Why Say Yes to Housing: Featuring Senator Scott Wiener

On Friday, April 5th, the Santa Cruz County Business Council, Santa Cruz YIMBY, and the Monterey Bay Economic Partnership hosted Senator Scott Wiener at the Peace United Church to discuss housing at the state level. Senator Wiener, who represents San Francisco and San Mateo County, also gave an overview about his SB 50 bill (which we…

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MBInterns Employer Workshop

The Santa Cruz County Business Council co-sponsored an Employer Workshop for MBInterns with Think Local First and Monterey Bay Economic Partnership. If you were unable to attend the event you can view the presentation below, or check out MBinterns for yourself.   MBI Employer Workshop

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Governor Newsom’s Approach to Housing and Other Budget Highlights

Last week newly elected Governor Gavin Newsom rolled out his proposed budget in charismatic fashion with a daring and engaging 2 hour long press conference. Not only is the Governor proposing a close to an $8 Billion increase over the year before, and his predecessor Jerry Brown, but the core of his new spending will…

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New Policy Overview: SB50

Learn more about a bill with huge potential for expanding California housing density and supply! This staff prepared presentation provides an overview of SB50 – an amendment to the State Density Bonus Law that would require local governments to grant an additional “equitable communities” incentive to housing developers if a given project is deemed to…

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County Adopts Fee Reduction Pilot Plan for ADUs

Today the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors, led by Chair Zach Friend, adopted in principle a pilot program to reduce the fees levied on new ADU owners as a means of encouraging more ADU development. ADUs (Accessory Dwelling Units), also known as “Granny Units”, have long been sought after in both the unincorporated area of…

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Library/Mixed Use Project Presentation

For those of you who were unable to attend last week’s Lunch and Learn with City Staff about the proposed Downtown Library/Mixed Use Project you can view the presentation below. Mixed Use Master Slides

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The Next Chapter of Affordable Housing in Watsonville

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…

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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…

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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…

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