Quick Take
Residents near a proposed Capitola Road apartment complex led by local developer Workbench are appealing the Santa Cruz County planning commission’s approval of the project, arguing the builder can't take advantage of state laws to override local control.
A group of Live Oak residents is appealing the Santa Cruz County planning commission’s approval of a contentious housing project on Capitola Road led by local development and architecture firm Workbench.
The appeal was filed with the county board of supervisors on Nov. 3 by Live Oak resident Mike Reis on behalf of neighbors living on Grey Seal Road, less than two weeks after the planning commission unanimously approved the project.
The 57-unit project at 841 Capitola Rd., near 7th Avenue, was greenlit by the planning commission in large part because it uses the state’s builder’s remedy mechanism, which allows developers to bypass local zoning laws, such as by constructing taller or denser buildings, if a jurisdiction does not comply with state housing development requirements.
In the case of 841 Capitola Rd. and three other projects in unincorporated parts of the county, the developers are allowed to use builder’s remedy because the county did not have its housing element certified by the state by a Dec. 13, 2023, deadline. The housing element is a state-mandated plan to accommodate a minimum amount of new housing growth in unincorporated areas of the county by 2031. Under builder’s remedy, local governments aren’t allowed to block a housing development that contains a certain amount of affordable units, even if it doesn’t comply with local laws.
The main argument the residents are making against the project’s approval is that the county’s housing element was found to be compliant with state housing laws before Workbench submitted its application. Reis told Lookout that according to emails between county planning staff and the state department of housing he received via a public records request, the county was in compliance with state law. Therefore, builder’s remedy should be revoked, he said.
The emails shared with Lookout are from March and April 2025 and show county staff sharing updates about the county’s housing element with representatives from the California Department of Housing and Community Development, including that the board of supervisors had accepted some feedback from the state agency in early April without needing to formally readopt the plan.
While the board of supervisors approved the county’s housing element in November 2023, county staff argued at the Oct. 22 meeting of the county planning commission that the state didn’t formally certify the plan until April 2024, which allowed developers to submit applications to qualify under builder’s remedy. The state certified the county’s housing element on April 12, 2024. Workbench submitted a preliminary application for the project on April 9 of that year and a formal application on Oct. 3, according to the county’s website.
Apart from revoking builder’s remedy from the 841 Capitola Rd. project, residents are also asking county elected officials to direct staff to complete a health and safety study, conduct a parking study and restrict vehicles from traveling all the way down Grey Seal Road to the entrance of the planned development.
While the developer submitted a traffic study, Reis said it focused only on road congestion at the two intersections that are relevant to the project: Grey Seal and Capitola roads and 7th Avenue and Capitola Road. There was no focus on how extra traffic on the street will affect the safety of the people who live on the cul-de-sac, he said.
Reis and several residents told commissioners last month that they’re worried the increase in traffic will make their typically quiet and calm road less safe for children to play outside. “What we’re asking here is for the board to recognize that a safety impact study is missing, and for them to run one to see what the impacts are going to be on the residents,” Reis said.
To help address traffic impacts, residents are also asking the county to install bollards — posts used to divert traffic — at the end of Grey Seal Road, which developers intend to use as an entrance point to the apartment complex.
The last request listed on the appeal is for the county to run a parking study to understand whether public transit and other means of transportation would allow people to not have cars if they choose to live in the apartment complex, and if Workbench’s proposed 31 parking spaces are sufficient. Residents are worried that the lack of parking spaces at the development will lead to all available on-street parking being taken up.
Workbench senior developer Clay Toombs argued in October that the reduced parking spaces come down to giving residents of the complex the option to pay for a parking space or possibly opt to use a different means of transportation.
The 57-unit rental project planned for 841 Capitola Rd. has undergone many changes since it was first proposed in 2022, primarily due to escalating mortgage costs. It was first envisioned as 15 single-family homes, each with its own accesory dwelling unit (ADU), and intended for first-time homebuyers.
But by 2023, as mortgage rates climbed, Workbench reimagined the project as an apartment building. Developers also added four affordable units to the project. Earlier this year, the project was planned for 63 units, and later downsized to 57.
Workbench CEO Tim Gordin did not respond to Lookout’s request for comment by publication time.
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