The City of Santa Cruz announced two pre-application "virtual community meetings" upcoming next week to introduce the public to a pair of new mixed-use development proposals.
On Monday, the subject will be 617 Water Street (webinar link: https://us06web.zoom.us/
On Tuesday, it's 930 Mission Street (webinar link: https://us06web.zoom.us/
We'll take a closer look at each of those proposals if/when they become actual permit applications. Here's a screen shot of the city informational email.
This week, the City of Santa Cruz Planning Commission will likely approve (it's on the consent agenda) the development permit application for the Neptune Apartments parcels at 407-415 Pacific Avenue (see Changes 147). As noted in the earlier post, ". . . this development will have 100% "affordable" (below-market-rate-rent) units. That's happening because of a recent city rule that allowed the development proposed for 201 Front Street (see Changes 126) to be 100% market-rate, in return for 100% below-market-rate in another location." The City's notice reads:
The SC City Planning Commission will meet Thursday, April 16 at 7:00 pm at City Council Chambers, 809 Center Street in Santa Cruz. Click HERE for the agenda. Agenda items include: |
Consent Public Hearing Agenda |
Although I haven't had the chance to quiz anyone who knows how this works, I presume that the reason a developer might want to use the "off-site" option for meeting affordability inclusion requirements is that if an entire building is "affordable", then construction costs can be reduced more by reducing amenity levels for a whole building than if it's done on a unit-by-unit basis.
This is not the first use of the "off-site" rule, and it probably won't be the last.
Current City of Santa Cruz multifamily development projects come in all shapes and sizes: from the all-market-rate River Row (Changes 9) to the all-below-market-rate Pacific Station North (Changes 22), and various mixes of the two. Now comes news from Santa Cruz Local about significant changes for two projects that have already received all necessary City planning approvals, but have not yet begun construction.
At 136 River Street (Changes 76), a 50-unit all-below-market-rate project on the former Outdoor World site received its building permit in March. Construction is expected to begin this year.
At 130 Center Street (Changes 54), a 233-unit project originally approved as entirely market-rate is now 100% below-market-rate. The site near Depot Park (photo below) was formerly home to several auto-related businesses.
This Thursday, March 12, there will be an opening celebration from 11 am to 1 pm. Other openings include five new downtown businesses that have opened since the beginning of 2026. The City of Santa Cruz newsletter for March gave this list:
* Anthropologie – 1134 Pacific Ave.
* Alley Oop [bistro] – 320 Cedar St.
* Switch Bakery – 1016 Cedar St.
* Rock Salt Pilates – 1106 Pacific Ave.
* Palmetto Super Foods – 1335 Pacific Ave.
One more notable recent opening: the Murray Street bridge over the harbor has reopened to 2-way traffic. For now, traffic will be alternating directions in the one open lane.
In zoning news, Santa Cruz will be considering a zoning overlay for the Coral Street area, in support of the temporary housing services provided by Housing Matters. The city's plan for this move can be found here.
Out in Capitola, the city is slowly working toward a rezoning of the Capitola Mall that will allow mixed-use development, as described in the linked Sentinel article. More info can be found in Changes 141.
A less-studied aspect of new development is its effect on view corridors. In the past, this topic mostly came up when residents protested potential loss of their ocean views, but downtown areas also have views. These are often restricted to corridors above streets, narrow canyons between tall buildings on either side. But those narrow corridors can also provide surprisingly-pleasant views, just as a camera focuses attention on a view by restricting the framing of a scene.
Those accidental corridor views, however, are often temporary. The photo above (from Pacific Avenue) shows what's happening to the view on the Lincoln Street corridor as the new central library project goes up. The existing view of historical and picturesque Calvary Episcopal Church (granted, it's the less-interesting rear of the building) is gradually being blocked as the new building rises.
And, at the other end of short Cathcart Street is another of the new paseos that are another part of city planning to increase walkability. See Changes 57, which describes the changes at both ends of Cathcart.
The building will replace 10-units of 1-story motel-style housing called "Neptune Apartments", and two commercial buildings currently located at 407-413 Pacific Avenue.
