November 2022 Newsletter
Housing is on the ballot - here is your pro-housing voter guide for Santa Cruz:
Voter Guide: Yes on Measures K&L, Yes on Measure N, No on Measure O, Shebreh Kalantari-Johnson for Supervisor, District 3, Felipe Hernandez for Supervisor, District 4, Fred Keeley for Santa Cruz City Mayor, Alexander Pedersen for Capitola City Council, Gail Pellerin for CA Assembly District 28, Robert Rivas for CA Assembly District 29, Dawn Addis for CA Assembly District 30
🚨💪 Help Our Issues & Candidates Win! 💪🚨
Yes on N sign
You can help Yes on N EVERY DAY from now until the election. Check out the calendar here.
Alexander Pedersen
Show up at 402 Ingalls Street #5A on Saturday, Nov 5th between 9 and noon to help out with lit drop for Shebreh Kalantari-Johnson, No on O and Fred Keeley. (Lit drop is exactly that - not talking to voters, just dropping off material)
Contact sc4realsolutions@gmail.com if you can table at Farmer's Market Downtown or Westside for No on O.
Take the City of Santa Cruz Housing Element Survey before November 10th
Open until November 10th! Take the City of Santa Cruz Housing Element Survey. Keep in mind as you answer questions about what types of housing and where:
We are lacking in multi-family housing and missing middle housing like duplexes/triplexes which can go into single-family neighborhoods.
We also need student housing.
Besides downtown, housing should go into high-opportunity areas of the city : DeLaveaga, Seabright, Westside. (TCAC map here)
Santa Cruz YIMBY's vision for Santa Cruz includes:
Abundant housing so that people of all income levels can afford homes in our county.
Promote equity through building affordable housing in all neighborhoods.
Protect renters and ensure that new developments occur without displacement and gentrification.
Advance policies that reduce permit processing times to build affordable homes now.
Respond to the climate crisis with sustainable growth by density near transit and easier access to public transit, bicycle lanes, and protected pedestrian areas.
Support walkable, bikeable communities by closely connecting where we live with where we work and play and go to school.
Yes on City of Santa Cruz Objective Zoning Standards
Objective Standards are expected back to the Santa Cruz City Council on November 15th. Send a letter to council members urging approval.
Local Housing News
Housing Matters and the County of Santa Cruz jointly announced that the State of California is awarding Housing Matters $18.2M in funding to build Permanent Supportive Housing on the Housing Matters campus - Harvey West Studios.
Construction to Begin at Park Haven Plaza in Soquel | Novin Development
Veterans, young adults who have left foster care, and families with children are one step closer to permanent housing as the Park Haven Plaza project just recently received approval to begin site work.Senior housing project approved in Santa Cruz | Santa Cruz Local
The Santa Cruz Planning Commission approved a 97-bed senior housing project on the former Gateway School campus at 126 Eucalyptus Ave. Nine affordable units are included, which would be a mix of studio, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom units.
Congratulations to student housing advocates Laz Meiman (UC Santa Cruz), Zennon Ulyate-Crow (UC Santa Cruz) and Michelle Andrews (UC Davis) for being recognized as Housing Heros by Housing Action Coalition.
Housing Elements and Builder’s Remedy:
A Cautionary Tale
We are starting to see some local Housing Element activity. (Don't forget to fill out the City of Santa Cruz survey!) "What if we don't have a compliant Housing Element?" One answer is that cities/the county may lose state funding opportunities for housing or transportation.
Other consequences are popping up in Southern California where the deadline for a compliant Housing Element has come and gone. Cities with non-compliant Housing Elements are seeing projects apply under "Builder's Remedy" which removes local control in the approval or denial of a housing project. In Santa Monica, nearly 4,000 new housing units, including a 15-story residential building, could be rubber stamped in Santa Monica after the City failed to produce a compliant Housing Element.
For Santa Cruz County and its four (4) cities, the deadline for a compliance Housing Element is December 31, 2023. Any city that does not have an adopted, compliant Housing Element by that date is subject to the Builder's Remedy on January 1, 2024.
Yep, those 15 story buildings might just become our reality, too.
Learn more:
What to know about California's 'builders remedy' — and how it could explode housing development in S.F | SF Chronicle
"Builder's Remedy": Bay Area Will Soon Face a Powerful Housing Tool | Insight | Holland & Knight
Why the California "Builder's Remedy" Means What It Says | YIMBY Law
Tues, Nov 8 @ 12:30p: An Untapped Remedy to California's Housing Crisis | Join SPUR in a deep dive into Christopher Elmendorf's paper "A Primer on California's 'Builder's Remedy' for Housing-Element Noncompliance" to learn more about builder's remedy and what could enable builders to make even better use of this tool in the future.
Tweet from Sen Scott Wiener on Builder’s Remedy in Santa Monica
Tweet from Liam Dillon on Builder’s Remedy in Beverly Hills