FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 27, 2022 Contact: Emily Ham, emily@sccbusinesscouncil BUSINESS COUNCIL ENDORSES MEASURE D SANTA CRUZ COUNTY, CA — The Santa Cruz County Business Council (SCCBC) has voted to “reaffirm its support of Greenway’s concept to build a ‘multi-use, contiguous trail, with separate pedestrian and bike lanes, down the center of the corridor with a…
On Thursday, August 12, 2021, the Santa Cruz County Business Council (SCCBC) Policy & Issues Committee convened to discuss the Santa Cruz Community Credit Union (SCCCU) sale of their downtown building to fund the expansion of the Member Access Plan and other financial services across. There was clear consensus from members in attendance that the…
On February 10th, 2021 the Issues and Policy Committee of the Santa Cruz County Business Council met and heard a staff presentation on the current state of vaccine distribution at the federal, state, and local levels. You can access the full presentation here, but please know it is a policy overview, and not a guide…
The lack of housing, and affordable housing specifically, is something Santa Cruz residents know all too well. Not only is housing expensive, but the houses are old too. These issues can at least be marginally addressed with the help of the RiverFront Project – a density bonus housing development beginning on the northern corner of…
That’s a question the residents of Santa Cruz County might soon be asking themselves if any of the following state bill pass: A1350, AB2012, and AB2176. Each one is aimed at increasing ridership in existing bus systems by completely eliminating the cost of ridership for specific age groups and people. AB1350 would allow anyone under the…
It’s officially been a week since the California March 3rd primary, and based upon the latest results both statewide and locally, it was a much tighter election than I think most people thought it would be. Yes Bernie Sanders overwhelmingly won California, but that was pretty much expected to happen, even with the announcements of…
With the new legislative year approaching we thought it would be a good idea to give an update on the newest gig-worker law, California’s AB 5. We have previously covered AB 5 here, but essentially this bill set the ABC test as the official standard for independent contractors. There are a variety of bills aimed…
Unfortunately for most California residents, SB50, a bill that would have prioritized new housing development near job centers and high quality public transit–but was contingent upon providing higher levels of affordable housing–died last month in the state senate. There were two “groups” that were vocally opposed to the bill: folks who are generally against new development, but hide…
Two weeks ago I received a series of calls from a number of local businesses that do work with the City of Santa Cruz, who were outraged about an item that was appearing on the City Council’s agenda that would severely favor out of the area businesses for all future contracts. It seems, without first reaching…
Last year the Business Council worked extensively on SB50, an update to the State’s Density Bonus Law that allows for higher density development and expedited approval processes for eligible parcels near high quality transit corridors and job centers. We even wrote an extensive article about the bill, and made the trip to Sacramento to lobby…