Santa Cruz Changes 129: San Lorenzo Park Redesign Final [concept] Report

As noted in the email copied below, at its meeting on Monday, June 9, the Santa Cruz Parks and Recreation Commission will be asked to approve the San Lorenzo Park Redesign Final Report. The redesign recommendations are still at the "concept" stage, so approval doesn't commit the city to any specific element (yet). Some of the report inclusions were expected (e.g. preservation of mature trees, lawn bowling, and Lorenzo), while others may come as a surprise, including: 

• The duck pond is gone entirely, with no alternative plan for attracting and viewing water birds (although such a feature is mentioned as possibly included in "Riverlands" restoration design).
• Replacing the duck pond are two new paved paths described as components of a "multi-use lawn".
• A basketball court and four pickleball courts (all noisy) will surround the existing (quiet) lawn bowling green, making that end of the park a noisy area - especially for lawn bowlers and County offices with windows on the west side of the CGC.
• The existing direct path from the park to the CGC parking lot is gone. Restrooms there are replaced by a new larger multi-use building. New restrooms are proposed elsewhere.
• An installed slackline
• Several new memorial installations, but no recommendation to retain the existing "Bull and Bear Fights" plaque 
• Indefinite deferment of restoration planning for the "Riverlands" (aka lower terrace)  

The Parks and Recreation Department has completed the San Lorenzo Park Redesign Final Report which includes the vision, guiding principles, design goals, and design concepts. Staff will be requesting that the Parks and Recreation Commission recommend approval of the report on June 9, 2025. The San Lorenzo Park Redesign Final Report can be found here: https://www.cityofsantacruz.com/government/city-departments/parks-recreation/significant-projects/san-lorenzo-park-redesign-project.

The staff report for the June 9, 2025 Parks and Recreation Commission Meeting will be uploaded to the Parks and Recreation Commission webpage on Thursday, June 5, 2025: https://ecm.cityofsantacruz.com/OnBaseAgendaOnline/Meetings/Search?dropid=4&mtids=118

Santa Cruz Changes 128 - A Warriors concept

 

As the City of Santa Cruz solidifies its south-of-Laurel rezoning plans, the Santa Cruz Warriors offered a draft-concept image of a new permanent arena. It answers a couple of questions and brings up others. 

In the image above, the new arena is seen from what's now the corner of Spruce Street, across Front Street. It's worth noting that:

• The pedestrian plaza in front of the arena is where Laurel Street Extension runs now. City plans call for rerouting that street to the opposite side of the arena, eliminating the big S-curve around the arena. That would eliminate some city-owned supportive-housing apartments - no word yet on where that housing might be relocated.
• There appears to be landscaping on the roof - does that indicate a public space up there? That would be cool, with nice views of the river.
• The building shown at far left in this rendering is not described in the Warriors concept, or in any proposal we've seen to date. Maybe a parking structure? Current occupant of that triangle-shaped Front Street parcel is Wheel Works. 
• The foreground crosswalk would connect to another pedestrian plaza that would take the place of today's Spruce Street, adjacent to the Ace Hardware parking lot. That plaza concept is illustrated in a rendering submitted for a proposed development (see Changes 126) that would fill the Ace Hardware block (foreground in the image below).

Santa Cruz Changes 127: The Once and Future Farmers Market

 

May 14 UPDATE: Move delayed until June 4

After 25 years, this coming Wednesday will be the last time the downtown Santa Cruz Farmers Market sets up in the Cedar Street parking lots between Walnut and Lincoln, seen at right (Photo: Dan Coyro, Santa Cruz Sentinel). 

The City is ready to move forward with preparing the site for the long-planned library/garage/housing project (first described here in 2023: Changes 58) that will cover those lots, so the Farmers Market moves to a temporary location next to and around the current library, as shown below.

Meanwhile, planning proceeds on a reuse plan for the current library location. At a March 25 presentation, the city asked for community input on 3 options. The motion described below was passed:

"Motion To: 

1) Adopt a resolution appropriating $250,000 from the Economic Development Trust Fund to fund site furnishings to activate Lot 16 for the Farmers’ Market and $150,000 from the Infill and Infrastructure Grant approved budget to fund needed site infrastructure; and 

2) Select Option 2 for re-use of the existing library site with a preference for affordable housing for city employee, seniors, and/or other sub populations identified in need of housing, to the extent legally feasible; and 

3) Direct staff to seek developers that will contribute to the development of the public market space."

