831 Responsible Development

New ‘community meeting’ planned for 831 Water St. proposal on Nov. 20

We have recently become aware that the City of Santa Cruz has scheduled a new Community Meeting related to a number of very significant changes the developer seeks relating to the large housing project proposed for 831 Water Street. The meeting, planned to be “virtual” via Zoom, will take place on Wednesday, November 20, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. (Log-in details about this meeting can be found on this city page.)*

While the members of our 831 Responsible Development group (seemingly to a person) continue to strongly support the development of new housing in the city — including on this site — we nonetheless continue to be VERY concerned about the many, many health and safety issues that would stem from this project as proposed. Worse yet, it appears that some of these issues would be made worse by the developer’s latest very significant revisions, which include reducing the total number of on-site vehicle parking spaces from 136 to 43, combining two buildings into one (and raising the height of at least part of the project), and reducing the commercial part of the project.

While we absolutely recognize that new state laws can tie the city’s hands with respect to reviewing some aspects of housing proposals, that recognition doesn’t mean the City shouldn’t do everything possible to prevent projects from creating health and safety issues for its citizens.

  • Given the number of significant recent changes to the project, we strongly believe that the Planning Department, Planning Commission, and/or City Council should require that the developer submit a new, complete application for this project so that all of the current impacts can be appropriately reviewed, analyzed, and to the extent possible, mitigated. That only seems reasonable.

In the meantime, please try to do one or both of the following with respect to this upcoming virtual meeting:

  • Email a letter in advance, expressing your concerns, to the City Planning Department and its representative planner, Ryan Bane (email: rbane@santacruzca.gov).
  • Attend the upcoming Zoom meeting to express those concerns.

A number of our nearly 600 “831 Responsible Development” petition signers informally gathered this past Sunday (Nov. 10) to discuss what they believe to be the current project plan (difficult as it is to track when viewing the city project page) and to share their concerns with each other. Some of the concerns aired are the same ones that have always dogged this project; others are new ones. As you think and communicate about this project, please don’t hesitate to take a minute to review this summary of that recent discussion.

As always, a very big THANK YOU for staying engaged.

Info on 831 Water Street project proposal:
Project page (City of Santa Cruz)

* A paper notice for this meeting, mailed out to a large number of city residents, incorrectly stated that this virtual meeting is taking place on “Monday, November 20.” Please note that the actual day of the virtual meeting is Wednesday, November 20.