In first run for elected office, Santa Cruz mayor hopeful Gillian Greensite wants to stop ‘overbuilding’

Gillian Greensite has lived in Santa Cruz for more than 50 years and has been politically active for most of that time. But this year marks her first run at any elected office. 

Why now? She said she believes the city is promoting “overdevelopment.” She said that outgoing mayor Fred Keeley leaves “big shoes to fill,” but that she’s up to the task.

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“My research into that made me think that it’s time for leadership to take the city in a direction more responsive to the neighborhoods who are being impacted by the overdevelopment,” she said, adding that she listened to neighbors speak at a community meeting on a project at 930 Mission St. who were fighting back tears. 

“I feel that our neighborhoods and our existing community is being shoved aside,” Greensite said, “and the impetus is on more development, and I think that needs a change in direction.”

In the decades since Greensite moved to Santa Cruz from Australia, she’s been active in the community. She’s a frequent attendee and public commenter at Santa Cruz City Council meetings, an advocate for rape prevention, having worked as head of rape prevention education at UC Santa Cruz for 30 years, and a longtime environmentalist who has pushed back against the city on numerous occasions. She was involved in lawsuits regarding the Wharf Master Plan, as part of her work with community group “Don’t Morph the Wharf,” and a lawsuit when the city tried to change its heritage tree ordinance. She served on the city’s Commission of Prevention of Violence Against Women, its Parks and Recreation Commission, and the civil grand jury in 2023 and 2024.

Greensite said the city is developing far beyond what the state is requiring, adding that although the state required the city to plan for more than 3,700 units by 2031, there are already more than that in the pipeline just halfway into the cycle. She pushes back on the argument that the rapid pace of building is because the city failed to build enough in past years, and while she doesn’t think Santa Cruz can stop building, it can control its pace and promotion. She also wants more transparency regarding who is getting into the new units. 

“We still don’t know what percentage of any of the affordable housing is actually going to local workers,” she said. She cited research from San Francisco that argues whoever occupies new units, more than anything else, dictates the cost of housing.

“If you have expensive housing, which most of the new housing is,”she said, “people who move in have higher incomes. Since we’re overbuilding more than we’re required to, it is going to make this community less affordable.”

Greensite also is against “ministerial approval” for housing developments, meaning that there would be no public hearings in front of elected bodies regarding new projects, an idea the city is considering. 

“I think councilmembers and the mayor should hear from people that they are hurting with this development if they’re living right next to it,” she said. “If the council says we can’t do anything, well, you better hear how people feel about it rather than squash public hearings.”

At the city government level, Greensite would like to cut managerial bloat in some departments, particularly the housing and economic development departments, and redirect funding to what she believes are undervalued bodies. That includes the parks department, where she said she has seen “neglect.”

Greensite said she’d encourage all councilmembers and the mayor to hold regular, moderated meetings with constituents in each of the city’s six districts, giving them the chance to connect more directly and ask questions of their representatives. She also would like to hold a town hall with state representatives like state Sen. John Laird and Assemblymember Gail Pellerin to explain support for state laws making it easier to build.

“There are cities who push back against the state,” she said. “Not very successfully, but why aren’t we a leader amongst them?”

Greensite said that although Keeley runs efficient meetings, she doesn’t like that there’s no discussion of an issue until a motion is on the floor. By that time, councilmembers often have already drafted a motion with city staff before the meetings, she said. She thinks the lack of transparency isn’t a new problem, but it is growing along with local bureaucracy. She thinks that councilmembers should be working through motions with their colleagues during a council meeting, rather than beforehand.

“I think it’s done a disservice and I think that people feel their comments are wasted,” she said.

Greensite, drawing from her experience in rape prevention advocacy, also wants to see more transparency around the law enforcement response to reported rapes. She wants more robust data, and a regular evaluation of how the city is responding to ensure the “best possible response to those who report rape.”

On the topic of law enforcement, Greensite said that she understands the law enforcement benefits that automated license-plate readers provide, but that the city council made the right move pulling out of the Flock Safety contract, and is not interested in bringing the technology back.

Although that is in line with all candidates other than Ryan Coonerty, Greensite said she believes she diverges from them on the issue of homelessness. She said she has compassion and empathy for people struggling with mental health and substance-abuse issues to the point that they cannot take care of themselves, but that “a small group of folks” exhibit destructive behavior. She said she does not take a blanket approach to homelessness, and thinks if people turn down shelter offered to them, they should not be allowed to live on the streets and should possibly be involuntarily committed to a facility where they can get the treatment they need.

“We’re not living in an era where these big institutions locked people up and did experiments on them,” she said. “We’ve sort of swung the pendulum to saying ‘Whatever you want to do in public is OK and we can’t impose on your rights.’ I think it needs to be brought back into balance, but not repeat the mistakes of big institutions of the past.”

Greensite believes that her platform and feelings on the state of Santa Cruz will resonate with locals, and if not, at least she made her case.

“I think the community is actually quite concerned at the nature of the changes to Santa Cruz,” she said. “I may be wrong, and if I can get my message out and I’m not elected, that’s alright. Then the community sees it differently.”

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