What if I told you that Watsonville could develop a brand new, 150 unit mixed income housing project with 20 percent affordable housing in place of an automobile junkyard that has been polluting the local waterway for 60 years? Now what if I said that project would have essentially zero impact on traffic in the […]
News
Soquel Creek Water District Draft EIR
The Soquel Creek Water District has released the draft EIR (Environmental Impact Report) for their Pure Water Soquel Project, this project has the following objectives: •Replenish the local groundwater basin •Prevent further seawater intrusion •Develop a sustainable water supply in a timely manner •Develop an affordable and reliable supplemental water source •Diversify and enhance resiliency […]
Watsonville City Council Votes to Raise TOT Tax
Last week the City of Watsonville voted to place an increase in the Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) from 11 percent to 12 percent on the November ballot. TOT Taxes, otherwise known as hotel taxes, are an additional charge levied on overnight guests staying within a given area based upon how much they are paying for […]
Business Council Membership Unanimously Votes to Oppose Rent Control
Robert Singleton Executive Director Santa Cruz County Business Council robert.singleton@sccbusinesscouncil.com (707) 569-4546 Business Council Membership Unanimously Votes to Oppose Rent Control The Santa Cruz County Business Council Membership in their vote chose to follow the recommendation of our Board of Directors to oppose the Rent Control and Just Cause Eviction Measure as well as the […]
Strong Business, Better Community: My Time at the SCC Business Council
By: Sandra Parhami My name is Sandra Parhami, and for the last seven months I have served as the Policy and Programs Intern for the Santa Cruz County Business Council. As a recent college graduate from UCSC, I studied Economics and Cognitive Science— many would see this as a peculiar combination, but I thoroughly enjoyed […]
High Tax Burden is Burning Out Local Cannabis Industry
By: Sandra Parhami After more than a century of prohibition on recreational Marijuana, constituents were hopeful that the passage of Proposition 64, the Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA), approved by voters in 2016, would create state and federal tax revenue, as well as reduce the scope of the unregulated market, or ‘black market’, to […]
Balancing Affordable Housing in Watsonville
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 […]
Homeless Services Center Presentation
At our May 2018 Board Meeting the Board heard from Susie O’Hara of the City of Santa Cruz regarding possible temporary homeless encampment sites within Santa Cruz County. The Board also heard about action being taken by Homeless Services Center to aid homelessness in Santa Cruz through their programs as well as the current temporary […]