A new survey will help city staff create a design guide for developers in Santa Cruz that may include suggestions for building materials, shapes and landscaping. (Contributed)

SANTA CRUZ >> As developers continue to propose and build large-scale housing in Santa Cruz at a rate faster than prior decades, city staff are planning to nudge them towards designs that people don’t hate.

What does that mean, exactly? A city survey open now aims to find out.

The survey will help staff create a design guide for developers that may include suggestions for building materials, shapes and landscaping. Those guidelines, however, will be entirely voluntary. State law prohibits any design standards not considered objective, and restricts many changes that could reduce the number of new homes built.  

State laws have severely curtailed local leaders’ ability to change, downsize or block new housing developments. Instead, developers who adhere to the design guidelines could receive faster review or approval. 

The survey also asks for feedback on strategies to transition between single-family neighborhoods and newly-upzoned lots on major corridors like Mission St., which could host buildings with five or more stories. Options presented include incorporating more landscaping, including community spaces in new developments, and upzoning some surrounding lots to provide moderately-dense “missing middle” housing like triplexes and quadplexes.

In March, the Santa Cruz City Council created an ad-hoc committee with Vice Mayor Shebreh Kalantari-Johnson and council members Susie O’Hara and Scott Newsome to coordinate with city staff about the guide. A draft guide would be considered by the city council before approval.

The survey is open through August.

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