Morgan Hill council approves 105-home builder’s remedy project

A plan to bring more than 100 homes to Morgan Hill just east of the U.S. Highway 101 Cochrane Road exit is moving forward after receiving approval from city officials.

The City Council on Wednesday unanimously approved the housing project, ensuring 105 single-family homes will be built on a 15.8-acre lot in the South County city alongside the western part of De Paul Drive, just south of Cochrane Road. The approval comes a little more than a week after the Planning Commission approved recommending the project.

Although councilmembers approved it, Mayor Mark Turner expressed displeasure with a state law known as builder’s remedy which left their hands tied to push the project forward.

“I think in these cases we have to make the best of a bad situation,” Turner told San José Spotlight.

Builder’s remedy allows developments to ignore restrictions on building height and density when local governments lack state approval for their housing plans. Developer High Street Residential, a subsidiary of Trammell Crow Company, filed an application with the city in October 2023 for the 105-home project. Morgan Hill’s state-mandated housing plan wasn’t certified until one month later, allowing for the use of builder’s remedy.

As mandated by the state, Morgan Hill must plan for 1,037 homes by 2031, broken up across six different income levels. Housing and Economic Mobility Director John Lang told San José Spotlight that Morgan Hill is 39 homes shy of reaching its goal, with more than four years remaining in the cycle.

Despite Turner’s frustrations with the builder’s remedy project, he said there are some advantages that come from it.

“They’re single-family homes and not more high density (housing),” Turner said. “The project will also provide more than 21,000 square feet of common open space and will be situated near the Madrone Channel Trail, which will help provide for recreational activity for the residents.”

Residents were aware of the limited options the city had to prevent this project from being passed through and some, like Armando Benavides, thought it was a fair consolation.

“We have to know the law is the law and the city has to abide by it,” Benavides told San José Spotlight. “The city is getting as many good concessions as possible. It’s all positive. I feel like we’re getting the best deal possible within the builder’s remedy.”

When finished, the High Street housing development will feature 105 market rate single-family, two-story, two-car garage detached homes, which will range in size from 2,147 square feet to 2,615 square feet. Each is planned to have some private open space that could be a yard, porch and patio.

During the application process, High Street Residential asked the city to switch the commercially-zoned land to residential, which the city partially agreed to reluctantly by way of a settlement. City officials said they opted for the settlement to avoid a lengthy and costly litigation with the developer and the state.

The land, which spans roughly 28.5 acres, was split into three pieces as part of the settlement, including the 15.8-acre site for the 105 homes; a 7.8-acre parcel along Cochrane Road for a shopping center anchored by a Sprouts grocery store; and a 4.7-acre parcel earmarked for affordable housing to be transferred to the city, helping to meet its state housing requirements.

The two housing components are sandwiched between the Cochrane Technology Center and future shopping center. The developer agreed to pay $500,000 to the city’s housing fund and a fee of more than $5.8 million in lieu of providing affordable housing. The site is near another shopping center with a Target and other stores.

An environmental impact report on the project shows significant, unavoidable impacts including eliminating nearly 11 acres of farmland, changing the air quality to below Bay Area Air Quality District thresholds and exceeding the city’s 26.4 vehicle miles traveled per capita threshold by nearly four miles. There are mitigation plans in place for all three, but impacts will still be present.

Contact Giovanni Albanese Jr. at [email protected].