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.
That development was to have been led by health-care giant Kaiser Permanente, which showed plans for a large new facility on Soquel Avenue (Hwy. 1 frontage road) near the corner of Chanticleer. The County planned to chip in with pedestrian/bike safety improvements to the northern segment of Chanticleer Avenue, a chaotic stretch where there are now no sidewalks or bike lanes.
But Kaiser abruptly changed its plans in May 2023, deciding to abandon the development plan. And now it appears that the County has put northern Chanticleer Ave. improvements on indefinite hold. Without those improvements, how many people are going to be brave enough to walk/ride on the street (Google Street View below)? We'll keep an eye on this one.
In the news recently: state efforts to encourage (or force) more housing density in single-family neighborhoods. A big obstacle to increased density is local zoning that limits how many housing units can be built on a parcel of a given size. Asking a city/county for permission to exceed the zoned density will almost always be answered with a big NO.
When those cities/counties themselves decide that more density is desirable for a certain neighborhood/area, they do it in a more planned manner - by changing the zoning to a designation that allows greater density.
A couple of recent multi-family projects on a short section of May Avenue were probably facilitated by such a zoning change - from R-1 (one unit) to R-L (multiple units). The project at 448 May (above), now completed, replaced one residence with four attached townhomes, which is about the maximum number that can be fit onto a ~5,000 sq. ft. lot like this one.
A similar project (below) nearby is now working its way through the planning process, for a double-wide lot of ~10,000 sq. ft. The double width allows a project that basically doubles the one at 448 May. Because the two buildings share one driveway, however, there's more than twice the area available for building footprints. Also, the units are smaller than those at 448 May, giving a total unit count of 16.
Anyone who walks in Lighthouse Field during the rainy season knows that there are places where the path is likely to be underwater after recent rains. In January of 2024, State Parks has nearly completed weatherizing and accessibility upgrades to the main pathways. The map above, which can currently be found posted at the Pelton/Laguna path entrance, shows the extents of the program.
Low lying sections of paths have been given gravel surfaces and raised above the vernal pools that typically form once the ground becomes saturated with rainwater. The photo below, looking south toward West Cliff Drive (the lighthouse is out-of-frame to the left) shows one such raised path section, with a vernal pool beyond. In past years, this would have been one of those muddy spots.
In addition to the pathway improvements, path entrances from Pelton Street and from West Cliff Drive have been given concrete curb-cut-style entrances to improve accessibility. One curious omission - which one hopes will soon be corrected - is where the new path paving should connect with the paved area in front of the Steamer Lane Supply food concession. There's a gap of about 20 feet between the two, which is currently a large mud puddle.
As noted in the last post, multiple downtown-area projects area will be completed in 2024. At least one other major project previously noted here - known as Pacific Station North - is scheduled to begin construction next year. Because part of that project is a rebuild of the Metro Center, Metro bus loading/unloading will be moved to a temporary on-street site for the 2 years until the new facility is ready.
Thanks to Lookout Santa Cruz for publishing the map below, showing how that will work. The 3 bus stops A, B, and C surround the CVS drugstore south parking lot on River Street, Soquel Avenue, and Front Street. Those are very busy streets, so we could be in for 2 (more) years of very slow downtown traffic. I plan to avoid driving in that area as much as possible.
Those include:
