More than 250 units in the works; developments should spur downtown growth

Published on page 1 of the Sept. 18 issue of Morgan Hill Life

By Austin Belisle

Charles Weston believes now is the perfect time for developers and residents looking to move into the heart of the city. The co-owner of Weston Miles Architects and a developer in downtown Morgan Hill, Weston sees the city center going through a major upgrade during the next several years as new homes and businesses are being built now that the economy is starting to revive and investment money is starting to flow.

Photo by Marty Cheek Hector Velazquez, with CPC Interiors, works on a home in the Ironhorse development located just east of downtown.

Photo by Marty Cheek
Hector Velazquez, with CPC Interiors, works on a home in the Ironhorse development located just east of downtown.

More than 250 units are currently under construction or approved for in and around the downtown core, and more than 700 throughout the rest of city.

“If you want to buy something right now, the market is super hot because everyone can get a loan at a favorable rate at the salary they have,” Weston said. “Developers see that and start building to accommodate that demand for their product.”

The first chapter in the residential development of Morgan Hill has been written, and the city is ready to turn the page to chapter two, which marks the beginning of the city’s approach to becoming an environmentally-sensitive and forward-thinking destination for both future developers and neighborhood residents.

The first stage started in the mid-1970s with a “war between environmentalists and developers,” Weston said. In response, local voters adopted Measure E in 1978, which created the Residential Development Control System to slow growth to 250 residential units each year. Citizens then approved Measure C in 2004, extending the RDCS to 2020 and capping total population growth to 48,000 by that date. The current population is about 39,000.

“The people of Morgan Hill banded together and stopped the crazy growth San Jose experienced, saving the outer farmland and preventing the expansion of utilities,” said Weston, a 33-year resident of Morgan Hill. “Within the RDCS, the city has taken the downtown zone and has given it a specific plan,” he added. “Within that, anyone who wants to build doesn’t have to go through design competition” currently being fought outside of the downtown area.

Photo by Austin Belisle The Monterey Collection development at Church Street and E. Dunne Avenue.

Photo by Austin Belisle
The Monterey Collection development at Church Street and E. Dunne Avenue.

This lack of competition, due to voter-approved exemptions for the downtown area, and extremely low interest rates means developers are gearing up for a building boom right in the heart of Morgan Hill.

Morgan Hill Planning Commission Chairperson John McKay said the boom began with the end of the economic downturn.
“No one was buying homes and developers couldn’t get financing,” he said. “A lot of small, local developers couldn’t afford to build homes as things picked up.”

In their place, large outside developers who self-financed came in and bought the allocations for downtown. McKay notes that “most of the land was distressed then and being bought at a good price,” giving the national and corporate developers the ability to put up homes right away. “A lot of the legwork had already been done,” he said.

Now that the lending market has eased up, McKay believes that smaller, local developers have the chance to build downtown once again. The current development plan, according to Leslie Little, assistant city manager for community development, “talks about providing the most dense residential development in our downtown,” where 500 units will be built in the coming years. Units will include townhomes, condos, apartments, senior living complexes, and six other categories of housing.

Those now building downtown are Weston Miles Architects, DeNova Homes and City Ventures, which have staked claims in the push for 500 units. Weston Miles is building 30 townhome/condos on Depot Street. Butterfield Station, DeNova’s development, consists of 40 townhomes at Butterfield Boulevard and Diana Avenue. City Ventures’s Monterey Collection includes a mix of 43 townhomes and single-family units, and is located at the intersection of Church Street and E. Dunne Avenue. City Ventures also will build 110 townhomes at Main Avenue and Butterfield Boulevard under a plan approved by the Planning Commission Sept. 10. Finally, EAH Housing, a nonprofit corporation, is almost finished with 40 homes for people 55 and older on Dunne Avenue near the railroad tracks.

For Weston, the sudden increase in development is important because it will “create an atmosphere where developers think its better to develop downtown,” and it will in turn create a “better downtown by protecting the nature of Morgan Hill.”

Little believes “potentially, the community is feeling like there’s a lot of construction going on” because residents are accustomed to a much slower, consistent pace of building.

Amidst the worries, the demand for homes is alive and well. “Everything that is being built is being bought,” says McKay. “Nothing is sitting and a lot of homes were sold before they were completed.”

Little sees the potential for the 500 units as exactly what Morgan Hill needs to spur and support retail downtown. “We always wanted to create a neighborhood, and now, the neighborhood is becoming something,” she said. “It’s delightful.”