City Beat
New Crosswalk Highlights Special Qualities of Morgan Hill
PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE CITY OF MORGAN HILL
The design of the new crosswalk at Dunne Avenue and Monterey Road design features flora and fauna that call Morgan Hill home . The crosswalk highlights what makes Morgan Hill special within Silicon Valley , access to the outdoors , nature and of course , the wineries and farms . This crosswalk represents the identity that the Morgan Hill community is so proud of and contributes to the excellent quality of life .
The City is particularly proud of having won a grant to purchase the crosswalk because of the ability to pull together a project of this size in such a short period of time before the Super Bowl was truly government moving at a lighting speed — government at its best , with 1 ) a vision already in place ( the Placemaking Investment Strategy ), 2 ) the Opportunity ( Grant from SB50 ), and 3 ) the ability to get all sections of our City to put together the contract and implement the project in spite of the holiday season and the super wet weather !
But the bigger story is the renaissance of the downtown . The City has been working hard since the dissolution of the RDA to develop redevelopment sites . After an aggressive outreach on the RFQ , they have development underway in many of the sites . Highlights include the Léal Boutique Hotel proposed for 1st and Monterey , along with a Market Hall and the refurbishment and repurposing of the old Granada Theatre into a music and comedy venue . Third and Monterey is going to be a 12,000 SF retail project with four restaurants . The developers ( Don Imwalle and Ken Rodrigues ) have commitments on all four retail spaces . The 3rd and Depot Street project will be developed into a 29-unit mixed-use project ( true vertical mixed use !) with a combination of town homes , live-work units and some flats over 8,000 + SF of condominiumized retail spaces !
The redevelopment of the downtown properties are complementary to the Downtown Placemaking Investment Strategy where the City is investing $ 25 million of former RDA bond monies to improve Downtown by adding a parking structure , two parks , a trail , a public plaza and other needed infrastructure improvements . A big component of the Downtown Strategy is to bring art and create placemaking opportunities that activate the public realm , such as new permanent and temporary art , lighting of downtown trees , a pop-up park with movable furniture and kids ’ toys , etc . This crosswalk fits perfectly into of the placemaking strategy by making this key intersection into a friendly , playful , fun gateway into Morgan Hill ’ s downtown .
GILROY • MORGAN HILL • SAN MARTIN MARCH / APRIL 2016 gmhtoday . com
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