Operating and CIP Budget Fiscal Year 2015-16

Community Development Department

 CITY OF MORGAN HILL  FY 15-16  OPERATING AND CIP BUDGET  CITY OF MORGAN HILL  FY 15-16  OPERATING AND CIP BUDGET  CITY OF MORGAN HILL  FY 15-16  OPERATING AND CIP BUDGET  CITY OF MORGAN HILL  FY 15-16 OPERATING AND CIP CITY OF MORGAN HILL  FY 15-16  OPERATING AND CIP BUDGET  CITY OF MORGAN HILL  FY 15-16  OPERATING AND CIP BUDGET  CITY OF MORGAN HILL  FY15-16  OPERATING AND CIP BUDGET The Community Development Department contains functions of the City dealing with the built environment including Building, Building Inspection, Current and Long Range Planning, Code Enforcement, Economic Development and Af- fordable Housing as well as related Administrative Support Services for those functions. Together this team provides collaborative leadership on such City Council “Focus Areas” as the General Plan Update, Morgan Hill 2035 including updating and incorporating the Residential Development control System (RDCS), advanc- ing revitalization of our downtown, implementation of the Southeast Quadrant agricultural presentation and land use plans, advancing regional transportation decisions and providing the comprehensive planning required to accommo- date specific transportation enhancements, economic development attraction, retention, tourism and place-making activities to increase jobs and expand the City's tax base, as well as affordable housing preservation and develop- ment. The 14-15 fiscal year saw continued high demands on planning and building activity as the economy stabilized and im- proved. The residential development market remains vigorous, and the commercial/industrial market has re-surfaced after a long absence. For Morgan Hill, the health in the economy activated residential projects that in previous years had been awarded allocations through the Residential Development Control System (RDCS), and did not build due to financial limitations. These activated projects accounted for nearly 1200 residential units in FY 13-14 entering the devel- opment review implementation process, and continuing into FY 14-15 on to completion of construction. Again, as in FY 13-14, in FY 14-15 the surge of activity was mitigated in some cases by contract planning and building inspection ser- vices, augmented by overtime, particularly to accommodate more than 14,040 building inspection requests. This was up from a previous high of over 13,000 building inspection requests in 13-14. In FY 14-15, 25% of this activity was com- mercial or industrial activity mirroring the dramatic absorption of commercial/industrial space citywide. By mid-year FY 14-15, industrial vacancies for existing space plummeted from 16% to less than 3%. Contract planning services were used to accommodate an unusual number of General Plan amendment requests, and the completion of the SEQ. Highlights of the year included the preparation of updated Public Safety and Housing Elements of the General Plan, adoption of an Agricultural Land Use Preservation Program and Southeast Quadrant Area Plan, release of the Notice of Prepara- tion (NOP) for the Morgan Hill 2035 General Plan Update draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR), a zoning code amendment regulating payday lending, a municipal code amendment permitting detached sidewalks in residential neighborhoods, and transit station area master planning facilitated by a technical grant awarded by MTC as well as a more extensive Station Area Master Plan grant effort, resulting in over $320,000 from VTA to be used in FY 15-16 to- wards the creation of a formal Station Area Master Plan for Downtown Morgan Hill." Grantsmanship" was a key work effort as well, as the Community Development Department collaborated with Community Services, and others throughout the city team to submit requests for over $8 million in grants for enhanced forestation, improvements to public rights of way to enhance pedestrian, bicycle and transit use and accessibility, park enhancements to provide benefits to neighborhoods with affordable housing, electric charging stations and various activities to reduce green- house gas emissions. The FY 15-16 Budget reflects an emphasis on core, non-RDA functions, the anticipation of continued growth in housing starts, a relatively more promising outlook for commercial and industrial new construction, a focus on planning and implementation of projects that are being funded by the remaining bond proceeds of the 2008 RDA bonds which are available for projects as a result of the dissolution of the RDA. Making major gains in the dissolution process, the City received approval from the Successor Agency, the Oversight Board and from the Department of Finance (DOF) in late

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