Several lots across from the Town Clock, including the Rush Inn bar, could be redeveloped into an eight-story apartment building. (Amaya Edwards — Santa Cruz Local/CatchLight Local)

The project would grant the city a 2-foot easement onto private property to build a wider sidewalk. Because the project as approved by the planning commission would use private land, but doesn’t allow the developer to use public airspace for an extended balcony, Workbench developers wrote that the decision violates the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. 

The Fifth Amendment says that governments cannot take private property “for public use, without just compensation.” 

“I don’t buy it at all,” City Attorney Tony Condotti said of the claimed Fifth Amendment violation. “I don’t think that argument would hold up in court.” 

The request for an extended balcony is “not so much a waiver of a development standard as it is an infringement upon the city’s property rights,” he said.

Workbench representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

After the June 5 planning commission meeting, Workbench Founding Partner Tim Gordin said in an interview the company was “undecided at the moment” over whether they would sue the city if the additional balcony width wasn’t allowed.

A Santa Cruz Superior Court judge last week ruled against Workbench in a separate suit following the city council’s partial rejection of Workbench’s proposal for a Food Bin redevelopment on Mission Street.

The city council is also set to consider an appeal from advocate Gillian Greensite, who wrote that the city cannot legally allow the project to remove two heritage-sized redwood trees.

Santa Cruz Food Not Bombs has planned a protest of the project and a food distribution tonight outside the Santa Cruz City Hall.

Developers said the upper floors of an 8-story housing proposal near the Town Clock should be allowed to protrude beyond the property line. (Workbench)

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