Scotts Valley’s Town Center plan has been more than a decade in the making, with the goal of turning 58 acres surrounding the former Skypark Airport into a walkable downtown with shops and hundreds of homes. The project area is bounded by Mount Hermon Road, Skypark Drive, Bluebonnet Lane and commercial areas east of Kings Village Road. (Stephen Baxter — Santa Cruz Local file)

SCOTTS VALLEY >> Scotts Valley’s years-in-the-making Town Center plan is inching forward this week, as the city’s Planning Commission is scheduled to review the project’s updated plans at its Thursday meeting.

The original Town Center plans were approved in 2008, with the goal of turning 58 acres surrounding the former Skypark Airport into a walkable downtown with shops and hundreds of homes. Residents have been anticipating the redevelopment for decades, and the project received recent momentum after the city purchased the last remaining piece of land included in the plan from the City of Santa Cruz. 

Scotts Valley Mayor Derek Timm said he’s excited about the draft plan, as it addresses many residents’ desire for a walkable, central community gathering space, as well as recommendations from development experts.

“We focused on trying to figure out how this could actually get built versus just putting a pipe dream out there,” Timm said. “The old specific plan had requirements and that’s why we had to update it, it had requirements that just weren’t financially viable. This plan is something that can get built.”

The project area is bounded by Mount Hermon Road, Skypark Drive, Bluebonnet Lane and commercial areas east of Kings Village Road.

In that space, the draft presented plans for:

• 657 new homes
• 82,000 square feet of commercial space
• 35,000 square feet for public uses, including expanding SkyPark over the dog park and Scotts Valley Pump Track

To comply with state directives, Scotts Valley must permit 1,220 new homes by 2031 including 649 for low-income residents. Income and rental price limits are set annually by the state.

Timm said the city hopes to solicit proposals from developers for the 12-acre Town Center Core by early next year, to get the project moving as soon as possible.

Several residents raised concerns with the project ahead of Thursday’s meeting in emails to the planning commission. Multiple residents, including representatives from King’s Village Shopping Center, described concerns about a lack of parking, which they said would heavily impact residents and businesses as density increases. Some said the draft plan’s allotted maximum of 657 homes was too many. 

The Town Center is slated to hold about half of the 649 new below-market-rate homes planned in the city’s Housing Element, a state-mandated plan for housing development for the next eight years to meet regional housing needs. 

Rafa Sonnenfeld, a volunteer with local pro-development group Santa Cruz YIMBY, said the city should plan for even more homes in the Town Center. He also said parts of the draft plan contradict the city’s Housing Element, specifically a plan to expand SkyPark — the Housing Element lists the dog park and pump track as a low-income housing site. The draft plan also allows non-housing uses on approved affordable housing sites — which Sonnenfeld said could face legal challenges.

“It’d be great if they can figure out how to expand SkyPark, but they need to do so in a way that doesn’t put at risk the city’s Housing Element and still facilitates the affordable housing that the city needs to plan for,” Sonnenfeld said.

A 2024 vision for the Town Center includes shops, apartments, new streets and public plazas off Kings Village Road. (City of Scotts Valley)

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