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. 

Santa Cruz Changes 119: On Ingalls Alley

Here's a big one I missed in 2024. A multi-building 161-unit housing project is now under construction to the west of Swift Street, to the rear of the Delaware Avenue development described in Changes 7, and next to the Rail Trail.

Santa Cruz Local has the details:

* Three four-story residential buildings 

* One two-story building with a leasing office and a fitness center 

* One single-story building with shops.

* 161 units, including 80 one-bedroom and 81 two-bedroom homes

* Seven low-income and 12 moderate-income units.

The biggest difference from other recent local multi-family projects is that these units are already entirely leased to UCSC, for use as off-campus university student/faculty/stall housing. The project will be much larger than UCSC's other off-campus housing location, the 52-unit University Town Center on Pacific Avenue. 

Santa Cruz Changes 117: History of the Forever 21 corner

 

The closing of the Forever 21 store at the corner of Pacific Avenue and Soquel Avenue, a consequence of the company's 2021 bankruptcy, is only the latest of many changes that have happened on that corner. 

The chain clothing retailer moved into that space 12 years ago, replacing another chain retailer that also went bankrupt - Borders Books. The Forever 21 move-in produced little controversy - much different than when Borders moved in.

Borders was the first retail tenant in the 1200 Pacific Avenue building that arose in 1999, after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake damaged two 2-story unreinforced brick buildings that had occupied the prominent downtown corner since 1910. The news that Borders would be moving in was greeted by a local outcry of protest - why? Because it was thought that the presence of a major chain bookseller would endanger the beloved and locally-owned Bookshop Santa Cruz. 

Another local bookshop did close soon after - Plaza Books - but it's not clear how much Borders had to do with that. After a precarious couple of post-earthquake years in one of the temporary Pavilion tents, Bookshop Santa Cruz moved into expanded new quarters in the rebuilt neo-St. George building, where it thrived and remains today. Meanwhile, Borders followed other chain booksellers into bankruptcy.

Those who have been around Santa Cruz since before 1989 will remember the 1910 red brick Trust building and its similar-looking neighbor to the north, both of which were torn down after sustaining earthquake damage. The photo at left (SCPL) was taken shortly after the quake from the Soquel Avenue side. 

The similar-looking Pacific Avenue neighbor building is not visible from this angle.

Property owners proved unable or unwilling to renovate the two damaged buildings, while historic preservationists argued against demolition. The argument was settled some years later when a fire gutted the interior, making the remaining structure unsafe. The current building went up in 1999.

Another local history note: visible in this photo, at the right end of the ground-floor retail spaces, is the original Santa Cruz location of now-legendary Pizza My Heart. Now a long-time tenant on Pacific Avenue, the small chain of locally-owned pizza restaurants started in the tiny space on the Capitola Esplanade and remains today.

Santa Cruzans with even longer memories will remember that, before Pizza My Heart, that narrow retail space was home to Chef Tong's Szechuan kitchen. Francis Tong introduced Santa Cruz palates to Szechuan-style cooking.

Santa Cruz Changes 116: More big holes downtown

 

Changes to note this week are mostly negative. PacAve lost its only Michelin-rated restaurant when Alderwood Pacific closed its doors a few months ago. 

Now the original Alderwood on Cedar Street has also closed, leaving a high-end void in the local restaurant scene.

The closing of New Leaf Market last October left Trader Joe's as the only downtown grocery store, and it seems unlikely that the next tenant in that space will come from the grocery business. 

Meanwhile, there are three big departures in PacAve retail. The closure of chain-clothier Forever 21 has been expected since the 2021 bankruptcy announcement, but two other closings are more surprising. The downtown surf-style clothing shop of the local O'Neill company is shutting down, as is its competitor across Pacific, Rip Curl. A third surf-style store remains on that corner - Pacific Wave (pictured above). 

Those large retail and restaurant empty spaces join many others (some of them brand new) along PacAve and elsewhere downtown, and so may be hard to fill.

One bright spot: as PacAve stores selling new clothing close, a number of used-clothing stores have opened, including Freestyle Clothing Exchange, which opened last year in the same building that O'Neill is leaving.  

Santa Cruz Changes 115 - 2025 on the Santa Cruz Wharf

2025 could be a year of major changes for "Stubby" (aka Santa Cruz Wharf). Most of what remains will reopen to the public today at 7 am, with a ceremony at 10 am. Wharf businesses will presumably reopen as well. Beyond today, however, the wharf's future beyond the shortened status quo remains an open question.

Safety engineers confirmed that most of the wharf structure remains sound, except for the remainder of the narrow end section that broke away on December 23. So no more urgent fixes are needed for now.

The city's longer-term plans for rehabilitation and/or expansion are, however, far from settled. The 2014 version of a Wharf Master Plan was blocked by a citizens' lawsuit in 2022. 

A revised Master Plan was approved by the City Council in January, 2024, but implementation was delayed by a Coastal Commission decision that sought to protect under-wharf-nesting seabirds until 2024 hatchlings left the nests. The delay meant that deck and piling repairs needed to begin the Master Plan program were delayed until October, when the building formerly home to the Dolphin Restaurant was torn down. That work was continuing when the December 23 damage occurred.

Max Chun at Lookout Santa Cruz has more on this story.

Santa Cruz Changes 114: Looking ahead to 2025

A number of projects written about here have started or continued construction in 2024, and some are expected (hoping?) to reach completion in 2025. 

The photo above-right is a Dec. 25 view of La Bahia. Projects to watch include:

1.  La Bahia Hotel (Changes 35, "Beach Street", and Changes 51, "The Spring Has Sprung")
2.  Rail Trail segment from California Street to Pacific Avenue (Changes: 49 - Rail Trail 2022)

Others could be completed in 2025, but we'll see, including:

1. Pacific Station North (Changes 22)
2. 418-508 Front Street (Changes 9)
3. Capitola Avenue overpass [Highway 1] (Changes 84)
4. Kresge College, UCSC (Changes 106)
5. 111 Errett Circle housing (Changes 60)

No predictions on which of the many proposals still in the planning/permitting stages will actually break ground in 2025. Those events will be reported as they happen.