Last week the City of Watsonville held a study session to review potential options for their inclusionary zoning ordinance. Now we’ve covered inclusionary zoning (IZ) extensively in other blog posts, but essentially IZ is when a jurisdiction requires a certain percentage of new housing to be deed restricted to only be available to those earning […]
Density Bonuses and You
Last week we announced that the Business Council would be working with other community partners, including Affordable Housing Now, MBEP, and the Chamber, to advocate in favor of a model density bonus program to be adopted at the County level. As part of that discussion we promised to provide a deeper dive into what a […]
Why AB1506 Was Bad for Housing
If you have been following the issue of housing in the California State legislature for any significant period of time then you have probably heard of the Costa-Hawkins Act, otherwise known as the Rental Housing Act, or “Rent Control” Act. Costa-Hawkins is a piece of legislation enacted in 1995 that regulates how local jurisdictions (Cities […]
Public Correspondence: Amendments to County Housing Policy
The following is letter written in part by Business Council staff, in concert with other housing and community leaders, regarding the County’s proposed amendments to it Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance. The current list of signatories may not reflect the final number of people who have signed in support of the letter. [Proposed Amendments Under Item 59 […]
Santa Cruz Shows Up for Housing
On Tuesday night the Santa Cruz City Council passed the latest iteration of the Downtown Plan, increasing the zoning densities along lower Pacific Avenue and Front Street, and clearing the way for potentially up to 800 new units of housing. It was the single largest increase in zoning density within the City since the 1989 […]
County Updates – Developer Option in Jeopardy, Inclusionary Rental?
The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors recently gave direction to Planning staff to once again amend the County’s Affordable Housing Program (second time in 3 years), despite the process and economic concerns laid out by representatives the Business and Development Community. The proposed amendments appear to be staff driven, and include the elimination of […]
Summary of Cannabis Cultivation EIR Recommendations
As many of you may be aware the County of Santa Cruz recently completed the first draft of an Environmental Impact Report on cannabis cultivation for the unincorporated areas of the County. This document, which is only the 3rd County-level EIR to be completed within the State, and of them is surely the most comprehensive, […]
CLV Recap
During the last week of August the Santa Cruz Area Chamber of Commerce hosted what’s called a “Community Leadership Visit” or CLV for short. This was a 3 day/2 night trip all across the Bay Area to study how different communities are addressing issues like housing, transportation and transit, economic development, and even homelessness. Our […]