After last week's post about the apparent contradiction between reports of the city's declining population and all the new residential construction noted in this blog, the next question is: exactly how much new housing is there?
Lacking an accurate way to estimate the number of residents (except at UCSC/Kresge) in these new developments, we'll have to settle for counting the number of new rental units. That number would also be the minimum possible number of residents, if all units are occupied.
In practice, renters come and go, so any apartment complex always has a few vacancies. And it takes a while for most new developments (especially market-rate) to fill up. And we won't count proposed/approved projects until they've actually broken ground. So, with those caveats, let's add some numbers to the list of recent projects noted last week, plus others that have opened since 2020 (in chronological order of first blog posts, not of completion):
* 555 Pacific Avenue: 94 units (Changes 1)
* Anton-Pacific: 205 units (Changes 4)
* 1547 Pacific: 79 units (Changes 6)
* River Row (Front Street): 175 units (Changes 9)
* 350 Ocean Street: 63 units (Changes 13)
* Pacific Station South: 70 units (Changes 21)
* 530 Center Street: 65 units (Changes 50)
* UCSC Kresge College student housing: 400 beds (see Changes 106)
* UCSC student/staff Delaware Apartments: 161 units (see Changes 119)
Total completed = 1,350 new units/beds
Large projects scheduled to open in the next two years include:
* Pacific Station North: 129 units (Changes 22)
* 126 Eucalyptus Street senior housing: 76 units (Changes 56)
* 850 Almar Street: 38 units (Changes 97)
* Swift Street "workforce" housing: 100 units (see Changes 120)
* UCSC Student Housing West: 140 units (see Changes 95)
* Downtown library/housing/garage: 124 units (see Changes 58)
* 136 River Street mixed-use: 50 units (see Changes 76)
Grand total = 2,007 new units/beds
Looking even further into the future, the City of Santa Cruz website includes a map of major projects that have received approval but have not yet completed construction. A screenshot of part of that map is shown at the top of this post.
It should also be noted that very few existing housing units were lost because of any of these projects. So that decline in the Santa Cruz population is not happening downtown. There must be lots of vacancies somewhere.