No timeline has been established for these actions, so the Farmers Market may remain in its "temporary" location for quite some time. Eventually, the results of Option 2, as described in the presentation, will aspire to look something like the image below (City Hall is at far left).

 

Santa Cruz Changes 126: First SoLa proposal under new rules

See updates below.

Changes 93 reported on City of Santa Cruz changes to development standards for a downtown area to the south of Laurel Street. Now the first development proposal under the new rules has entered the first stage pre-application review process. 

In the developer's rendering above, the proposed building looks similar to the completed project directly across Laurel Street. It would fill the block now occupied by the Ace Hardware/Cruz Kitchen building and its parking lot (current image at left). 

The mixed-use proposal has 245 residential rental units above street level commercial, with internal parking. No public presentation has yet been scheduled. 

May 14 update: City Council approved SoLa expansion, but cut height limit to 85 feet (which is, coincidentally, the height proposed for this project).

May 28 update (from Santa Cruz Local): 

• A housing proposal at 201 Front St., Santa Cruz will be discussed at an online meeting 6-7:30 p.m., Wednesday, June 4. Join on Zoom or call 669-444-9171 meeting ID 882 0034 3888.
• Submit comments on the Santa Cruz city project page for 201 Front St.

Santa Cruz Changes 125: End of the Line for the Redman-Hirahara house?

With the title "End of the Line", an article in Good Times (image at right) updates the decades-long story of efforts to preserve and restore the 1890s Redman-Hirahara house in Watsonville. 

Another recent article on this subject appeared in the Santa Cruz Sentinel on April 6, authored by local historian Ross Eric Gibson.

The W. H. Weeks-designed house will probably be demolished soon, and its story highlights the weakest link in the historical-structure-preservation chain: the property owners. Preservation of a structure requires full buy-in from the owners. Preservation and restoration is expensive, and even willing owners are often unable to afford and sustain the effort.

Nor is this a condemnation of the current Redman-Hirahara owners, who did not buy the property intending to preserve the house, and have made no secret of their intention to raze it. Preservationists had their chances, but a fund set up for that purpose went bankrupt.

Many other historical structures worthy of preservation in Santa Cruz County have disappeared, for a variety of reasons. Images and descriptions of many of those within the City of Santa Cruz can be found in The Sidewalk Companion to Santa Cruz Architecture. In some cases, we should probably be grateful for even partial preservation, as with the La Bahia Hotel project.

Santa Cruz Changes 124: the Builder's remedy

A Lookout Santa Cruz story reports that an online public meeting will convene next Tuesday, April 1, to present a development project proposal for a property located at 841 Capitola Road, just outside the Santa Cruz city limits. No link is available, but article author Max Chen provided a Zoom meeting ID: 873 6854 5479.

Above are several renderings copied from the Santa Cruz County project webpage. The building size and shape are familiar, but one factor makes this proposal different from most others we've looked at here: it intends to employ a provision in state housing law called the "Builder's Remedy". 

Most of us who are interested in local housing policy have seen the term "Builder's Remedy", but what is it and how does it apply to Santa Cruz County? The term refers to a specific bit of state law, which is explained on a Santa Cruz County webpage (with my underlining added):

"To address the statewide housing shortage crisis, the State Housing Accountability Act establishes limitations on a local government’s ability to deny, reduce the density of, or make infeasible housing development projects, and includes penalties for noncompliance. (See Gov. Code § 65589.5). One of these penalties, referred to as the “Builder’s Remedy,” allows housing development projects that do not comply with local General Plan and Zoning standards, when a local jurisdiction does not have a compliant housing element."

There was apparently a brief window of time in early 2024 when the county housing element was not yet approved by the state. During that window, four project applications were submitted under the "Builder's Remedy" provision. The County webpage lists the four projects (including 841 Capitola Road). Another one of the four, on Graham Hill Road, was the subject of Changes 110, back in December.

Santa Cruz Changes 123: 525 Water Street

Thanks to Stephen Baxter at Santa Cruz Local for a heads-up this morning on a March 26 (tomorrow!) online meeting about a new mixed-use project proposal. 

The rendering above shows the proposed structure, but a full plan set has not yet been released. The information below from the city project page includes a link to join the online Webinar.

