Santa Cruz Changes 126: First SoLa proposal under new rules

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. 

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.