Residents raise concerns over 157-unit housing project near Henry Cowell

A big housing project proposed for Graham Hill Road near Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park north of Santa Cruz brought more than 60 residents to a neighborhood meeting Wednesday evening, where they voiced wide-ranging concerns including the potential traffic impacts, water usage concerns and damage to natural habitats.

Named “The Haven Santa Cruz,” the large project between Lockewood Lane and Rolling Woods Drive includes 157 total residential units made up of both houses and townhomes. Of those, 123 units would be single-family detached homes and 34 would be townhomes. Those 34 townhomes are proposed to be affordable. Mike Formico is the developer and landowner, and the Southern California-based firm Tate Development + Investment is the project consultant. 

Beyond the housing units, the development also plans for a number of other significant infrastructure components on its 40-acre site, including an 18,000-square-foot community center, a new private street network for the homes and the removal of about 585 trees. 

The project is still in its very early stages, with no timeline or cost estimate. Still, its potential neighbors have a familiar gripe: traffic. 

Rosemarie DeStories, who lives in the Hidden Glen neighborhood just north of the proposed development, said the project would greatly worsen already existing traffic congestion along the few roads that connect to Scotts Valley and Highway 17, including Lockewood Lane and Whispering Pines Drive.

“You’ve got small roads already really busy that will be impacted,” she said. “Between [Lockewood and Whispering Pines] there will be a tremendous amount of traffic, and people drive too fast already.”

DeStories said she understands the need for housing, and supports building more, but this project does not fit its proposed location at all.

“We need to do something to solve our housing problem, but something this large shouldn’t be in this location,” she said. “It just doesn’t make sense to put in a development this dense.”

County staff have said that the current iteration of the project is not consistent with county code. While The Haven is proposed for an area that is zoned for residential housing, the current plans “greatly exceed” the density allowed under the county’s general plan, said county Community Development and Infrastructure spokesperson Tiffany Martinez. It also doesn’t meet other county requirements for things such as site standards, which can include anything from height limits and setbacks to the percentage of the total lot area covered by structures. In fact, Martinez said that the project as it currently stands “does not conform to any zone district or general-plan use designation allowed within the county.”

However, the project is proceeding under California’s builder’s remedy law, which allows certain affordable housing projects to bypass local zoning or design review standards, except in specific circumstances. 

In this case, the developer submitted the project during a time when the county did not yet have a state-approved housing element. The county adopted its latest housing element on Nov. 14, 2023, but the state did not certify it until April 12, 2024. Tate Development + Investment President Lance Tate submitted the preliminary application on April 11.

Residents who flooded the meeting at MacKenzie Bar and Grill in Pasatiempo were unanimously unhappy with the project proposal, with many questioning how the development would provide water and sewer services, and others even calling it greed-driven.

“Where are you going to get the water? What are you going to do about sewage? You’re going to have to put in a line and you’re in the Sandhills habitat, which restricts what you can do,” said Felton resident Sondra Castillo. The Santa Cruz Sandhills are an ecosystem of plants and animals found only on parts of Zayante sand soil.

Another attendee, who did not give her name, mentioned that the parcels in question are outside the urban services line — a boundary that designates areas that are supposed to remain rural from areas that are planned to accommodate denser urban developments. Martinez told Lookout that is true.

Lance Tate said the development would have to annex into the San Lorenzo Valley Water District and privately fund the expansion of a sewer line at Treetop Drive off Graham Hill Road to serve the development: “It’s not a small investment we’d be making.”

Tate also said that many of the residents’ concerns would be addressed in the environmental review process, including traffic, noise, air quality impacts, habitat mitigation and cultural resources. That process can begin when the application is complete. He told Lookout that there is still a list of things needed to complete the project application, including an updated geological study and title reports.

Despite the fact that the environmental review process could answer some of the questions residents had on Wednesday, many said they felt the development simply does not work in the area for which it is proposed.

“If you told me that you were going to put 30 homes in the area, I don’t think you would have half as many people here,” said Hidden Glen resident John Marlowe. 

Others said they thought that the main goal of the development is profit rather than to provide housing.

“It seems greedy, to be honest with you. I get it, you’re making a business to make money, that’s America’s way,” said Hidden Glen resident Michael Fletcher. “But to impose this development across from [Henry Cowell Redwoods] state park, and the developments that already exist in contravention of common sense and existing zoning rules just doesn’t make sense to us. The law does not say we have to like it, the law doesn’t say we have to accept it, and the law doesn’t say that we shouldn’t fight against it — which I respectfully think we should.”

Tate said that, given the level of concern and engagement already, there might be another community meeting in the future. He said he sees the process as “collaborative and malleable.”

“At the end of the day, the important thing to me is that people like it. I used to take a hard-line approach, but I don’t anymore,” he told Lookout. “Unfortunately, I’m not the decision-maker, but that really is the important piece. Collaboration makes projects better.”

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