A 144-unit apartment complex is proposed near Almar Avenue and the railroad tracks on Santa Cruz’s Westside. (Stephen Baxter — Santa Cruz Local file)

A proposal for the site last year included 120 units and four and six-story buildings. A refined proposal has 24 more units and six-story buildings on the shopping center side, while the buildings on the rail trail side are proposed to be two stories rather than four, said Mark Primack, a representative of the property owners. 

About 300 bedrooms are envisioned with studios and one-, two-, three- and six-bedroom apartments. It’s not yet clear how many units will be required to be rented below market rate. Developers are seeking a Planned Development Permit, which allows a project to exceed zoning limitations and requires city council approval.

Young people are the target tenants, and creating housing with university students in mind could take some pressure off the local housing market, Primack said.

“We’re going to be housing over 300 people in this project,” said Primack, a former Santa Cruz City Council member and Planning Commissioner. “Every four represents a house in a single-family, residential neighborhood that doesn’t have to get overcome by students.”

Some neighbors told city planners that they would prefer housing for families rather than students, and added that UC Santa Cruz should continue its campus housing additions.

A rendering shows an earlier version of a proposed apartment complex at 831 Almar Ave. The new proposal could look similar, said Mark Primack, a representative of the property owners. (Workbench)

Plans and process

The nearly 2-acre lot mostly contains empty warehouses from a former Good Earth Tea facility. The company was founded as Fmali Herb Co. in Santa Cruz in 1972, and the proposed redevelopment is called New Fmali.

After the original plans were submitted to the city last year, city planning staff described several aspects of the proposal’s design that needed to be changed, including more square footage for industrial space. If the developers could meet that requirement, objective design standards, the zoning code and other requirements, it would not have required Santa Cruz City Council approval under state law.

After some back-and-forth, the owners decided to instead seek a Planned Development Permit, requiring city council approval but also allowing the possibility of a design that doesn’t fit the zoning. 

“It’s like a crapshoot, but it allows you to write your own rules for the project,” Primack said. 

Primack said he will describe and make the case for the proposal at Thursday’s planning commission meeting. Then, the commission can make a recommendation to the city council on whether to approve the project in concept. If the council is on board, developers would then submit a formal permit application for the project, and another round of review would begin.

Primack said he surveyed Santa Cruz City Council members and they appeared open to the project.

Neighbors’ worries

Some neighbors raised concerns with the original proposal at a Nov. 4 community meeting about the project and through correspondence to city planners and the planning commission.

The neighborhood is mainly single-family homes, and the development is between the railroad tracks and a shopping center. Traffic, parking and the density and height of the buildings were among the concerns. 

Across the street, a separate, 38-unit below-market-rate apartment building is proposed in a vacant, triangular lot at 844 and 850 Almar Ave. Some residents were particularly concerned by the cumulative impact of both projects on the neighborhood.

Primack said there are a lot of homes in the city appropriate for families — but many of these houses are occupied by students. Part of the challenge is that UC Santa Cruz houses about half of its students on campus for higher rents, and the other half compete for housing off campus and help drive up rents.

A few blocks from the Almar proposal, a 161-unit housing complex for UCSC students is under construction near Swift Street and Ingalls Alley in Delaware Addition Phase II. Primack, an architect who helped design Delaware Addition, said he opposed the lease of the housing to UCSC because they will set the rents. 

“I’d like to see rents in town get lower than university rents. So the university is forced to lower their rents,” Primack said.

He also pushed back on the idea developers shouldn’t build for young people. “I’m really concerned about the future of Santa Cruz. If young people can’t afford to live here, what kind of future is there?”

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