whether you’re trying to contain a
public safety issue or protect our
beautiful open spaces.”
Directors is holding regular meetings
and has launched a new website:
visitmorganhill.org.
Innovative
Fee Freeze
Online Services
Program,
year the City launched a new
Positive Impact Last
website focused on economic de-
The City Council just completed a mod-
ification to Development Impact Fees
(done annually). To build and sustain
critical infrastructure as the City grows,
impact fees are charged and collected on
new construction on undeveloped land.
According to Lang, City staff went to the
City Council to implement an Impact
Fee Freeze program for commercial and
industrial development to support new
projects as well as job growth.
“This allows us to tell commercial
developers today that the fees we show
today will be the same when they pull
permits a year from now,” he said. “We
want to encourage their commitment
and allow them sufficient time to get
permits. A three percent increase on
fees every year can get expensive. The
Impact Fee Freeze locks in rates for
three years…if the developer doesn’t
build within that time, they won’t get
the benefit.”
Lang added that for residential
projects, fees are collected at the end
of a project rather than being front-
loaded with commercial and industrial
projects.
Establishment
of a TBID
Morgan Hill has established a Tour-
ism Business Improvement District
(TBID) that the city anticipates will
bring in approximately $400,000 per
year to support tourism marketing and
promotions to attract visitors to Morgan
Hill. The newly-formed TBID Board of
velopment called choosemorganhill.
com . The website extends the City’s
ability to communicate about develop-
ment opportunities and resources in its
focus areas: innovation and advanced
manufacturing, hospitality/tourism,
retail, and healthcare. Content includes
information on available space, business
programs, financial assistance, market-
ing materials and market studies.
The City also launched an online
service platform, Open Counter ,
deployed on a self-service kiosk at
City Hall offering convenient online
access to a zoning portal and a business
portal, so users can quickly determine
zoning within the City, look up permit
and license requirements and costs, and
take advantage of other related services.
Since its launch, the Open Counter
Platform has completed 2,337 zoning
lookups and scoped permit costs for
more than 3,000 projects.
Smart City,
Smart Growth
The simplest definition of a smart city,
in Lang’s words, is “a city engaging
with the community through use of
technology.” He gave examples of how
Morgan Hill is evolving as a smart
city. Initiatives run the gamut from the
Silicon Valley Clean Energy program,
to the move to smart water meters and
Water Smart software with its real-time
water use monitoring, to demonstration
gardens and community workshops
that guide residents in everything from
GILROY • MORGAN HILL • SAN MARTIN
june/july 2019
composting to drought-tolerant and
firewise landscaping.
Another major initiative is focused
on our telecommunications infra-
structure. In April, the City adopted
small cell design standards and a
small cell design program with this in
mind. Simply put, these low-powered
cellular radio access nodes can be
mounted on a city’s street lightposts.
They are an important part of Morgan
Hill’s strategy for increasing cellular
network capacity, quality, and resilience
especially as the world moves to newer
technologies such as 4G and 5G.
As Lang explained, “We’ve been
working to attract telecom companies
to invest in Morgan Hill with their
small cell technology. Big macro towers
that are the backbone of our cellular
system cover up to 20 miles of distance,
but fewer are being built, and existing
towers are being overwhelmed by the
growth of smart phone use and big data
use. Small cells will help offset this by
filling gaps in coverage and meeting
the demands of streaming data appli-
cations.” He gave as an example the
emergence of autonomous vehicles.
Small cells will help these cars navigate
from place to place. Other examples
include smart office buildings, homes
and appliances that are connected to
networks and the cloud.
“The City Council adopted a design
standard, what implementation should
look like, where the small cells should
go. Now we have an agreement that
vendors can use. This summer we will
issue an RFP for broadband services for
the City itself, with two key objectives.
The City as an entity needs to ensure
connectivity to key elements as the
fire department, police, etcetera. We’re
asking for the opportunity to enter into
public-private partnerships to do this.”
Looking at other new ways to “be
smart,” Lang said the City hopes to
implement a pilot program next year
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