The city website has more information about the proposal. One interesting wrinkle is that this development will have 100% below-market-rate-rent units. That's happening because of a recent city rule that allowed the development proposed for 201 Front Street (see Changes 126) to be 100% market-rate, in return for 100% below-market-rate in another location.
There's a link in the agenda to the Planning Dept. Staff report, which includes the developer's plan set.
As with every other recent year, 2025 has seen a lot of changes in Santa Cruz - despite the slowdown noted in Changes 135. First, some updates to stories from Changes 130, a mid-year report, and other progress:
* The senior housing project at 126 Eucalyptus Avenue is closed in, installing windows and roofing.
* The new Santa Cruz downtown library construction is underway, and the downtown farmers market seems to be doing fine at its new location (Changes 127).
* Work continues on the Murray Street bridge seismic retrofit. In November, the city considered but abandoned a proposal to build a temporary rail/trail bypass on the railroad trestle.
* The city ban on gas-powered leaf blowers (Changes 131) has noticeably reduced noise in my Westside neighborhood.
* The Capitola Avenue bridge rebuild over Hwy. 1 is not yet open, but close.
* Work on the Mar Vista Drive walk/bike bridge over Hwy. 1 in Aptos is underway.
* Work on the mixed-use project at 831 Water Street (Changes 108) is underway, and a similar project in the 900 block received city approval.
* Work continues on the UCSC "East Meadow" housing (Changes 95).
* The Cabrillo/UCSC student housing collaboration (Changes 139) was scheduled to break ground in September, but I haven't been out there to confirm that.
* Two downtown mixed-use projects are nearing completion: Pacific Station North (which includes the Transit Center replacement), and "River Row" on Front Street.
* Repairs of 2023 storm damage to West Cliff Drive were completed, and the road entirely reopened.
New Changes in the second half of the year.
* A developer proposes to replace the building housing The Catalyst music venue with a new mixed-use structure similar to others in the area (Changes 142).
* A new proposal aims to replace the Neptune Apartments on lower Pacific Avenue with another tall mixed-use building.
* The developer of the big mixed-use project at 908 Ocean Street has backed out.
* In November, the city considered but abandoned a proposal to build a temporary rail/trail bypass on the railroad trestle.
* New openings: the "Whale Bridge", a new New Leaf, a new La Bahia.
The Santa Cruz County Rail Trail inches toward completion in the city of Santa Cruz, while trying to cope with route problems and rising construction estimates for later segments.
Back in 2022, I noted the start of construction on the segment from California Street to Pacific Avenue. That segment opened this year, and you can now ride or walk next to the railroad tracks from the western city limits to the Boardwalk. Once you cross the San Lorenzo River, however, things get more complicated.
Narrow rights-of-way, narrow/outdated bridges, and mobile home encroachments in Live Oak have ballooned cost estimates, causing the Santa Cruz County Transportation Commission (SCCTC) to rethink its previous commitment to the "ultimate" trail design used in the segments completed so far - which calls for a trail separate from and adjacent to untouched railroad tracks.
At its most recent meeting, the SCCTC narrowly voted to switch to the "interim" trail design favored by staff. The intention is to find a middle way between the expensive "ultimate" design and the "rail banking" alternative favored by supervisor Koenig. We'll see how this turns out - stay tuned!
Way back in 2021, I noted in this blog that a building permit had been issued for a condo-conversion rebuild of the narrow L-shaped building that abuts The Catalyst on the north, but construction never began. Several events since then have changed the picture. The death of Catalyst owner Randall Kane left his heirs with both the property and the business. They leased the business to a third party, then put the property up for sale in July of this year.
What happened next is unclear, but now a new development proposal has been submitted. It combines and expands the previous condo project with replacing the building currently housing The Catalyst. At this point, the plans propose to continue the music venue business in a ground-floor space about the same size and shape as now.
The rendering at right above is from the developers plan set, and shows the corner of Pacific and Cathcart. The 1-story building on the corner is Old School Shoes, with its familiar mural extending along Cathcart to the right. That property is not included in the redevelopment proposal.
