December 2022 Newsletter
We wish you all the very best as 2022 winds down!
We appreciate all of you that used your pro-housing voices this year. You showed up: signing petitions, sending public comment to our elected officials, calling legislators, casting your pro-housing votes, and of course talking with your neighbors, friends and family about housing.
Every action makes a difference. Thank you!
Our December Meet Up:
Thursday, December 15th at 5:30PM
Pono Hawaiian Grill, 120 Union St., Santa Cruz
November 2022 Election - Pro-housing Wins!
We are glad to see SUCCESS for many of our endorsed candidates and measures. Congratulations to all of them!
(Alexander Pedersen is in a very tight race for the Capitola City Council race, but we are hopeful!)
Thanks to Shebreh Kalantari-Johnson for running for the County Supervisor in District 3 and congratulations to Justin Cummings on his win. We look forward to working with both of them - Shebreh as a City Councilmember and Justin as a Supervisor.
While Measure N did not prevail, it raised awareness about funding affordable housing and filling empty houses with new neighbors. Kudos to the Measure N team for all the hard work on this one. We don't think it's the last our community will see of this approach.
Our chapter is one of more than 40 across the country. The pro-housing movement is picking up momentum quickly, and this Holiday season you can help us fight for a future of abundant housing for all!
Donate as part of our Homes for the Holidays Campaign today: http://bit.ly/3gcG3au
Two Housing Actions
1. YES to new housing in Scotts Valley! On December 7 @ 6:00 pm the Scotts Valley City Council will be considering the Oak Creek Project which will bring much-needed new homes to Scotts Valley - eight townhomes, and 44 apartments with a mix of studios, 1-, 2- and 3-bedroom homes. Of these 8 homes (a mix of the units) would be affordable at very-low, low and moderate levels. Email the Scotts Valley City Council know that you support this project:
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to: jimreedsv@gmail.com, jdilles@scottsvalley.org. dtimm@scottsvalley.org, rlj12@comcast.net, dlindslind@earthlink.net, cityhall@scottsvalley.org
I support the Oak Creek Project proposed in Scotts Valley. Scotts Valley is WAY behind in meeting RHNA goals for affordable homes of varying levels, including having 0% progress in very-low homes. All the homes, but especially the 8 affordable homes included in this project are much needed. Please move this project forward.
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2. Take the Capitola Housing Element Survey
The City of Capitola wants your input to their Housing Element via this survey.
You will be letting the City where you think new housing should go and who needs it the most. You can share your thoughts on approaches to get to more housing and barriers too. Whether you live, work, shop, dine, go to school, church, exercise or anything else in Capitola, complete the survey!
Local Housing News
The Santa Cruz City Council approved the Objective Standards! This multi-year project sets objective standards for multi-family developments, and aligns the zoning code with the general plan. While we advocated for a streamlined approval for projects that conform to objective standards, the Council opted to have public hearings for larger projects (50 or more). Check out the Santa Cruz Local article for more details, including the transit pass requirement consistent with AB2097: Objective design standards approved by Santa Cruz City Council | Santa Cruz Local
The Santa Cruz Board of Supervisors began hearings on the Sustainability Update. This county project, which includes rezoning, new land use policies and updated code standards, is a key step towards planning for more housing. We have advocated for the rezoning to happen NOW, since the upcoming RHNA requires planning for more housing in less time than the Sustainability Update. Note that the BoS have the second hearing on December 6. Read more about what happened at the first hearing here. Love this quote from Supervisor Koenig :
“A common refrain I’ve heard throughout this process … is that we don’t have enough infrastructure to support more housing,” Koenig said. “We actually don’t have enough housing to support the infrastructure that we have.”
What We Are Reading and Streaming
⚽ Soccer players are YIMBYs too ⚽ How Orlando City player Tesho Akindele is working to fix and support housing issues in Orlando
For all the housing policy nerds out there: Are new housing policy reforms working? We need better research to find out. | Brookings
From earlier this year, but worth a (re)read Homelessness Is a Housing Problem - Sightline Institute
Jerusalam Demsas on community input: Not Everyone Should Have a Say | The Atlantic
Appraising California's Newest Housing Laws | Infill: A YIMBY Podcast. Hosted by our own Rafa Sonnenfeld!
And for those who have the time and want a deeper dive into a cricial issue: Homelessness Is a Housing Problem: How Structural Factors Explain U.S. Patterns by Gregg Colburn and Clayton Page Aldern
