Quick Take
On March 11, the Watsonville City Council is scheduled to hear the second appeal against the “tiny village” project filed by resident Catalina Torres in December. The project will provide shelter for homeless individuals living along the Pajaro River levee. Torres and other residents argue the shelter’s location — on the Westview Presbyterian Church property — will lead to more “homeless-related crimes” in the neighborhood.
The Watsonville City Council is expected to consider a second appeal next month aimed at blocking a planned 34-unit “tiny village” project that would provide shelter for the unhoused.
The council is set to hear the latest appeal filed by Watsonville resident Catalina Torres on March 11.
The 34-unit tiny village project was first proposed as a joint project by Monterey and Santa Cruz counties in 2023. It will be made up of 26 individual single-bed shelters for residents experiencing homelessness, along with two double units and four Americans With Disabilities Act-compliant units. It will also include two laundry rooms, four shared bathrooms, a kitchen and storage area — all of which will reside on the property of Westview Presbyterian Church.
Torres, along with some of her neighbors, have been very vocal about their opposition to the project’s location, saying that it will increase “homeless-related” crimes in the neighborhood.
Torres initially appealed the zoning approval to the planning commission in October, claiming city staff’s approval of the project’s zoning application was “defective and improper” for several reasons, including that they had improperly accepted the application without determining the size, location, capacity and character of the project.
The city’s planning commission rejected Torres’ initial appeal in December. Torres told Lookout at the time that she was hesitant to file a new appeal to the city council but did so after neighbors encouraged her to continue pushing the city to reject the project.
The latest appeal alleges that the planning commission improperly rejected some of Torres’ arguments in the initial appeal, such as her request that the church get a special use permit.
A special use permit allows a property to be used in a way that it usually isn’t. In this case, the parking lot of Westview Church will be used for the shelter, instead of a parking lot. The permit would make it easier for Torres and any of her neighbors to direct any problems that might arise toward the city.
Torres also continues to take issue with the shelter’s service provider — Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County — and its qualifications. Torres says she believes the local nonprofit is not capable of running the shelter.
Local government officials say Torres’ appeals can do little to stop the tiny village from being built. Watsonville’s principal planner, Matt Orbach, previously told planning commissioners that the project met all requirements of a state law that supersedes local control to increase the stock of affordable housing.
Roxanne Wilson, Monterey County’s director of homelessness services, told Lookout the county filed a building permit application with the city in order to start construction on the project on Dec. 13 — just a few days before Torres filed the appeal.
If the council rejects Torres’s appeal, the city can theoretically approve the project’s building application a day after the March 11 appeal hearing, Wilson said. All the vendors contracted to work on the project are ready to go, and if all goes well, the “tiny village” is expected to be completed by the end of summer.
If councilmembers approve the appeal, city staff would have to review the project’s zoning application again. But since the state Department of Housing and Community Development has already expressed its support for the project, the department could notify Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office that the City of Watsonville is in violation of state law, which could lead to a lawsuit.
While the appeals are unlikely to stop the project, they have already delayed the timeline by several months, Wilson said.
The project is funded by an $8 million grant from the State of California that expires on June 30, 2026, Wilson said. Due to the delays, the project hasn’t been able to meet certain goals originally outlined to Housing and Community Development, she said, but it hasn’t affected the funding.
“We have had to engage with [the state] and let them know what’s going on locally,” Wilson said. To stay in good graces with funders, Wilson had to lean on the state to ensure she and her team were following state law throughout the planning of this project.
If the city council denies the appeal, Torres told Lookout she does not plan to file a lawsuit or additional appeals.
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