Here's the City webpage info. No public meeting has yet been scheduled:
Project Description
Project Size: Large Development Project
City of Santa Cruz Project Number: CP25-0133
Addresses: 1009, 1011, 1015 Pacific Avenue
SB330 and Preapplication Review to demolish nonresidential buildings, combine three lots into one, and construct a 7-story mixed-use building located in the CBD (Central Business District) zone district and in the Pacific Avenue Retail District and Cedar Street Village Corridor of the Downtown Plan.
As noted then of the new proposal, "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'."
More info on the proposed project and the Builder's Remedy (SB can be found in that earlier post. Meanwhile, the proposal has been making its way through the County approval process, and a formal application is up for approval by the Planning Commission. The staff report notes that the proposal "Requires approval of a Site Development Permit pursuant to SB 330 and Builder’s Remedy (Gov Code §65589.5) and Density Bonus pursuant to Government Code Section 65915." The report goes on to recommend to the Commission: 1) "Determine that the proposal is statutorily exempt from further Environmental Review under the California Environmental Quality Act." and 2) "Approval of Application 241371, based on the attached findings and conditions."
Meeting info:
Meeting Date/Time:
Wednesday, October 22, 2025, 9:30 AM
Location:
Basement Community Room
County Government Center
701 Ocean Street, Room 020
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Remote participation options available:
In a first for this county, Cabrillo College is partnering with UCSC to plan and build student housing on the Cabrillo campus in Aptos.
The site is adjacent to the outfield fences of the Cabrillo softball/baseball fields. In the aerial photo at right, a bit of Highway 1 can be seen in the lower left corner.
According to a Lookout Santa Cruz article, the project is scheduled to break ground on Sep. 29. The story reports: "Slated to open in fall 2027 with 624 beds — 60%reserved for Cabrillo students — the complex will also feature a child care center, wellness resources and priority housing for low-income and housing-insecure students."
The rendering above is from a Santa Cruz Sentinel article. Below is an aerial image from the architect's proposal plan set, showing existing conditions at the site. Frederick Street is on the left, running top to bottom in the image. Soquel Avenue runs left to right across the top.
During its construction, the usefulness of the bridge suffered two successive blows: first, Kaiser Permanente pulled out of its planned large healthcare development on Soquel Avenue (Hwy 1 frontage road), near the southern end of the new bridge. The main goal of the bridge was to provide a direct walk/bike connection from the new Kaiser facilities to related Dominican/Sutter facilities to the north of the bridge.
The county reacted to the loss of expected healthcare-related bridge traffic by putting off planned walk/bike improvements to Chanticleer Avenue north of the bridge - most of the street lacks any such non-vehicular amenities (not even sidewalks). It remains to be seen whether future developments will remove the "bridge to nowhere" status.
The active work sites now move a bit farther east in phase 2 (the eventual phase 3 end point is at Freedom Boulevard). Reconstruction of the Capitola Avenue overpass is scheduled to be completed in November. The narrow old bridge had skinny sidewalks and no bike lanes, so the new wider version will be an improvement.
The Capitola Avenue overpass lies between two interchanges. The westernmost, at Bay Avenue/Porter Street, serves Soquel to the north and Capitola to the south. The next interchange to the east is at Park Avenue, heavily used for access to Cabrillo College. SCCRTC announced that Park Avenue on/off ramps that have been closed for improvements are scheduled to reopen on September 3 (a bit ahead of schedule!).
In the same announcement, closure of the Bay/Porter interchange was to be the next day, September 4. An update, however, says the closure will be delayed indefinitely, until further notice. No reason was given in the brief update, so we'll watch for news about that.
At the north end of Cement Plant Road out of Davenport, where it crosses Highway 1 to become Davenport Landing Road, is a new parking lot and trailhead for the Cotoni-Coast Dairies National Monument, which just today opened several trails to the public. SCMTD bus 40 will get you (and your bike) to Davenport, about 1.5 miles from the multi-use trailhead.
The other large public-land acquisition is not right on the coast, but inland from the former cement plant outside of Davenport, accessible from Empire Grade Road. The Santa Cruz-based Trust For Public Land led a coalition that acquired the large tract now known as San Vicente Redwoods in 2011, and has opened the first 8.5 miles of planned public multi-use trails into the area. For now, the only access point is a parking area on Empire Grade Road, 12.5 miles up from UCSC, so not accessible car-free except to the hardiest bikers (bus 41 only goes as far as Bonny Doon). Trail pass registration (free) is required. Hikers/horseback riders/mountain bikers can sign up at TPL.
