Published in the March 18-31, 2015 issue of Morgan Hill Life
John Horner
Sometimes it seems like the biggest part of my job is going to meetings. For example, during the past several weeks I’ve participated in Joint Venture’s State of the Valley conference, Colliers Internationals’ Annual Real Estate Trends presentation, the VTA’s Envision Silicon Valley transportation working group, and two each of our local Morgan Hill City Council and Morgan Hill Unified School District’s Board of Trustees meetings. My participation serves to represent the business interests of greater Morgan Hill and to gain a better understanding of what is going on in our region.
A few big trends jump out from what I’ve been hearing. First, job growth in greater Silicon Valley is both strong and diversified. Furthermore, that job growth is being driven by real companies with products, revenues and profits. The last time we had similar job growth rates was in the late 1990s, but those were driven by the dot-com boom, and the majority of those companies had shaky revenues and financial losses. Those of us who were around then know that era was followed by a spectacular bust. Today’s boom will surely not last forever, but when it ends it will be for a different set of reasons and that is not likely to be in 2015 or 2016.
However, that strong job growth also has negative consequences. Housing costs are skyrocketing, transportation is getting slower and more costly, and our workers are further splitting into the very well off and those who struggle to pay the skyrocketing cost of living. Those factors are driving a big push for higher density housing located around rail transit opportunities. Many think tanks, governmental agencies, social service agencies and local governments are pushing hard in that direction.
Here in Morgan Hill you surely have noticed that much of the current construction is multi-story town home projects and higher density senior living communities. Furthermore, job growth is strongest in cities such as San Francisco, Cupertino and Mountain View which already enjoy a massive net-influx of people by day and an outflow by night. Economically, this puts those cities in the enviable position of high tax incomes with relatively low public safety and schooling costs per resident. If Morgan Hill is to thrive in the future, it is imperative that we put as much effort and thought into local job growth as we do into housing development, senior services and youth engagement. Otherwise we are setting ourselves up for financial trouble down the road because providing the services to support residents is a net money drain while industrial and commercial users provide a net financial upside in the taxes collected versus cost-of-services equation.
Morgan Hill is in the middle of its significant 20-year land-use planning process, the General Plan Update. All of the issues above are very much on the table as this plan is being developed. You can follow the General Plan Update process on the city’s special purpose website: morganhill2035.org. This is your community, so make sure to involve yourself in what becomes of it. In order to do so, go to the public meetings, share your views through the city’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/morganhillengage) and/or let us here at the Morgan Hill Chamber know your thoughts. By doing so you will help us be the best advocates possible for your business and/or organization.
John Horner is the president and CEO of the Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce.
