City of Santa Cruz Government News

Santa Cruz city leaders on Tuesday suggested a priority list of potential projects to help shore up West Cliff Drive, none of which involved converting the street to one-way traffic.
The city has been gathering residents’ input as it creates a 5-Year Roadmap for West Cliff. A public comment period will run to mid-January, and a final version of the 5-year plan is expected to be considered by the Santa Cruz City Council in March.

Four projects on Mission Street in Santa Cruz moved forward in November.

The Santa Cruz County Office of the Inspector General plans to share findings of its first report and gather input in a meeting Monday and at a Santa Cruz County supervisors meeting Tuesday.

As the City of Santa Cruz moves forward with a plan to expand downtown, the Santa Cruz City Council on Tuesday is set to consider a strategy to temper new building heights and support below-market-rent homes.

A proposed six-story apartment building on Mission Street would provide college students and other tenants with the “right kind of housing” and would free up more single-family homes for families, the project’s architect said at an online meeting attended by several skeptical neighbors on September 30.

Over 70 residents of the St. George Apartments in downtown Santa Cruz are breathing a sigh of relief after the Santa Cruz City Council took a big step toward adopting an ordinance extending rental increase protections for renters like them. This came after a year of uncertainty as a looming November increase would have raised rents up 250% in some cases, according to residents.

Santa Cruz Mayor Fred Keeley sent a clear message last week during an early morning press conference: Santa Cruz will not take on other cities’ unhoused populations. Accompanied by city and county officials, Keeley convened the media to unveil a new ordinance that makes the unannounced drop off of unhoused individuals within the city by other jurisdictions illegal.