A draft of the Coral Street Visioning Report, to be presented Thursday at a meeting of the City of Santa Cruz Planning Commission, aims to transform several Coral Street buildings into additional services for the unhoused, temporary shelters and permanent supportive housing. But the report is already generating controversy from area residents and businesses because its current map also includes three privately owned buildings.
Housing
Posted inHousing & Development
A California program to fix mobile home parks approved 1 application in 10 years. Will a rebrand work?
A program to help mobile home park residents got a huge revamp last year because nobody was using it. Will more than tripling the size of the loan fund and streamlining the application process yield results?
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
We are planning commissioners: Santa Cruz can and should do better on affordable housing
Two veteran planning commissioners want Santa Cruz decision-makers to require more affordable housing. The city council, Cyndi Dawson and Sean Maxwell say, is too often more aligned with developers.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Jazmine’s story: Where did the unhoused from the Benchlands go?
Lookout has been wondering what happened to the 250-300 people who lived in Santa Cruz’s largest homeless encampment, known as the Benchlands, after the city closed it in the fall. Most are untracked and untrackable, as they didn’t utilize city services. But we kept asking and looking. In this video, Community Voices talks to Jazmine, a massage therapist, whom we interviewed in August when she lived in a tent in the Benchlands. She now lives in a small trailer in the Santa Cruz Mountains. She tells us her post-Benchlands experience, talks about what it feels like to be unhoused, how easy it is to fall and how hard it is to get back up.
Posted inEducation
Explainer: Student Housing West construction could begin this year if UC regents approve budget this week
At meetings Wednesday and Thursday of the University of California Board of Regents, UC Santa Cruz officials will ask for almost $146 million to fund building on the school’s East Meadow, at the corner of Hagar and Coolidge drives.
Posted inHousing & Development
Nightmare in Aptos paradise as Jackson Browne property dispute heads toward court decision
On Monday, Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge Timothy Volkmann is expected to issue a final ruling on the Aptos property dispute between singer Jackson Browne and a local couple. While the legal arguments of the case could turn on the nuances of easement and property law, the dispute between Christopher Wheeler and Sarah Claus and the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer also offers a rare glimpse at the fault lines over wealth, privilege and the price of privacy that exist in Santa Cruz County, where the median home price now stands at $1.3 million.
Posted inHousing & Development
California sues Huntington Beach over ban on housing projects
The lawsuit that California filed against Huntington Beach is another clash in the conflict between the Newsom administration and the city on housing supply.
Posted inHousing & Development
Housing sales slow and inventory rises, but Santa Cruz County still a ‘seller’s market’
Santa Cruz County’s housing market is facing a slowdown. Local real-estate agents point to high interest rates and a shift from all-cash offers to budget-conscious first-time buyers, along with sellers who have yet to adjust their expectations to a less-competitive housing market.
Posted inHousing & Development
Community gets first view of 351-unit mixed-use Ocean Street project
The proposed five-story development at 908 Ocean St., near the intersection with Water Street, would involve the demolition of a number of single-family homes in addition to several businesses. The public can weigh in via Zoom or in person Thursday evening.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Three tense years lie ahead as Watsonville residents await the Pajaro levee project’s fixes
Mark Strudley of the new Pajaro Regional Flood Management Agency hasn’t been on the job for long and hasn’t even had time yet to build a staff or find an office in Watsonville. The longtime Boulder Creek resident lays out the race against time to build the levee project before the next devastating storms. There are many hurdles, including agency coordination.
