Scotts Valley gets first notes from State on Housing Element

Our Downtown, Our Future initiative does not support affordable housing.

Santa Cruz YIMBY Lead Elizabeth Conlan joins Emily Ham, Kate Roberts, and Casey Beyer to highlight the missed opportunity to further affordable housing due to politics and subjective decision-making.

While the fate of Santa Cruz’s first SB 35 project could be legal entanglements for the city, there are signs that the developer might be working to satisfy the concerns raised by the city council on Tuesday.

State leaders set housing construction goals for regions such as Monterey Bay. The Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments, or AMBAG, met Wednesday evening to discuss regional housing requirements and where homes could be built. AMBAG is the federally-designated planning organization for the Monterey Bay region.

Although many commenters at previous meetings related to the 831 Water St. have urged city council members to exert more oversight in SB 35 proceedings, Tuesday’s meeting was dominated by commenters aligned with the city’s YIMBY movement to promote housing construction. YIMBY stands for yes in my backyard.

Leaders from the Santa Cruz YIMBY chapter led a group on an hourlong tour of homes along the city’s downtown grid that represent what they believe is an important missing piece to the affordability crisis. And they believe it could return with the passage of Senate Bill 9.

What is a YIMBY? What do these “missing middle” edifices look like? How might new versions of them fit into the local housing situation? And what are the legal challenges facing their development? Lookout takes a look in advance of Wednesday downtown tour.

In early March, the city of Santa Cruz got word that it had scored $5 million from the competitive federal Local Housing Trust Fund (LHTF), which is administered by the State Housing and Community Development department. It was part of $57 million in competitive grants doled out statewide.