Balancing Growth and Community: A Conversation with Moraga Mayor Kerry Hillis"

Moraga Mayor Kerry Hillis back to the Capstone Conversation and discusses lessons from Hillis’s first four years in office, including that the role can be “as much or as little as you want it to be,” the need to read community perspectives, and coping with harsh virtual public comments. Hillis explains Moraga’s weak-mayor structure, the division of responsibilities between elected officials and staff led by the town manager, and the realities of serving while holding another job, raising three young children, and receiving $0 in compensation in Lamorinda—along with how meeting times and childcare affect who can serve. Hillis describes Moraga as a small, deliberately preserved community founded about 50 years ago to protect open space and avoid highway development, while arguing that tools like CEQA and similar processes have been “weaponized” to slow even reduced-density projects and increase legal costs. The conversation focuses on Moraga’s current challenges—declining school enrollment, repeated parcel tax attempts, aging and underperforming commercial centers, and limited revenue under Prop 13—and Hillis’s view that long-term stability requires economic growth, infill housing near services and transit, and revitalization of the Ream Center as the town’s de facto downtown. He cites steps such as hiring an economic development consultant (Cosmo) and pursuing wildfire evacuation improvements on Moraga Way, including a $508,000 federal grant with Orinda to study safety options and a joint $5 million application to begin construction of a potential grade-separated emergency lane. Hillis discusses council support for economic development, differences in tone, the role of major landowners, possible state storefront vacancy taxes, and the limited municipal tools available without redevelopment. He closes with an AI tip: using tools like ChatGPT and Grammarly to edit writing and create basic graphics and announcements to meet modern expectations for government responsiveness.