A big week for decision-makers up and down Santa Cruz County
As we glide into the second quarter of 2024, several impactful votes are coming before the people’s chosen decision-makers, from the county-level board of supervisors, to the ranks of city councils in Santa Cruz and Watsonville.
Earlier Monday, I published a roundup of those big-ticket items coming before local political leaders. The board of supervisors and the public will get the first glimpse at the proposed budget for what looks to be a challenging fiscal year for the county amid the four-headed beast of waning pandemic-era funds, major unfunded mandates, a severe state budget deficit and the fact that the federal government owes the county nearly $150 million in disaster reimbursements.
At the city level, Santa Cruz eyes adoption of a 50-year vision for its most scenic stretch, and will debate how to approach its cannabis policy amid an impassioned fight over a proposed dispensary on Mission Street. In Watsonville, the city council will host a public hearing on how to address a growing homeless encampment along Airport Boulevard.
Tensions flare over proposed dispensary in the city of Santa Cruz
For months, the possibility of a retail cannabis dispensary moving into the old Emily’s Bakery location on Mission Street has stirred passionate opposition from the Santa Cruz City Schools district and parents who feel the dispensary is too close to Santa Cruz High School and Mission Hill Middle School.
The Hook Outlet’s application meets all of the city’s requirements for a new dispensary location (and even exceeds them in some areas) and gained approval from the city’s planning commission March 7.
That did little to cool the fiery opposition. A group of parents appealed the planning commission’s approval to the city council, which is scheduled to make a decision May 14. Despite the dispensary meeting all of the city’s requirements, the city council has narrow authority to deny the permit if it determines the business would negatively affect public health.
Amid the back-and-forth that wrought op-eds, letters to the editor, social media posts and a packed planning commission meeting, Mayor Fred Keeley is proposing that the city slow the roll and reassess.
A proposed 18-story tower in downtown Santa Cruz looks to set the tone in a new era of development
On March 4, the Monday before primary election day, the City of Santa Cruz planning department received a pair of applications for a downtown residential project behind the clock tower. Developer Tim Gordin of local outfit Workbench knew his firm’s proposal was going to be unprecedented in Santa Cruz.
At 18 stories and 192 feet tall, Clocktower Center would be the tallest building in Santa Cruz County. Proposed for 2020 North Pacific Ave., the high-rise would take over the lot now occupied by the Rush Inn dive bar and the old Santa Cruz County Bank building.
Gordin, who, with Workbench, has projects throughout the greater San Francisco Bay Area, said the Clocktower Center represents a taller and denser direction for development in Santa Cruz.
“This is something Santa Cruz hasn’t seen yet, but that I’m sure we’ll see more of,” Gordin told Lookout. “In relation to the built environment, the visibility and the discussion it’s generated, this is probably the most transformative project we’ve ever proposed.”
Looking Ahead
Assemblymember office hours: Assemblymember Gail Pellerin will host office hours between 12:30 and 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 13, at the Boulder Creek Branch Library, where residents are invited to schedule an appointment and discuss any topics or issues important to them.
State of the San Lorenzo River Symposium: The Santa Cruz Water Department is bringing back the annual State of the San Lorenzo River Symposium on Saturday, April 13, from 9 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. at Felton Community Hall. Topics for discussion will range from the cultural history of the river’s watershed, environmental preservation policies and the protection of endangered animals. The symposium will be followed by a tour of the Fall Creek Fish Ladder at 1:30 p.m. For more information, visit the event page.
Weekly News Diet
Local: The issue of pesticide use in South County remains a live wire. Last week, several Pajaro Valley organizations sued the state and Monterey County for failing to analyze the health impacts of specific pesticides approved for local use. My colleague Hillary Ojeda has that story.
Golden State: Lookout recently reported that insurance giant State Farm, the state’s largest home insurer, was dropping tens of thousands of policies in California. Now, the San Francisco Chronicle has a fresh map that shows which areas are most heavily impacted.
Global: Since moving into the papacy in 2013, Pope Francis has largely been seen as a progressive voice in a traditionally conservative institution. Now, a new document out of the Vatican chafes against that trend. Approved by Francis, the document states the Roman Catholic Church’s position against gender change and fluidity, as well as surrogacy and in vitro fertilization, claiming they threaten human dignity. Jason Horowitz and Elisabetta Povoledo have that story for the New York Times.
One Great Read
Kate Coleman, who documented the Bay Area counterculture, dies at 81, by Clay Risen for the New York Times
In today’s world, where more and more writers and journalists pick their side and report critically on what they see across the aisle, Kate Coleman would be a rare breed. I wonder how might she have fared in the age of social media polemics and hyperbole?
Coleman came up during the counterculture movement, and received her education through the radical liberal politics of UC Berkeley’s campus and the Bay Area more broadly. Yet, instead of attacking the machinations of the conservative right, she used her energy to examine and write critically about the personalities and culture of her own comrades. It made more sense, she believed, to report from a place she knew intimately rather than surmise about a foreign system of values.
The world is better served by those who can stand at the punch bowl and drink the Kool-Aid yet still criticize its taste and side effects. Yet, as Coleman found out following investigations into the Black Panthers and the radical environmental movement, to write critically about one’s own friends is a quick way to lose those friends.