Santa Cruz city planning commissioners Pete Kennedy and Michael Polhamus respond to their colleagues Cyndi Dawson and Sean Maxwell’s contention that the city is not producing enough affordable housing. Kennedy and Polhamus believe demanding unrealistic affordable housing percentages and conditions of approval makes projects infeasible to build. This does not help alleviate the housing affordability crisis, they argue — and it is also against state law. Providing housing for all through the city’s inclusionary zoning and building 100% affordable projects yields the highest proportions of affordable housing possible and helps alleviate pressures in the market, they say.
Housing
Posted inHousing & Development
As state-mandated housing plan heads to city council, ‘small town’ Santa Cruz faces its future
The city of Santa Cruz needs to build more than three times as many housing units in the next eight years as it did in the past eight. And the plan coming before the city council Tuesday shows a projected 4,457 units that can be permitted during that time. Most of them would be in along the city’s corridors — Mission, Ocean, Water and River streets and Soquel Avenue.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
In the Public Interest: As Santa Cruz County faces a mandate of fourfold increase in new housing, all stick, no carrot from state
In this edition of In the Public Interest, Christopher Neely delves into regional housing allocation numbers, how many new units Santa Cruz County and its cities are expected to build by 2031 and the state of California’s approach to making sure those goals are met.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Ambitious project pairs artists with unhoused, attempting to answer ‘What’s Home?’
In a series of films and live performances coming to The 418 Project and the Radius Gallery at the Tannery Arts Center, Andrew Purchin tracks the interaction between those with secure housing and those without and the expressions of art that emerged.
Posted inLatest News
The hidden flaw in California homes that can cause earthquake destruction
The defect that can cause single-family houses to collapse has received little attention until now. Some California homeowners will soon be able to apply for grant to help pay for the retrofit.
Posted inK-12 Education
‘This will be a game-changer’: Live Oak School District in very early planning stages for workforce housing
A 2-acre site at 1777 Capitola Road could be turned into 60 to 70 units to house Live Oak School District workers. Officials are mulling a 2024 bond measure, and a district committee also aims to explore ways to include two community organizations now headquartered at the site in the development.
Posted inLatest News
Santa Cruz officials lay out vision for Coral Street homeless services hub
Community centers, open gardens, pallet homes and possible parking options are all being explored as part of the City of Santa Cruz’s current draft of a report on its long-term vision to transform the Coral Street neighborhood into a center for housing and support services for the unhoused. Several business owners and representatives from the Coral Street area raised concerns about the vision during a planning commission meeting Thursday night.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
City’s vision for expanded unhoused hub on Coral Street sparks concern among local businesses
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.
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.