The Everest-esque task of paying for affordable housing and other takeaways from Lookout’s housing panel
When our Lookout team dreamt up the idea of hosting a housing forum with some of the leading state and local voices on the issue, more than three months ago, I imagined the conversation, or at least its highlights, would revolve around this notion of withering local control in housing development.
That forum, held last Wednesday, reminded me that the best conversations aren’t to be kept in boxes, no matter how meticulously that box has been designed. Good discussions are living, breathing entities only as memorable as their ability to surprise.
With state Sen. Scott Wiener, County Supervisor Manu Koenig and Santa Cruz Councilmember Sandy Brown on stage to start, followed by a one-on-one discussion with Sibley Simon, partner at local development services firm Workbench, the forum sure brought its share of surprises.
Among the many highlights, I’m struck by the Everest-esque ascent painted by policymakers and developers while describing financing for affordable housing projects, as well as the grip that investors and banks have over what gets built in a given community.
The panel shed light on the true cost of land in the affordable housing equation, and the low-risk conservatism of the capital financing new buildings. We received a reality check on the 16-story vision for the Clocktower Center in downtown Santa Cruz, and revisited a disagreement over whether certain economic models … cough … supply and demand … apply to our housing crisis.
All of this is included in a piece I published Monday morning that outlines my five takeaways from the panel. If you followed along, I’d love to hear yours. Couldn’t tune in? We have both discussions on our YouTube page.
OF NOTE
Clocktower Center’s uncertain fate: Workbench is certain the lot behind downtown Santa Cruz’s town clock will turn into a housing development; however, financing constraints will likely temper its big vision for a 16-story tower, according to Workbench principal Sibley Simon.
Simon reaffirmed comments he made during our housing forum last week, saying that the 16-story, 260-unit version of the Clocktower Center was perhaps too ambitious for what he described as a conservative financing sector. No existing buildings in Santa Cruz County are as dense or rise above nine stories. Money wants certainty, Simon said, and certainty looks closer to the scale of existing buildings.
He said the community could expect to see a seven-to-eight-story building at the lot currently hosting the Rush Inn and the old Santa Cruz County Bank building.
LOOKING AHEAD
Scotts Valley’s Town Center gets another jolt: A couple months ago, I reported on a revived energy around Scotts Valley’s decades-old vision for a downtown, a project called Town Center, eyed for the vacant airfield lot. The lot’s previous owners, the City of Santa Cruz, agreed to sell the land to Scotts Valley earlier this year. On Wednesday, the city council will vote on a consultant contract to, in part, begin engaging the community on a new Town Center vision. The city council meeting is scheduled for Wednesday at 6 p.m.
Affordable housing project planned for Santa Cruz’s Westside: The 850 Almar Ave. project proposes a three-story, 39,000-square-foot development with 38 income-restricted units. The 100% affordable housing project heads for a public hearing at the City of Santa Cruz zoning administrator on Wednesday at 10 a.m.
Capitola aims to finally get its housing plan state-certified: The state has required Capitola to build 1,336 new housing units by 2031, and so far, the state has rejected the city’s plan to accomplish that mandate. After 10 drafts of the nearly 250-page plan, known as the housing element, Capitola’s planning commission will vote Thursday on whether to approve it. The city council will vote on accepting the plan on Aug. 22 before sending it off to the state for a final certification.
District 1 supervisor returns with a town hall: As the county’s summer recess comes to a close, District 1 Supervisor Manu Koenig will host a town hall on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the Live Oak Library Annex (and virtually, on Zoom) to discuss Live Oak-centric issues, including parks and bicycle infrastructure. According to Koenig’s newsletter, the town hall will feature an open forum at the end.
WEEKLY NEWS DIET
Local: On Tuesday, a Santa Cruz County Superior Court judge will decide whether Adrian Gonzalez, convicted as a juvenile for the 2015 murder of Madyson “Maddy” Middleton, will be released before his 25th birthday in October or head to a jury trial to determine his next steps. My colleague Max Chun has a new piece outlining all possible scenarios.
Golden State: You have to love a good accountability story. Politico’s Lara Korte has a new analysis out Monday morning showing which California state legislators accepted the most gifts from lobbyists and supporters over the last year.
National: Kamala Harris is expected to announce her running mate by Tuesday. The two most prominent names lately have been swing-state household names: Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro. The New York Times has a nice, regularly updated blog on that topic. It’s often said that a vice president pick has a marginal impact on voters come November; however, for a presidential race expected to be decided in the margins, Harris’ choice could prove critical.
ONE NOTABLE READ
It’s too early to give up on homelessness in America by Nathan Heller for the New Yorker.
After six years of a court-mandated shelter-based approach to homeless encampments throughout the United States, the Supreme Court’s June ruling in Grants Pass v. Johnson said governments could once again criminalize sleeping or camping on public property. California Gov. Gavin Newsom followed that up with an executive order that both mandated state agencies to draft encampment removal policies and urged local governments to come up with similar plans.
It’s amazing what only a couple months can do (or, a couple weeks if we’re looking at the presidential election). Heller, a San Francisco native and longtime staff writer for the New Yorker who has covered the homelessness crisis in San Francisco, argues that suddenly, the homelessness program in California has become “Please Just Make These People Disappear.” He argues that homeless encampment sweeps are simply that: sweeps, pushing the issue from one place to another. They’ve also been shown to be ineffective in solving the homelessness crisis.
Heller acknowledges that the crisis has been too difficult for too long, but that America, and particularly California, needs not give up.
“Looking out for the health, well-being, and the opportunities of the entire community is not a troublesome chore that people, their governments, and their enterprises get saddled with on the way to sealing deals for office towers,” Heller writes. “It is — or ought to be — the proudest work of a First World society. … In a pinch, it has become clear, Americans will do the utmost to preserve our majestic landscapes. We should feel the same pride looking out across our population, too.”