Quick Take
It’s a list that doesn’t surprise. Watsonville elected officials want more services and housing for the homeless, initiatives to bring more retail and boost local business and upgrades to roads and water/sewer systems in 2025.
The faces on the Watsonville City Council haven’t changed, and issues like homelessness and bringing in more businesses downtown are all too familiar.
Last November, three of the seven city council seats were up for reelection. Each incumbent – Vanessa Quiroz-Carter, Eduardo Montesino and Jimmy Dutra – remained in office, so it is an experienced set of councilmembers looking to the year ahead.
Lookout reached out to Watsonville’s mayor and city councilmembers, asking about priorities. Newly sworn-in mayor Maria Orozco and councilmembers Casey Clark and Dutra responded, saying they are focused on improving roads, bringing in more businesses, repairing roads and finding better solutions to combat homelessness.
Building up Watsonville’s economy
Economic development is at the forefront of most, if not all, of the councilmembers’ minds. Orozco, Clark and Dutra each brought up the issue, but what does that look like for the city?
Watsonville has been yearning for a revitalization of its downtown for quite some time. The city council voted unanimously to approve a 30-year vision, formally known as the Downtown Specific plan, in 2023, in hopes to bring back the spark to the city’s center they say was lost following the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.
Orozco wants to create a one-stop hub for resources and permits aiming to streamline the permit process for business and construction projects. “How can we improve the way we’re delivering service accessibility, so that community members or developers can have a sense of what the process looks like?” she said.
Clark shares a similar vision and would like to see the process streamlined and more consistent across projects and applicants, he said. In addition, he would like to see the city prioritize putting more business that can generate revenue downtown.
There has been a lot of attention on bringing more businesses to other areas of the city, and downtown Watsonville needs to get that same attention, said Dutra. He acknowledged that it’s going to take some effort to bring the area back to life, and said he thinks the city is heading in that direction with the Downtown Specific Plan.
Attracting more entertainment-focused businesses might be the key to revitalizing the city’s downtown sector. Community members have expressed interest in attractions, like a bowling alley, said Orozco, and as a mother of three, she is on board with bringing those types of experiences to Watsonville.
“We’re beginning those conversations to see if there’s a potential site right that can accommodate a business like that here in Watsonville,” she said.
Homelessness and housing
Watsonville saw a 60% increase in its homeless population last year. The number of people experiencing homelessness in the city jumped to 673, compared to 421 in 2023. This percentage will be updated soon following the county’s point in time count happening this week. City leaders have been inching toward finding a solution, which, of course, is a vexing problem throughout the county.
Despite the much discussion over time, the city doesn’t have a concrete plan in place.
The main goal is to create a homeless strategic plan focused on prevention, support services and partnerships, said Orozco. The strategic plan will be created based on information provided by the city’s newly formed homelessness task force.
The task force, composed of Watsonville residents, aims to find solutions to the city’s homelessness issue, replacing the larger community meetings the city hosted last year with more “solution-oriented” conversations.
Members of the task force will be split into five groups: housing, homelessness prevention, policy, enforcement and management, and resources and services. The task force held its first meetings earlier this month, and meetings are open to the public. (The city called for applications for residents to volunteer last December, and applications are now closed.)
“I think we have to finally address the real elephant in the room, and that’s the mental health and addiction part of it,” said Dutra. “A lot of the people that you see on the street are struggling with addiction and mental health, and we need to start addressing those issues.”
At the end of the process, the city council will consider the strategic plan; it will still be a few months before the council receives a report from the meetings, Orozco said. The task force will make its recommendations to the city council.
To increase affordable housing, Orozco wants to update the city’s “affordable housing ordinance” to prioritize Watsonville residents, and potentially provide more opportunities at homeownership.
Improving Watsonville’s roads and lights
Better roads, lights and parks are what come to mind when city councilmembers talk about infrastructure.
A project Dutra has been pushing for — and highlighted in his 2024 reelection campaign — is improving the city’s streetlights. The project is expected to cost the city almost $1.9 million, and public works staff is seeking grant money to fund the project.
“The lighting in our community is just so dim, and people sometimes feel unsafe because they get out [of work] and it’s pitch dark,” said Dutra.
Public works staff said at the November city council meeting that the lights would be replaced in phases, and the project would take seven years to complete because of funding concerns. The city council has not voted for project approval, and Dutra did not indicate when the vote might take place.
Advancing on the Green Valley Road improvements is one of the larger projects Orozco is focused on seeing through. The road is a safety hazard for children making their way to school because the cars are so close, she said.
“We’re hoping that we can move forward with building the pedestrian bridge,” she said. “Which will provide additional safety for students who commute right by foot every morning and in the afternoons.”
Paving roads and building sidewalks throughout Watsonville will take a bit of time to complete, Orozco said, but improvements are slated to begin in District 3 — the area of the city she represents — next year.
Clark said he also wants to update what’s underneath the roads: the city’s outdated water and sewage pipes.
“Everybody talks about the roads and sidewalks because that’s what they see,” said Clark. “Our freshwater and sewer system that’s over 100 years old, and it’s bursting everywhere in town.”
Updating sewer and water pipes, Clark added, is essential since more housing projects are underway. Not addressing the pipes could strain Watsonville’s infrastructure.
The city replaces 2 miles of water pipes a year, said Clark, because the public works department doesn’t have enough resources to do more. But he says understands updates like this need the proper funding, and that the public works department usually makes improvements to roads that are almost on their last legs.
Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here.