Eighty apartments are proposed at a vacant lot at Soquel Avenue and Cayuga Street in Santa Cruz. (Workbench)
Meeting: 6 p.m. Monday, Sept. 16
- Join on Zoom or by calling 669-444-9171 meeting ID 810 9843 4200.
- Submit comments or questions on the city’s project page for 1024 Soquel Ave. or by contacting city planner Rina Zhou at [email protected] or 831-420-5104.
SANTA CRUZ >> An online meeting is planned for 6 p.m. Monday, Sept. 16 to gather feedback from residents about an 80-unit apartment building proposed at 1024 Soquel Ave. in Midtown Santa Cruz.
Residents’ feedback could contribute to changes in the project’s design, according to the city’s page for the project. The meeting is part of the city’s outreach policy for larger development proposals.
Santa Cruz-based developer Workbench submitted plans for the vacant lot at Cayuga Street and Soquel Avenue in May.
- The pre-application describes a six-story building with, 33 studios, 33 one-bedroom apartments, 10 two-bedroom apartments, and a future conversion of some areas into four one-bedroom homes.
- Ground-floor shops are proposed.
- Plans also include 61 parking spaces.
Santa Cruz-based Workbench is the architect and would be responsible for construction, according to plans submitted to the city. The property is owned by the New York City-based developer Union 402 Building, LLC. Santa Cruz County Assessor’s Office records show the developer purchased the 0.27-acre lot last year for $1.6 million.
The proposal takes advantage of state housing laws including SB 330 and the Housing Accountability Act. These laws limit the ability of local governments to alter or deny housing projects that comply with “objective standards.” The project also utilizes a state rule known as a “density bonus” which allows projects to include more units than are allowed by local zoning if the project provides a certain amount of affordable housing.
The Santa Cruz City Council in 2018 approved a three-story, 12-unit apartment building with ground floor shops on the site. In the end, it “wasn’t penciling out” for the developer, said Mike Ferry, a Santa Cruz senior planner assigned to the project at the time.
Ferry said the 2018 project “falls within our zoning, but now state laws allow you to double.”
Ferry added, “The state has approved well over 100 housing bills in the last four years, so all projects like that tend to get larger because all these state laws override local ones.”
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Nik Altenberg is a copy editor and fact checker at Santa Cruz Local. Altenberg grew up in Santa Cruz and holds a bachelor’s degree in Latin American and Latinx Studies from UC Santa Cruz.
