Land use disputes related to the airport have landed the city of Watsonville in court numerous times. (Amaya Edwards — Santa Cruz Local/CatchLight Local)
WATSONVILLE >> When the Watsonville Pilots Association won a lawsuit against the city earlier this year, it successfully blocked the development of 21 townhouses near the Watsonville Municipal Airport that were proposed nearly a decade earlier.
Now, the judge’s court order could put a hotel project in jeopardy, a shopping center’s future is uncertain and no new permits can be issued in an area covering hundreds of acres and thousands of properties in Watsonville.
The pilots association brought the lawsuit against Watsonville in 2021 on the grounds that the city’s land use planning documents are out of compliance with state aeronautics safety law.
The judgement from Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge Timothy Schmal, entered in July, required the city to rescind its approval for the townhomes at 547 Airport Blvd. Additionally, the judgement barred the city from approving any new permits within the airport’s safety zones until it incorporates a state airport safety handbook into its General Plan, a document which guides development.
Watsonville city leaders expect to have an updated General Plan ready for city council consideration by “early 2027,” wrote Watsonville City Manager Tamara Vides in a statement.
With that timeline, a five-story hotel proposed at 375 Technology Drive could be put at risk.
Hotel proposal hits turbulence
Prakash Patel, owner of Lotus Management Inc. which proposed the hotel, said he may lose his financing for the project if he can’t get permits in time. In an Aug. 27 phone call, Patel said the condition of the financing is that construction must finish by June 2028. To meet that timeline, he’d need to start building by spring 2027 — and he said it can take several months to get a permit after applying.
Watsonville Municipal Airport’s safety zones cover more than 4,500 acres across Watsonville and unincorporated county areas. Zone 6 is shown in dark blue. (Santa Cruz County Assessor’s Office)
Patel said when he initially proposed the hotel in 2024, city planners wanted him to construct an underground parking garage, which didn’t pencil out financially. Eventually he found a workaround which worked for the city and his budget, leading the project to move forward — but now the court order is blocking the project from getting the permits it needs to begin construction.
“The pilot’s association is holding developers hostage,” Patel said. “The planning commission approved the project. If we had some deficiency or problem, they would not have approved it. They approved it because we did everything which we were supposed to, which we were told to do.”
The pilots association, for its part, emphasized that the responsibility is on the city to comply with established law. The association has successfully sued the city five separate times over nearly two decades for issues related to the city’s compliance with the land use handbook and state aeronautics law.
The Watsonville Pilots Association is demanding only “that the City comply with 20 years and five separate lawsuits’ worth of rulings requiring it to incorporate the California Airport Land Use Planning Handbook (CALUPH) into its General Plan,” Ryan Ramirez, president of the pilots association, wrote in an email.
City plans grounded by pilots’ lawsuits
Santa Cruz County is the only in California without an Airport Land Use Commission or equivalent oversight body, and Watsonville is therefore required to adopt the California Airport Land Use Planning Handbook and follow its guidelines strictly, as non-discretionary standards, when considering development within the airport’s safety zones.
The largest, Safety Zone 6, is extensive and encompasses Freedom, northern portions of Watsonville and unincorporated county areas. The lowest-risk zone, it is essentially a buffer area where planning must consider the diffuse statistical risk of plane crashes. Most land uses are permitted, but with population density limits.
A plan for 21 townhouses at 547 Airport Blvd. was in the works for nearly a decade. It was ultimately scuttled by a land use dispute. (Amaya Edwards — Santa Cruz Local/CatchLight Local)
Vides, the city spokesperson, said city planners did consider the handbook and follow its mandates when approving the townhouse project. Despite this, the judge ruled against the city because its General Plan is out of compliance.
“The project complied with all airport land-use compatibility policies for Safety Zone 6, in which the property is located,” Vides wrote. “Since 2023, the City has committed over $2.2 million dollars to the 2050 General Plan effort that includes airport land use compatibility standards that will guide development within airport safety zones.”
Ramirez wrote that Watsonville leaders have “now had nearly 20 years to bring its General Plan into compliance.”
For Patel, the saga is frustrating. After the planning commission approved the hotel project in June, the pilots association sent a letter to the city warning them not to move forward until they comply with the court order and update the General Plan. The project had been agendized in June for city council consideration but was quietly tabled.
Patel attended a city council meeting last month and spoke out during public comment, after the project was never re-agendized and he was unable to get in touch with city leaders.
“I called and messaged. I didn’t get a response, so I said ‘I have to go there. That’s the only way I’m going to get attention,’” Patel said.
Also at that city council meeting was Michael Strahs, a development leader for Kimco Realty Corporation, a New York-based real estate investment trust that owns a shopping center at 1988 Freedom Blvd.
“For 25 years, our company has quietly owned and operated the Freedom Shopping Centre,” Strahs said at the meeting. “Throughout that time we have successfully leased and operated the property, including areas that fall within airport safety zones 3 and 6, without significant obstacles. That changed last year.”
The Watsonville airport has been around since the 1930s. (Amaya Edwards — Santa Cruz Local/CatchLight Local)
He continued, “Recent city staff interpretations of airport safety zone standards have raised questions regarding our ability to continue leasing and operating portions of this long-established shopping center.”
Strahs and Kimco Realty did not respond to several requests for comment.
“The determination regarding the shopping center applies only to future uses of the property. The City is not taking action regarding the existing tenants,” Vides wrote in an email.
Vides did not address several of Santa Cruz Local’s questions about whether new leases were being blocked, whether certain uses would now be prohibited, and which safety zones the changes applied to.
Housing plans struggle to make landing
The pilots association has long clashed with the city over development. The association — and the Sierra Club — sued the city in 2006 over a plan to annex the Buena Vista area, near the airport, and allow the development of more than 2,000 new homes.
The association took issue with population density in the vicinity of the airport, due to safety concerns. A superior court and appellate court judge ruled against the city for failing to adequately consider the airport, among other issues.
With the judge’s ruling, those areas were never annexed or zoned to allow housing.
In 2024, the city council narrowly approved plans to close one of the two runways to allow more development. The deactivation of the secondary runway could take several years.
Ramirez, the pilots association president, said they are not against new housing, but don’t support runway closure. Instead, they propose shortening the secondary runway by 860 feet, which would open up more areas to development.
What do you think?
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Nik Altenberg is a bilingual reporter and assistant editor at Santa Cruz Local. Nik Altenberg es reportera bilingüe y editora asistente para Santa Cruz Local.