Santa Cruz Local reports that:
"Thursday, the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission unanimously voted to allow the City of Santa Cruz access to the Santa Cruz Rail Line Bridge across the harbor for a potential temporary walking and biking path. The city would need permission from Progressive Rail, which [has a contract of freight operations on] the Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line, but does not use it north of Watsonville. The Santa Cruz City Council is set to consider pursuing a temporary path on the rail bridge at its Tuesday meeting."
The photo above (looking toward Santa Cruz) shows the rail bridge to the right of the vehicle bridge. I took a walk across the bridge last week, passing a number of other walkers and bike walkers (riding a bike under current conditions is difficult). It's not a problem for pedestrians, but it seems to me that providing a safe and usable bike path on that bridge would be difficult (and probably expensive), even though it would only be temporary.
The idea is that allowing and/or restoring pedestrian/bike usage of the rail bridge would help to offset the loss of vehicle traffic. I'm skeptical that it would make much difference - there wasn't very much pedestrian/bike traffic over the vehicle bridge before its closure. That stretch of Murray Street has always been a scary place to walk or ride, and improving those unsafe conditions is a secondary goal of the bridge work that's happening now. Since completion of the Arana Gulch ped/bike bridge, safety-minded pedestrians and bicyclists can now take the Broadway-Arana Gulch Open Space-Brommer Street route. Normally, there's easy walk/bike access from the Open Space to both sides of Santa Cruz Harbor, but the bridge work means those paths will sometimes be closed.
It might seem better and simpler to accelerate the Rail Trail improvements already planned for that section, which is in the middle of Segment 8. Unfortunately, the existing rail bridge is not wide enough to accomodate addition of a ped/bike trail, so the schematic plans published to date envision an entirely new bridge parallel to the rail bridge. It's unlikely that a new Rail Trail bridge could be built faster than the work on the existing vehicle bridge that's already underway.
Still, I think temporary pedestrian/bike improvements to the rail line from Seabright Avenue to 7th Avenue are worth consideration. The Santa Cruz City Council meeting is at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 12 at 809 Center St., Santa Cruz and online.
The breakneck pace of development in Santa Cruz County seems to be slowing, as evidenced by a number of recent announcements and/or local news stories.
The most significant news, as reported by Santa Cruz Local, is that the developer has pulled out of the big mixed-use project proposed along Ocean Street. A partner in the project has already bought up all of the small parcels that will be combined, and most of the structures slated for demolition have already been vacated. Until a new path forward is found, that long-neglected block will continue to molder.
On the Westside, an approved proposal for a multi-residential project at 850 Almar Avenue was withdrawn in April, citing “basically a monetary issue”, according to Santa Cruz Local reporting. Out in Soquel, the Santa Cruz Sentinel reported that a transitional-housing project co-sponsored by Santa Cruz County stopped construction in April, with the private development partner citing rising costs.
Two projects have completed demolition, but don't plan to begin construction until at least 2026. They are the residential development at 111 Errett Circle (Changes 60), and the senior housing complex behind Lighthouse Field (Changes 56).
Update: As observed on Sep. 19, the senior housing complex behind Lighthouse Field has begun foundation work.
Many other proposed Santa Cruz development projects written about here (some already approved by the city) seem to be in wait-and-see mode while construction wraps up on several large projects, including La Bahia Hotel (Changes 35), Pacific Station North (Changes 22), 418-508 Front Street (Changes 9), and the UCSC/Ingalls Alley student-faculty residential project (Changes 119).
And finally, federal funding cuts have forced closing of the Santa Cruz Planned Parenthood clinic, creating a void in local healthcare, and another empty space on Pacific Avenue, while no new downtown large-business openings have been announced to fill any of the many other commercial vacancies that have happened in the last few years.
This project has proceeded from the pre-application reported here in Changes 102 (Sep. 28, 2024), and the City Planning Commission will hold a public hearing this coming Friday, July 17, prior to a vote on final planning approval and a demolition permit. See the staff agenda report here. It doesn't appear that the size or shape of the project have changed noticeably from the pre-application plans.