You are invited to attend the virtual community meeting for the project application related to 525 Water Street, Project Number: CP25-0001. Community members can click the link below to join the community meeting:

When: March 26, 2025 06:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada) 

Topic: Community Meeting for 525 Water Street (CP25-0001)

Webinar Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89963471991 

Webinar ID: 899 6347 1991 

Call: +1 669 444 9171 US

At left is a current photo of the site, from about the same angle as the rendering. 

Santa Cruz Changes 122: 901 Pacific Avenue

Andy's Auto Supply closed in  2019 and, in keeping with the current downtown trend, it has always seemed likely that the small single-story would eventually be replaced by something taller. The image at right shows that a project now proposed for that corner will look a lot like most of the other mixed-use now under construction or in development. 

The first step in the planning process will happen at 6:00 pm on March 18, when the City hosts an online community meeting to present a project proposal submitted by HBA Architects, based in Santa Barbara, which describes itself as a "multi-disciplinary architecture, planning, and development consulting firm." The online meeting is described as part of a "Preapplication Review for a six-story mixed-use project consisting of ground floor commercial and 91 residential units on parcel located in the CBD (Central Business District) zone district". A Santa Cruz Sentinel story by reporter Arik Sleeper has more information. 

In addition to the Andy's building, the development includes the adjacent 2-story brick building that currently houses the Santa Cruz Warriors store and a check-cashing/payments business. The Google Street View image below is from 2018, when Andy's was still open. The Warriors store can be seen at far right, with its blue and gold awning.

On Lookout Santa Cruz, a story by reporter Max Chun recounts the history of Andy's Auto Supply.

  

Santa Cruz Changes 121: Bayview Hotel

The historic (1878) Bayview Hotel in Aptos has been in financial distress for decades, and that distress has been exacerbated by the recent and ongoing redevelopment work in the surrounding Aptos Village. The structure was reported sold last year, but the buyer has now backed out. 

Remaining vacant, it's easy to imagine that the building could fall victim to fire, as so many unoccupied historical structures have in the past. To name just two examples: after the 1989 earthquake, decisions to demolish rather than restore the empty St. George Hotel and the Trust building were accelerated following fires. 

Local architectural history would be dealt another blow if efforts to preserve the Bayview fail. It and the Mansion House in Watsonville (also closed at this time) were the last of a number of local hotels built in a style known as "Second Empire". Originating in Paris in the 1850s, the style features a double-pitch roof: a nearly-flat upper section, surrounded by a steeply pitched "mansard" lower section. The top level of occupiable space is within the roof, and the rooms are daylighted by rows of dormer windows.

In Santa Cruz, The Riverside Hotel (1877) was the prime example, located - as its name implies - near the banks of the San Lorenzo River in the area of today's Riverside Avenue. In the same year, the St. Charles in downtown Santa Cruz (near today's Town Clock), got a Second-Empire addition. The photo at left shows the St. Charles in 1877, shortly after the mansard-roofed third story was added.  

* Lookout Santa Cruz has been following the Bayview Hotel story, with a recent article here. 

* For more on the Second Empire style, see "Paris on the San Lorenzo: Second Empire style"

Santa Cruz Changes 120: Workforce Housing on Swift St.

In what may signal a future trend in housing, the Santa Cruz Planning Commission approved a 100-unit  development on Swift Street in the Westside area. 

The unusual aspect of this proposal is that it's "workforce housing"; that is, residency will be limited to those who fit a defined employment profile. In this case, only employees of Santa Cruz City Schools are eligible for residency. Christopher Neely of Lookout Santa Cruz elaborates:

"The term 'workforce housing' is a sort of catch-all term for housing affordable to those making 80 to 120% of the area’s median income, which in 2024 ticked up to $132,800 for a four-person household in Santa Cruz County. The city has welcomed hundreds of workforce housing units over the past decade, but only twice has housing targeted specific segments of the workforce: this latest project, and the Tannery Arts Center, which rents only to artists.

Only Santa Cruz City Schools district educators, support staff and their families will be allowed to live in the development, proposed for 313 Swift St. The developer, Santa Cruz-based Bogard Construction, in conjunction with the district, will have to enter into an agreement with the city that ensures the housing is rented only to district employees."

Neely further notes that, because of state laws enacted in the past few years, City approval of the development is not optional. The proposal goes to the City Council in March.