| South Valley Spotlight Morgan Hill · San Martin · Gilroy | April 22, 2026 |
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| Presented by Your Business Here | April 22, 2026 Earth Day Today, Garlic Fest Tickets Live, and 70 Years of Christopher Ranch Plant a tree with Gilroy at Sunrise Park at 2pm. The Gilroy Garlic Festival resident presale is open at $35 a ticket. And downtown Morgan Hill is mid-Food & Wine Week with a Wine & Art Stroll on Saturday. Earth DayGarlic Fest TixFood & Wine Week |  | Earth Day Hits the South Valley, and Garlic Fest Tickets Are Open to Locals Two things converging this week worth planning around. One: Earth Day is today. The City of Gilroy is hosting an Arbor Day tree planting at Sunrise Park at 2 p.m., and Morgan Hill's free Earth Day Festival runs Saturday morning from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Community & Cultural Center. Both are free and kid-friendly. Two: the Gilroy Garlic Festival resident presale opened Sunday at $35 a ticket for the July 24-26 festival at Gilroy Gardens. That's the local-only window. General public sales open May 10 and May 25. If you live here, buy now or pay more later. The presale announcement came out of a big weekend at Gilroy Gardens: Christopher Ranch turned 70, the Garlic Queen Pageant returned after a seven-year hiatus, and Ken Christopher read from his children's book "Elephant Garlic" to a crowd of kids. Free garlic bulbs went home with families. Gilroy residents got in at the $12 "We Love Locals" rate. A good weekend for a town that smells like garlic from 101. |
| | 🏛 City Hall | Gilroy Puts $150K Behind Nonprofit Events The Gilroy City Council approved a new Community Events Support Program that gives local nonprofits up to $150,000 total to offset city staff costs for special events. If your group runs a festival, run, or block party inside Gilroy city limits, applications are due April 27 at 5 p.m. Contact [email protected] for details. Gilroy Dispatch → City of Gilroy → |
| 💰 Taxes | Measure A Sales Tax Now in Effect Countywide Santa Clara County's Measure A took effect April 1. The 0.625% sales tax increase, approved by 57% of voters, is expected to raise $330 million a year for healthcare and public safety. The combined sales tax rate here is now 9.75%. You'll notice it most on bigger purchases. The five-year tax was placed on the ballot to counter expected federal funding cuts. TaxCloud → KTVU → |
| 🏗 Development | 42 New Townhomes Headed to Downtown Gilroy The Planning Commission approved a 42-townhome development at 95 Howson Street on a 1.99-acre site inside Gilroy's Downtown Specific Plan. Units range from 1,430 to 1,900 sq ft with two-car garages. It goes to City Council on May 4 for final sign-off. As an in-fill project, it's exempt from CEQA review. New housing stock walking distance to downtown is a real thing. City of Gilroy → |
| Ken Christopher: Third-Generation Garlic and a Children's Book Ken Christopher's grandfather Don started growing garlic in Gilroy in 1956. Seventy years later, Christopher Ranch is the largest garlic producer in the country, and Ken is the one on stage at Gilroy Gardens emceeing the Garlic Queen Pageant on National Garlic Day. He also just published a children's book called "Elephant Garlic." He read it to kids at the Lakeside Amphitheater on Saturday, handed out free garlic bulbs, and signed copies. It's the kind of thing that only happens in a town where the garlic smell hits you on 101 before you even see the exit sign. Three generations. Same crop. Same town. We love that. | Three Morgan Hill Homes on the Market This Week A starter, a family house, and a compound. All three active on Redfin as of Tuesday. Prices and photos pulled straight from the listings.  | 18524 Poppy Jasper Ln → $915,000 · 3 bd / 3 ba · 1,773 sqft Bocce court in the back, two-car garage, $490 HOA. Just listed. |
 | 15540 Armsby Ln → $1,745,000 · 5 bd / 3 ba · 2,812 sqft Owned solar, pellet stove, view deck. Open house Wed 11–2. |
 | 18471 Corte Zapala → $4,179,000 · 5 bd / 6 ba · 6,089 sqft First-floor suite, butler's pantry. 3D walkthrough on listing. |
🏡 South Valley Market Snapshot What homes are actually moving for this month Morgan Hill $1.4M median · +5.0% YoY | Gilroy $1.1M median · -9.8% YoY |
Two markets, ten miles apart, telling different stories. Morgan Hill's still climbing. Gilroy's cooled off. |
Photos and data courtesy of Redfin. Medians from Redfin Data Center, Feb 2026 close. Not a solicitation. Talk to a licensed agent before making any offer. | |  | The Wine & Art Stroll Is This Weekend's Main Event Downtown Morgan Hill's Wine & Art Stroll is Saturday, April 25 from 1 to 5 p.m. It's the anchor event of Food & Wine Week. You pick up a glass at check-in and wander from shop to shop tasting pours from South Valley wineries while local artists show work inside the storefronts. The whole thing happens on foot on Monterey Road. Bring a friend, wear good shoes, and don't try to drive. Before Saturday: Bubbles & Brew is running a Sip & Shop on Thursday with 15 local makers, plus live music Thursday and Friday night. If you skip the ticketed stroll, downtown is still worth a walk this week. A lot of the restaurants have Food & Wine Week menus on offer, and the weather is finally pretending to be spring. |  | MOHI Farm: Farm-to-Table in the Heart of Morgan Hill MOHI Farm serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner out of the old Sunsweet building at 90 East 3rd Street in Morgan Hill. Executive Chef Lance Ramhurst builds the menu around ingredients from Frank Leal's farm, the Morgan Hill Farmers Market, and herbs grown on-site. They use keg wine instead of bottles, compost their waste, and run the place on solar. It's the kind of restaurant you take out-of-town guests to. Especially during Food & Wine Week. 90 East 3rd Street, Morgan Hill |
| 📒 South Valley Directory This week's featured businesses. Local spots we trust. Picked by the Spotlight team. | | Maurizio's Italian Restaurant Featured | Morgan Hill |
| Homemade Italian with a full bar and one of the best patios on Monterey Road. The gnocchi and ossobuco are worth the trip. maurizios.com → |
| | Settle Down Brewery & Taproom Featured | Gilroy |
| Downtown Gilroy craft brewery with a dozen-plus taps. Good beer, good people, walkable from the rest of downtown. Part of the Gilroy Ale Trail. settledownbrewing.com → |
| | CPI Service Featured | Morgan Hill / Gilroy |
| 38 years serving the community. Plumbing and HVAC for residential and commercial. The kind of contractor your neighbor recommends. cpiservice.com → |
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| Food & Wine Week is in full swing in downtown Morgan Hill. Sip & Shop at Bubbles & Brew tomorrow with 15 local makers, live music Thursday and Friday, and the Wine & Art Stroll on Saturday afternoon. Earth Day Festival fills the Community & Cultural Center Saturday morning. It's a good week to leave the car parked and walk. Drove past the Christopher Ranch fields on Saturday, windows down. The garlic smell was unreal. Seventy years of that. Only in Gilroy. What's your go-to downtown Gilroy spot? We're building a list. Hit reply and tell us. Sheena & Ryan, South Valley Spotlight | |
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