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.

Santa Cruz Changes 85: 1130 Mission Street

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. 

A proposal now before the city planning department would fill the lot with a 5-story multi-use building. Ground floor commercial space fronts on Mission Street, with covered parking behind, accessed from Laurel Street. 59 residential rental units stack above, on three sides of a central courtyard.

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.

April18th, 2023, Community Meeting Recording"

The website also shows the project application scheduled for a Planning Commission meeting on Feb. 18, 2024, but the item did not appear on the agenda either for that meeting or for the Mar. 7 meeting, so current status is unclear.

Santa Cruz Changes 84: Capitola Avenue overpass

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."

Santa Cruz Changes 83: Pure Water Soquel

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.