SANTA CRUZ — The city of Santa Cruz’s plan to redevelop the neighborhood south of Laurel Street to construct a new arena for the Santa Cruz Warriors, along with numerous high-rise buildings, will be considered by the Santa Cruz City Council during a public hearing at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
Known as the Downtown Plan Expansion project or the downtown expansion plan, it is a product of years of collaboration between the city’s Planning and Community Development Department, developers, property owners and the Santa Cruz Warriors. According to the meeting’s agenda report, the project would displace around 100 residents from the neighborhood, along with numerous businesses, including the Pacific Blue Inn and Firefly Coffee House — the community hub that includes the Bike Church, the Fábrica and the Tenant Sanctuary — and a housing facility for adults with disabilities.
The expansion plan and its environmental impact report were given the green light by the city’s Planning Commission in April. The report studied the potential impacts of adding up to 1,800 housing units and 60,000 square feet of commercial area to the existing 29-acre neighborhood as well as the construction of a more permanent, approximately 4-acre arena for the Santa Cruz Warriors. The current home of the G League team in the proposed expansion area is about 35,000 square feet with about 2,500 fixed seats, while the planned new arena would be approximately 180,000 square feet with about 3,200 fixed seats.
After hearing concerns from city residents about the scale of the plan during their 2022 election campaigns, Santa Cruz Mayor Fred Keeley and Santa Cruz City Councilmember Scott Newsome made an effort to scale the project down. They brought forth a motion in 2023 that would limit the number of new dwelling units in the proposed expansion area from 1,800 to 1,600 units and added a 20% below market rate requirement for developers in any given project. The motion also called to reduce the original height limit of the proposed buildings in the expansion project from 175 feet or roughly 16 stories tall, to 12 stories. However, the limitations in the motion in terms of height are not enforceable due to the state’s Density Bonus Law.
The city’s planning staff then created its own version of the density bonus called the Downtown Density Bonus program, which developers would have to willingly choose over the state version. The Downtown Density Bonus program is meant to be more attractive to developers while attempting to limit the size of developments to between eight and 12 stories, or 85 and 145 feet.
At the Santa Cruz Planning Commission meeting in April, Planning and Community Development Director Lee Butler mentioned that plans for a new project had been proposed on the property at 201 Front St., that currently contains Ace Hardware and the former Cruz Cafe and lies within the proposed expansion area. The project plans submitted to the city, which describes a block-long, 85-foot-tall mixed-use building with no mention of affordable housing units, also show details about the location of a new arena and a nonexistent plaza, which are components of the not-yet approved Downtown Plan Expansion.
At the meeting, Butler also said that the Texas-based developer of the 201 Front St. project was considering implementing the city’s Downtown Density Bonus program’s off-site land dedication option. This was a new option proposed for the first time at the Planning Commission meeting and has not yet been approved by the Santa Cruz City Council.
Under that proposed addition to the Downtown Density Bonus program, developers can opt out of including any inclusionary or affordable units in a development project if they provide the city with off-site land. Through that option, as it was presented at the Planning Commission meeting, city planners would then receive additional compensation to serve as affordable housing developers on the off-site land.
During the public comment portion of the Planning Commission meeting, a few spoke in favor of the project while the majority of community members spoke in opposition to the change in the neighborhood’s zoning. They cited concerns that because of the state’s Density Bonus Law, developers can already ignore local building guidelines, and that the city’s Housing Element was completed without the proposed annexation of the 29-acre area south of Laurel Street into the city’s Downtown Plan.
After the go-ahead from the city’s Planning Commission, the fate of the years-long project will now be decided by the Santa Cruz City Council at its meeting Tuesday.
To view the meeting’s agenda, visit cityofsantacruz.com.
IF YOU GO
What: Downtown Plan Expansion public hearing
When: 7 p.m., Tuesday
Where: Santa Cruz City Hall, 809 Center St.