Santa Cruz Changes 95: UCSC East Meadow housing underway

The Santa Cruz Sentinel published the photo above on June 20. The caption reads:

"A drone photo taken Thursday morning shows the grading that has taken place in the East Meadow at UC Santa Cruz as construction has begun near the intersection of Coolidge and Hagar drives for a project UCSC is calling Student Housing West. According to the university, the project will provide housing for about 3,000 students at two sites, which will be constructed in two phases. The first phase, known as the Hagar Development, will take up about 120,000 assignable square feet on 17 acres in the East Meadow. The development, which is intended for students with families, will include 140 two-bedroom apartment units in 35 two-story, four-plex buildings, a childcare facility, community building, a maintenance building and a wastewater treatment plant. The second phase of the project, known as the Heller Development, includes approximately 950 housing units in six, five to seven-story buildings spanning 780,000 assignable square feet that are a mix of apartment and communal style units and a new wastewater treatment plant. University staff and faculty were joined by a coalition of community members who fought unsuccessfully to stop the project, saying that the East Meadow should be preserved as a natural landscape. They also challenged the university’s promise to offer affordable rents. (Shmuel Thaler – Santa Cruz Sentinel)"

As noted in the caption, this is a two-phase project on two widely-separated sites on the UCSC campus. The Hagar Development, located at one of the most open and prominent street corners on the campus, will replace the view below:

 

Santa Cruz Changes 94: The Clocktower is ticking

Local developer Workbench has taken the lead in applying recent state law changes to local project proposals, especially in regard to building height. 

The state has taken the position that increasing the housing supply (especially "affordable" housing) takes precedence over local zoning rules. 

The latest proposal by Workbench (actually a pair of proposals), tentatively named Clocktower Center, pushes the new state law envelope to its limits, envisioning a building up to either 8 or 16 stories in height, while contending that the city can do little to limit height.

The proposal is still in the pre-application phase, and a community meeting (Zoom only) is scheduled for June 26. More info available on the city project page. 

There will no doubt be substantial local opposition, and there likely will be additional posts here as the proposal progresses. It will be interesting to watch how this plays out. 

Another Workbench project, the Food Bin replacement building, is farther along in the planning/permitting process (see an intro in post #85). More info on that project is available on the city's project page. 

Santa Cruz Changes 93: City Seeks Public Input on South of Laurel Plan

The City of Santa Cruz Planning and Community Development Dept. is moving along on potential rezoning to promote its South of Laurel redevelopment vision (Downtown Plan Expansion). 

As reported last August in Santa Cruz Changes #67, the plan aims to facilitate some big changes to the area surrounding the Kaiser Permanente Arena. 

The overhead view above-right shows the project study area outlined in red. Laurel Street is the top limit line. KP Arena is the large white rectangle near the river at upper right. The Depot Park soccer fields are the green area at far left, outside the red boundary line. 

The City is now asking for public review and comment on the latest version of the plan. From the project website:

"Public comments are welcome on the Downtown Plan Expansion from May 31 to July 10, 2024.

The plan consists of two equally important parts: a New Appendix 8 for the Downtown Plan. Proposed amendments to the existing Downtown Plan, Chapter 4, Development Standards and Design Guidelines.

The two pieces work together to create the public and private spaces that will evolve over the coming decades within this neighborhood. Comments welcome via email to Senior Planner Sarah Neuse."

Santa Cruz Changes 92: Preserving and Repurposing

A shout-out to Housing Matters, a local non-profit whose mission is to find solutions to local problems of homelessness. The organization's presence in the Harvey West neighborhood has grown steadily over the past nearly 40 years, most visibly with the Rebele Family Shelter that opened in 2005 at the corner of River Street and Coral Street. 

Santa Cruz Changes 55 noted the Housing Matters project at 119 Coral Street.

A more-recent acquisition, in 2023, was the nicely-preserved Victorian at 801 River Street. The former single-family-residence has now been repurposed as Casa Azul, described as "Housing Matters . . . first permanent supportive housing project". 

The transformation was accomplished without sacrificing the structure's historical integrity, and the colorful results can be seen below. 

Santa Cruz Changes 91 - 530-548 Ocean Street

The City of Santa Cruz will host a pre-application virtual community meeting tomorrow, May 20, for presentation of a new mixed-use project proposal at 530/542/548 Ocean Street. The concrete Branciforte Creek channel is adjacent to one end of the 3 parcels that will be combined. Four nondescript 2-story commercial buildings will be demolished to make way for the 6-story, 2-building mixed-use project. 

The size and style have become familiar - most of the recent mixed use projects are similar. This one can be compared to the project nearing completion next to Calvary Episcopal Church, on the former parking lot between Cedar Street and Center Street. 

Below the city info is a current Street View image, from approximately the same direction as the architectural rendering above. The City website says:

"Join us for the virtual community meeting to discuss 530, 542, 548 Ocean Street on Monday, May 20, 2024 at 6:00 PM. 

• Webinar: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82500719155 
• Webinar ID: 825 0071 9155
• Telephone option: 669-444-9171

For more information, please visit the calender invite."

