Online survey will help guide city’s future recreational planning
Published in the December 25, 2013-January 7, 2014 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Marty Cheek
Photo courtesy Morgan Hill Community Services Department
Children enjoy the Morgan Hill Aquatics Center, one of several recreational facilities built by the city in the past 10 years that include the Centennial Recreation Center and the Outdoor Sports Center.
Thanks to citizen involvement and smart-growth planning done a decade ago, Morgan Hill is blessed with many of the best recreational facilities in the Bay Area. Now the city is looking to enhance the future of the community’s recreation facilities by seeking input from residents about what elements they would like to improve in Morgan Hill’s recreation opportunities.
Thirteen years ago, the city began the process of community engagement to develop a parks and recreation master plan, said Chris Ghione, community services director for Morgan Hill. The city recently began an online and paper survey to get feedback from citizens on the next stage of facilities for recreation. Results from the seven-question survey will be compiled and provided to the city council members at a March meeting to help them decide whether to re-initiate a recreation impact fee on developers for the building of recreation facilities. The fee originally lasted from 2005 to 2010 and raised about $400,000.
“Over the last 10 years, the master plan has come to life, first with the Community and Cultural Center, then the Aquatics Center, then the Centennial Recreation Center, and even the renovation of the Friendly Inn into a non-profit service center,” he said. “Most of the plan is close to complete. Now what we’re looking at is, what’s the future of the facilities and how are people using them?”
The survey, which focuses on recreation facilities but not on city parks, began early this month, Ghione said. A public meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Jan. 7 at the Community Center for city staff to hear residents’ suggestions for the facilities.
“The facilities have been pretty successful,” Ghione said. “A lot of people in the community take it for granted that we have them, and we’re lucky to have them. But now it’s time to take the next step to see what we need to do with the existing facilities and, down the road, what things people think we should have.”
The city is in the process of considering the purchase of 25 acres located at the intersection of Condit Road and Tennant Avenue in south Morgan Hill for the purpose of building the baseball and softball fields, so public input on that project is welcome during the survey period. Public responses so far from the survey include adding more parking at the current facilities, Ghione said. Possible ideas for more facilities include a second youth center or a bigger senior center. As Morgan Hill’s population grows, the city might consider building a second fitness center in another location of the community.
Photo courtesy Morgan Hill Community Services Department
Many soccer teams and thousands of players participate in tournaments at Morgan Hill’s Outdoor Sports Center every year.
“If you look at other community developments, we’re very lucky that we have a community and city council members that have been forward thinking so that we have lots of great facilities,” Ghione said. “And I’m hoping we continue to look forward like that so that Morgan Hill kind of stays one of those places that people want to come live and people want to bring their businesses to because we have such great community facilities.”
The city’s 38-acre Outdoor Sports Center has proven to be success story. Operated by the Morgan Hill Youth Sports Alliance, it has grown into a popular athletic destination for soccer and other sports. In October, the OSC hosted the 2013 Kihncert, showing that the venue can be used for more than sports. Next year, the OSC will significantly increase its use with many more tournament days, said Jeff Dixon, president of MHYSA.
Another success story for the city is its partnership between the YMCA in running the Centennial Recreation Center, which has gained national attention and brings visitors from other cities to see how the partnership has succeeded, he said.
Morgan Hill has done a “great job” so far in planning its recreation opportunities, Dixon said. “If you look at everything the city has to offer to people who live here and visitors, there are tremendous amounts of assets for this area, more than what you might think for a city of this size,” he said.
An important component for the future of Morgan Hill’s recreation opportunities is building a diamond-sports facility for baseball and softball, he said.
“I like the plan they’ve got and the location they’ve got is a good one, although there are some implications for the agricultural areas,” he said. “It’s way, way over due. It should have been something we had in place in 2007, and now we have to go and do it.”
Morgan Hill Mayor Steve Tate sees many opportunities for bringing visitors to the city through more sports tourism as the recreation facilities evolve.
“Morgan Hill has built quite a great reputation as a recreation mecca,” he said. “And we’re trying to figure out now how much we need to build on that. The first priority is to the citizens who live here, but if we can use it as an economic development tool, that just adds to our reputation and our capability to fund other things.”
