Quick Take
Frank Barron, a retired urban planner and a critical voice in the Measure M ballot initiative, again refutes attacks. Specifically, he pushes back against former Santa Cruz mayor Don Lane’s recent Lookout opinion piece outlining why Measure M is a bad idea. Barron insists that Lane has the facts wrong. Already, this is heating up to be a big election topic.
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Last week, Don Lane, a former Santa Cruz mayor, made numerous incorrect claims in a Lookout opinion piece regarding what Measure M ( the “Housing for People” initiative) will and won’t do. Those claims need to be corrected.
But first, here is a synopsis of the two things Measure M will do in the city of Santa Cruz if it passes on March 5:
- Bolster democracy: Measure M requires a majority vote before the city’s general plan or zoning ordinance can be amended to allow buildings above existing height limits – limits that are already quite high, at five to eight stories (when the state “density bonus” is added) in most of downtown and south of Laurel Street.
- Boost affordable housing: Measure M increases the percentage of required affordable units from the current 20% to 25% (in projects of 30-plus units). The city’s planning commission recommended a similar change, but the city council refused to adopt it. Now, voters can adopt it.
Don Lane writes that his opinion piece is based on what he calls “verifiable facts,” but he is mostly incorrect.
In his first example, Lane repeated his inaccurate claim that Measure M would require citywide votes on things like over-height fence or over-height accessory dwelling unit (ADU) requests, or for projects like the recently approved five-story Housing Matters homeless services/housing project on Coral Street in the Harvey West area. This is incorrect.
Measure M would trigger citywide votes only when a city general plan or zoning ordinance amendment is needed to increase building height limits.
At the Nov. 30 planning commission meeting, Eric Marlatt, the city’s assistant planning director, confirmed this for me. He said an over-height fence, accessory dwelling unit (ADU) or five-story homeless housing building would require either a conditional fence permit for an over-height (7-foot) fence, a variance (for a slightly taller than normal ADU), or a density bonus height waiver or exception for an affordable housing project that meets state density bonus law requirements.
None of these types of minor exceptions or already allowed projects would require a general plan or zoning ordinance amendment, and thus would not be subject to a citywide vote under Measure M.
In his second misleading claim, Lane repeats his previous incorrect assertion that citywide elections will occur for any minor development project and cost the city an average of $170,000 each time. First, elections regarding height increases would occur only rarely – only for major, generally multiblock, multiacre upzoning proposals involving general plan and/or zoning ordinance amendments to increase allowed building heights.
Second, the cost to the city of such elections will be much less than what Lane asserts (closer to between $83,000 and $128,000, according to the county elections department). This would likely be paid for by the high-rise project developers, not the taxpayers.
Lane then goes on to say that Measure M’s proposed 25% affordable unit rate (on 30-plus unit projects) is too high for the developers. When the state density bonus is applied, which will happen on virtually all such large projects, the net percentage of affordable units will be watered down to only 16%-18% of the new units.
Currently, only a paltry 11%-13% are affordable on density bonus projects. Is bumping that up to a 16%-18% affordable really too much of an ask for the big-time developers of these large projects?
Lane also claimed that Measure M proponents were using scare tactics by falsely saying that 22- and 17-story skyscrapers were being considered for Santa Cruz. However, the truth is that on June 14, 2022, the city council considered staff recommendation for one 225-foot (22-story) tower at the Wheel Works site at the southwest corner of Front and Laurel streets, surrounded by three 185-foot (18-story) towers, at the Ace Hardware and Kaiser Permanente Arena sites and one 145-foot (14-story) tower at the Aloha Motors site. That was the staff-recommended Development Scenario 3.1 for the Downtown Plan Expansion project, which can be seen below:
The city council ultimately decided to scale that proposal back and proposed that one 175-foot (17-story) tower (at the Wheel Works site), surrounded by three 150-foot (15-story) towers be the “preferred alternative” to be analyzed in the project’s environmental impact report.
That proposal was subsequently altered by the council on Jan. 10, 2023, to include an unspecified number of 12-story towers (i.e., instead of one 175-foot tower and three 150-foot towers), with no objective height in feet indicated and with no locations identified.
So it is clear that Lane was incorrect in stating that 22- and 17-story towers have not been proposed for Santa Cruz.
Lane also said that Measure M would force developers to build multistory projects in or near outlying residential neighborhoods. In fact, Measure M will protect such neighborhoods from any upzonings that would increase heights above the currently allowed two or three stories, by subjecting them to a vote of the people.
There is plenty of room in the city (mostly downtown and south of Laurel) to meet the state’s new housing unit requirements under existing zoning, without the need to upzone in either downtown or the outlying neighborhoods.
By requiring votes on upzoning, Measure M protects the city’s residential neighborhoods from over-height, multistory buildings.
Measure M gives the public a direct voice in the future form of Santa Cruz, a voice it currently doesn’t have, as major height-increasing land-use decisions are now made solely by the city council.
It also will increase the amount of low- and moderate-income affordable housing the developers of large housing projects will have to provide.
Frank Barron has lived in the county since 1969, and in the city of Santa Cruz most of the time since 1980. He is a retired urban planner, with 30 years’ experience working in the Monterey Bay region. He holds a master’s degree in urban planning from San Jose State University (1992) and a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies from UC Santa Cruz (1985).