Quick Take
The Santa Cruz City Council voted to rezone the Coral Street area to allow expanded homeless services and temporary housing, taking the first step toward creating a Coral Street Overlay District envisioned in a 2023 plan for a centralized services campus. A final vote is set for March 24.
The Santa Cruz City Council has approved rezoning the Coral Street area to expand homeless services and temporary housing.
The amendments, if approved at a second reading on March 24, will create the Coral Street Overlay District, according to a 2023 plan to develop a homeless services and housing campus.
At their Tuesday meeting, city councilmembers discussed concerns including parking and building height while also emphasizing their determination to improve services and address housing needs.
“This issue of housing and homelessness, as we know, is such a difficult, complex, layered issue,” said Vice Mayor Shebreh Kalantari-Johnson. “Let’s meet the needs of those who are unhoused in our community and do it in a way that works for the neighborhood.”
The Coral Street area, located northwest of the intersection of Highways 1 and 9, has a mix of industrial, commercial and residential buildings. A majority of the parcels on the street are owned or operated by the City of Santa Cruz or Housing Matters, a nonprofit that runs homeless support services. In the near future, a 120-unit supportive housing development will be completed at 119 Coral St., and a substance-use disorder treatment facility is planned at 115 Coral St.
The city council added several amendments to the zoning changes, such as asking city staff to research how other California cities regulate similar areas where supportive housing, behavioral health facilities and recovery programs are concentrated.
The rezoning is one step in a decade-long effort to establish a navigation center to provide temporary housing, emergency shelter and services such as job training and health support for the unhoused community. The city council first moved forward with this in 2017 and, after years of reports, community engagement and committee work, compiled the 2023 Coral Street Visioning Report. That year, the city created the Coral Street Overlay District in its 2023 housing element, the city’s plan to build state-mandated housing by 2031.
The zoning and land-use changes will also align with a new state law that requires the city to have enough sites zoned to build temporary housing to support the number of unsheltered people from the 2023 point-in-time count.
Santa Cruz Mayor Fred Keeley asked city staff to clarify if the 2023 count should be used for planning, even though the number of unhoused individuals has declined in recent years.
“This is not the census. This is a PIT count,” he said, pointing out that it’s not the most accurate measure of community need. “We want relief from that so that we can zone for what our reality is, rather than twice the number.”
City senior planner Clara Stanger said that after several adjustments, including subtracting the number of sheltered people who moved into permanent housing, staff considered 424 individuals in the plan. Keeley said he still wants to ask the state to clarify the options.
As part of its first-reading approval, the city council increased the maximum height for buildings on Coral Street to 85 feet, or eight stories, per a recommendation from city staff – about double the current limits of 40 tio 45 feet for commercial buildings and 50 feet for industrial buildings.
The city’s planning commission recommended upping the height limit to 60 feet and five stories earlier this year. The permanent supportive housing project under construction at 119 Coral St. will be just under 60 feet and five stories.
During public comment, several people supported the zoning changes and the project broadly, while one person expressed concerns.
“Santa Cruz is facing a visible humanitarian crisis. Everyday people are living in tents, vehicles and along places like Coral Street,” said Rafa Sonnenfeld. “The goal of this overlay is to make it easier to build the housing and supportive services that help people move off the streets and into stable homes.”
Jocelyn Wolf agreed with Sonnenfeld and said she supported the staff recommendations, which provide developers and service providers with the flexibility to make decisions about what the unhoused population needs, including whether to build eight stories.
Pat Mapelli, a representative of construction materials company Graniterock, said he was concerned about adding hundreds of residents to an industrial zone. The company has two facilities on Coral Street.
“Introducing permanent housing immediately adjacent to active industrial facilities is inconsistent with the purpose, and raises concerns related to land use compatibility,” he said, adding that the company supports the city’s efforts to help the unhoused population.
Councilmember Susie O’Hara said she felt the city wasn’t implementing enough restrictions on the uses for the area.
“I don’t think we have fully evaluated the level of conditions and use restrictions that we can apply to the other uses than emergency shelter,” she said. “My intention was to not move forward with this ordinance at this time. I really did not think we were ready.”
But she said she appreciated the amendments that were added asking for further restrictions the city could apply to make sure that uses are compatible with homeless service providers. She and the rest of the city council approved the zoning change, with a request that staff provide options for how the city can regulate the area.
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