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.
The northwest corner of Mission Street and Laurel Street has long been home to two modest 1-story buildings housing the Food Bin natural foods store and The Herb Room. An open parking lot separates the two.
From the project website:
"On April 18th, 2023, a virtual community meeting was held by the applicant too present the proposed pre-application project (Project No. CP23-0003) and gather public feedback. For those who could not attend, below you will find the link to the recorded community meeting.
From Lookout Santa Cruz reporter Max Chun:
"Starting at 9 a.m. Monday [March 11], crews will begin the process of tearing down and rebuilding the Highway 1 overcrossing at Capitola Avenue, work that will keep the bridge between Soquel and Capitola shut down for more than a year.
The construction is part of the ongoing Highway 1 expansion project, which includes adding new lanes that give motorists more space to merge at exit and entrance ramps and also serve as dedicated bus-on-shoulder lanes in some places, allowing buses to bypass traffic. The expansion project also includes adding new bicycle and pedestrian overcrossings.
One such overcrossing at Chanticleer Avenue is already well on its way to completion [see Changes post #82]. But the Capitola Avenue overpass remake is just getting started. Crews plan to demolish the bridge and construct one that adds bike lanes and wider sidewalks. The overpass isn’t set to reopen until the summer or fall of 2025."
Unlike the Santa Cruz Water agency, which gets much of our water from surface sources, Soquel Creek Water District depends entirely on 15 wells scattered throughout its service are from Live Oak to La Selva Beach. In recent years, demand has exceeded supply, resulting in an intrusion of salt water from Monterey Bay into underground aquifers. To offset part of that overdraft, Pure Water Soquel was created - a huge project that, in a partnership with the Santa Cruz Wastewater Treatment plant, will inject treated waste water back into the aquifers via reverse wells.
Two new components of that system are now under construction. In Santa Cruz, big new pipelines are now hanging below each side of the Laurel Street bridge over the San Lorenzo River (see top photo). They terminate at the Santa Cruz Wastewater Treatment Facility next to Neary Lagoon. When completed, architectural panels attempting to imitate the stair-step design of the bridge piers will cover the pipes.
The other end of the long pipelines is the Water Purification Center, across Chanticleer Avenue from the bay-side end of the new pedestrian bridge over Highway 1 (also under construction - see post 82). Below is a recent photo of that work-in-progress. From there, purified water will enter more pipes, leading to three injection wells around Capitola.
Completion of pipeline construction is estimated for mid-May. I didn't find a completion estimate for the Purification Center, but my guess is sometime next year.
Note: the vote on Santa Cruz Measure M will be Tuesday, March 5. For a reminder of what brought Measure M about, see Changes 67, with an update on recent events.
