Up in the air: Watsonville’s airport and housing clash on the runway
Flying over South County, the two long intersecting runways at Watsonville Municipal Airport form an X. From the skies, this X marks the spot for safe landing. On the ground, it marks the spot where generations of heavy political tension over growth and preservation is beginning to boil.
Since the 1990s, pilots and city officials have battled over the airport’s place in Watsonville’s future, an at-times litigious dance around the same central question: Can the city shut down the airport’s auxiliary runway, known as the crosswind runway, to unlock a large swath of land for new housing? It’s a question that has involved judges and local, state and federal governments.
After about 10 years of sitting on the back burner, the fight resurfaced last fall. The Federal Aviation Administration determined that the crosswind landing strip was unnecessary and the city would no longer receive federal financial aid for its maintenance. This presented a new opportunity for the Watsonville City Council. In March, a narrow 4-3 majority voted to, at last, decommission the runway and open up space for new housing. It was a move that felt apropos of the larger political moment, in which state and local lawmakers have tuned their compasses toward solving the housing affordability crisis by aggressively working to open more opportunities for development.
City officials said a runway closure would take years; despite the city council’s vote, the path toward closure and subsequent housing remains an obstacle course through different strata of bureaucracy.
Last week, the Watsonville Pilots Association tossed in another hurdle: It sued the city and city council in an attempt to block the runway’s decommissioning based on environmental issues. The litigation, the latest in a history of lawsuits from the local pilots organization against the city over the same broad issue, has cast the airport’s future and some of Watsonville’s long-term housing plans in doubt.
Of Note
With Toadal Fitness acquisition, Santa Cruz’s downtown library mixed-use project moves forward: Last week, the City of Santa Cruz formally purchased the downtown Toadal Fitness building for $2.5 million, according to Toadal Fitness owner Christophe Bellito and confirmed by city officials.
For years, the property at 113 Lincoln St. has sat in the city’s crosshairs as a necessary purchase and demolition to make room for its long-envisioned downtown library mixed-use development.
In the lead-up to 2022’s Measure O, which was a referendum on the mixed-use library plan, many questioned the city’s confidence that it would be able to purchase the building to make room for the development. In a February 2023 progress report on the project, city planning staff said “active negotiations continue” for the purchase of the property, and that a decision from Bellito and the Toadal Fitness team on selling the building was “expected in the next several weeks.”
At eight stories and 273,200 square feet, with 124 affordable housing units, a new library and commercial space, the project is considered by many to be a generational shift in the look and feel of downtown Santa Cruz.
Looking Ahead
Rail trail redux: A ruckus rose from the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors chambers last month after the county’s elected leaders failed to approve two sections of the long-debated Coastal Rail Trail project. Supervisor Zach Friend’s recusal let the vote fall 2-2, with Supervisors Manu Koenig and Bruce McPherson voting against, and Justin Cummings and Felipe Hernandez voting for. Many saw Koenig’s vote as confirming long-held suspicions around his ambivalence toward the project. Not even a month after he was reelected to his District 1 supervisor seat did he begin hearing demands from rail supporters for a recall.
The vote led the county’s Regional Transportation Commission, the agency leading the project, to reaffirm its support and commitment for rail. On Tuesday, the project comes back before the county supervisors. Friend, who legally cannot vote on the project because his home is too close to the envisioned rail line, will again recuse himself, so unless someone changed their mind, we could be looking at another stalemate.
Food Bin redux: No, it’s not 18 stories, but the proposed redevelopment of the Food Bin and Herb Room lot at 1130 Mission St. in the city of Santa Cruz has been one of the more hotly debated projects of the past year. In January, the city’s planning commission approved the five-story mixed-use project, with 48 new housing units and a ground-floor commercial space envisioned to host a revamped Food Bin. However, neighbors have appealed the planning commission’s decision to the city council, which will host a public hearing on Tuesday. City staff is recommending the city’s elected leaders deny the appeal.
Scotts Valley, Skypark and Town Center: After the City of Santa Cruz-owned, but Scotts Valley-located, Skypark Airport closed in 1982, questions have swirled around the development potential of the prime real estate off Mount Hermon Road, in the heart of Scotts Valley. Santa Cruz sold off a portion of the property for private development, but has held onto 8.2 vacant acres since. Scotts Valley has long sought the property as the location of its Town Center development, a mixed-use downtown project envisioned to be the heart of the city. Now, the sides believe they have finally negotiated the sale. On Tuesday, the Santa Cruz City Council will vote on whether to sell Scotts Valley the lot for $7.8 million.
Workforce housing in Live Oak: Anton DevCo, in partnership with Pacific Housing Inc., is proposing a 170-unit workforce affordable housing project at the corner of Thurber Lane and Soquel Drive. Santa Cruz County and the developer are hosting a community meeting on the project at the Congregational Church of Soquel, 4951 Soquel Dr., at 7:30 p.m. Monday. The project is one of three major affordable housing projects the county is considering this year. View the map of projects here.
Weekly News Diet
Local: The arrest of 29-year-old Teran Whitley earlier this month has stirred community tension after residents criticized the Santa Cruz Police Department for using excessive force against the unarmed Whitley, who is Black. On Sunday, criminal justice advocates held a community forum around the incident. Max Chun has that update.
Golden State: With the dramatic increase in California’s houseless population in recent years, governments, nonprofits and businesses have been turning to private security agencies to patrol streets, shelters and storefronts. According to CalMatters’ Lauren Hepler, those private security guards have often compounded the issues.
National: An attempt at a bipartisan border security deal was left on the cutting room floor as part of the $95 billion Ukraine/Israel/Taiwan foreign aid package that passed earlier this month. President Joe Biden vowed last week to take another swing at a border bill; however, according to Politico, Biden seems to be the only one in Washington talking about revisiting the contentious border issue any time soon.
One Great Read
Gavin Newsom can’t help himself, by Mark Leibovich for The Atlantic
“Is Gov. Gavin Newsom running a shadow campaign for president?” has been a favorite question from conservatives and some liberals throughout the 2024 presidential election cycle. Newsom, who has been among the most vocal supporters of Biden’s campaign, has regularly shut down that notion. He is all-in on Biden.
Yet, in Mark Leibovich’s recent profile of the California governor for The Atlantic, Newsom gives off the air of an heir anxiously biding his time for something bigger.