Priority Conservation Area

The City is in the process of establishing a Citywide Agricultural Lands Preservation Program and evaluating proposed General Plan Amendments, Zoning Amendments, and boundary adjustments within an area referred to as the Southeast Quadrant (SEQ). The SEQ area encompasses approximately 1,290 acres and is generally bounded by Condit Road and Highway 101 to the west, San Pedro Avenue to the north, Carey Avenue to the east, and Maple Avenue to the south.

A key goal of the project is to encourage the preservation and enhancement of open space/agriculture while identifying certain properties for compatible development with sports, recreation, and leisure uses. The project is anticipated to result in the development of a portion of the SEQ area, while ensuring that agricultural activity and open space is maintained and permanently preserved in the SEQ area and citywide.

The following is a list of the project components:

  1. Agricultural Lands Preservation Program - The establishment of a City-wide program to support the permanent preservation of open space/agriculture. The program would set forth mitigation to address the conversion of agricultural lands within the city limits and identifies policies and procedures for preserving viable agricultural lands and creating a greenbelt along the southern edge of the city’s sphere of influence boundary.
  2. Boundary Adjustments - Adjust the City limits (i.e., annexation), urban service area, urban growth boundary, and urban limit line.
  3. Sports-Recreation-Leisure General Plan and Zoning Code Amendment - Establishment of a new Sports-Recreation-Leisure land use designation in the General Plan and Sports-Recreation-Leisure Zoning District in the Zoning Code.
  4. City General Plan Amendments and Zoning Amendments to amend the land use designations and prezone lands within the SEQ area, and adopt text amendments to the General Plan and Zoning Ordinance for project consistency.
  5. Property Owner-Initiated Applications - 5 property owner-initiated projects proposed within the SEQ area will be evaluated, including a private high school, outdoor sports fields, sports/recreation-themed retail and restaurant, agriculture, and limited residential units. The number of new residential units proposed by 1 of the property owners would be equal to the number of existing lots of record under the applicant ownership within the SEQ area (up to 38 lots), which by right can each now be developed with a single-family home under current County regulations.

Updates
October 2015: The City submitted an application for LAFCO (PDF) to consider the expansion of the Morgan Hill Urban Service Area boundary to include areas referred to as the Sports - Recreation - Leisure District and Monterey-South-Hordness.

July 2015: The City prepared an Addendum to the SEQ EIR on the Ballfield Project and Land Purchase for the properties directly southwest of the Tenant and 101 Interchange. 

City Council Actions (November 2014 - July 2015)

  • Summary of Actions (PDF) - Includes links to City Council Agendas and references to the Resolution and Ordinance numbers associated with the various Council actions.

January 2014: The public review comment period for the Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) extended by two weeks, closed on Tuesday, February 18, 2014.

December 2013: After release of the Agricultural Policies and Implementation Program Public Review Draft (Program) in 2011, City staff met with a number of stakeholders to obtain feedback and recommendations for the Program. Based on the comments the City received, the Program was modified to incorporate a number of the recommendations. The Program, now titled Agricultural Lands Preservation Program, will be evaluated in the Environmental Impact Report for the SEQ Project.

The Agricultural Lands Preservation Program is available for public review:

December 2013: The Draft Environmental Impact Report for the Citywide Agricultural Preservation Program and Southeast Quadrant Land Use Plan is available for public review.

Links to Previous Documents