Santa Cruz Changes 90 - Other closings (and reopenings)

In addition to The Dolphin restaurant (see previous post), several other long-time Santa Cruz County restaurants have recently closed or changed ownership. Most in the news is the former Mission Street site of Emily's Bakery, which closed after 41 years in business. The new owners have applied for permits to open a [medical] cannabis dispensary there, and there is substantial neighborhood opposition, but it looks like the city will eventually approve the application. The City Council will hear an appeal of the recent Planning Commission approval on May 14, in a public meeting. [5/16 update: the City Council approved, in a 6-1 vote]

Other closings and/or ownership changes in Santa Cruz include Soif Wine Bar & Merchants, on Walnut Avenue, which closed in 2022 and has reopened in 2024 as Hook and Line seafood restaurant. 

The fate of highly-rated Alderwoods seems uncertain after executive chef Jeffrey Wall quit suddenly. That followed the equally-sudden closing last fall. of the restaurant's second location on Pacific Avenue. 

A change of name to Cafe GSC failed to reverse the fortunes of the former Cafe Gratitude, which closed last October after 13 years of serving vegan-friendly fare in Santa Cruz.

Out in the Harvey West neighborhood, what is arguably Santa Cruz' oldest restaurant is for sale: the fate of the venerable Bocci's Cellar is up in the air until a new owner takes over. 

Out in Aptos, Cafe Sparrow is closing after 38 years, and Palapas restaurant is changing ownership and name after 34 years at its Seascape location. The new name will be Dos Pescados, with a similar Mexican seafood theme. If they keep the Palapas margarita recipes, all should be well. 

A shout-out here is in order to Lilli Belli, Lookout Santa Cruz reporter, for keeping us informed of all these changes.

Santa Cruz Changes 89: Dolphin's Demise?

 

City plans to remodel the Santa Cruz Wharf have been in the news repeatedly, and a clear picture of what that will look like has yet to emerge. 

One change, however, is definite: the building that has housed The Dolphin restaurant will soon be demolished. An article in Lookout Santa Cruz has more details.

Damage sustained to wharf supports in December 2023 storms can't be repaired with the current building remaining in place. Demolition of the restaurant building, which is owned by the city, is expected to begin soon, and wharf structural repairs will follow.

What happens after that on the far end of the wharf is very much up in the air. Will The Dolphin return? To find out, we'll have to wait for a final version of the Santa Cruz Wharf Master Plan.

Santa Cruz Changes 88 - Replacing the not-so-old

Shown above are two views of a multi-family housing project at 314 Jessie Street, now (2024) under construction. The upper image is an architectural rendering that replaces the previous buildings with a drawing of the proposed replacements. The lower image shows the same scene before demolition of the previous buildings. The recently-completed development at 350 Ocean Street (Changes 13) is visible at far left in both images.

There has been very little undeveloped land within the Santa Cruz city limits for quite some time, so most of today's development projects share a starting condition - existing structures that have to be removed to make way for the new construction. After a new building has been in place for a few years, it's easy to forget what was on that site previously, and one reason for this blog is to include images/descriptions of the "before" conditions. In most cases, the removed buildings were not loved and are not missed. The one recent exception is the La Bahia hotel project (Changes 35 and 51), where years of public opposition failed to prevent demolition of most of the historical apartment complex.

At the other end of the spectrum are projects like the 50-unit apartment complex shown above, which replaced existing 14-unit apartment buildings structures that were less than 50 years old. This proeject demonstrates an ending condition common to most recent residential development projects - increased density.

 

Santa Cruz Changes 87: Pacific Avenue updates

Back in 2021, early in the post-pandemic recovery, a series of posts (23-28) took a walk down Pacific Avenue, noting recent changes. Quite a few of those changes have changed again, and it's time for an update on a few notables.

The most highly-visible change is pictured above. The old beer garden at 1335 Pacific, abandoned by Starbucks in ~2019, is now our downtown place for donuts (no reviews yet).

Across the avenue at 1308, the former Marini's confectionary that sat empty for several years is now Gobi Mongolian Barbeque. Again, no reviews yet, but it smells good from the sidewalk.

At 1220, Rosie McCann's Irish Pub reopened (surprisingly!) after a lengthy pandemic shutdown.

At the Soquel Ave. corner, New Leaf Market has announced plans to move this branch out to Gateway Plaza, into the much-larger building now occupied by Ross clothiers. Here's hoping that a similar food retailer will take over the nicely-restored historical Bank of Italy building.  

The Metro Center site is now fenced off, and demolition should commence soon in preparation for the Pacific Station North project (see post #22). Across the street, the former Andy's Auto Supply store is still empty.

One business that has come and gone since 2021 - sadly for the few of us who enjoyed hanging out there - deserves mention: the funky-groovy cafe/art gallery/performance space at the corner of Laurel (previously called Munch and never officially changed). It was the kind of place you might have found in Santa Cruz in the late 1960s, but never caught on in this millenium, and closed early this year.

Across Laurel, the venerable Bonesio's Liquors has closed, and the property has been advertised for sale.  

Santa Cruz Changes 86: Walnut Avenue Commons

 

The condo-coop development seen above was completed in 2016, so noting it now is somewhat belated, but it was a significant change to the corner of Walnut Avenue and Center Street. The architecture is inoffensive, and certainly an improvement on the asphalt parking lot it replaced. The image below is from 2011.