgrounds. That’s one of the things I love about working and living in this area. It’s also why I’m excited to have such an important opportunity to engage others as Joint Venture continues to be the organization that convenes all of Silicon Valley’s varied interests and leaders around solving issues and supporting the region.
Learn about the 2015 Index by visiting www.jointventure.org.
Larry Carr is a Morgan Hill City Council member and vice president of Joint Venture Silicon Valley. He wrote this for Morgan Hill Life.
