City of Santa Cruz Government News Digest

The Santa Cruz Warriors will remain on Laurel Street for at least a few more years after the Santa Cruz City Council agreed to amend and extend the lease agreement with the G-League team.

The city of Santa Cruz Economic Development Department is seeking proposals from vendors of all flavors, but preferably peppermint or pumpkin spice, to fill the parking lot in Midtown Santa Cruz from October to New Year’s Day.

A coalition of organizations such as Housing Santa Cruz County and Our Downtown Our Future have joined forces to carry on the effort to create a city-driven, community-led tax revenue measure for affordable housing projects started by Santa Cruz Mayor Fred Keely and Councilmembers Scott Newsome and Sandy Brown.

Santa Cruz Water Director Rosemary Menard recently announced that she will retire from her position at the start of 2024, which has prompted the city to start the search for her replacement.

The effort to restore the currently impassable Bethany Curve bridge on West Cliff Drive moved forward at the Aug. 22 Santa Cruz City Council meeting.

Santa Cruz Mayor Fred Keeley is on the mend after a successful surgery to remove a tumor, and will soon return to his mayoral post.

Community members, local officials and city of Santa Cruz staff gathered at Santa Cruz City Hall to roll out an electric bike share program that will extend to other parts of the county.

The city’s attorney analyzed the ruling and it was determined that there was no way to avoid applicability in Santa Cruz.

Santa Cruz Mayor Fred Keeley and councilmembers Scott Newsome and Sandy Brown presented a motion to begin study on a potential bond measure to pay for affordable housing and permanent supportive housing projects in the city.

The Santa Cruz Police Department has made numerous updates to its Taser stun gun, supervisory review and communication policies after the latest review by a city-hired independent auditor.

The city of Santa Cruz needs to build more than three times as many housing units in the next eight years as it did in the past eight. The plan coming before the council on April 25 projects 4,457 units—most along Mission, Ocean, Water and River streets and Soquel Avenue.

Seeking some clues as to what a pending new court-based program set to arrive in Santa Cruz County before the end of next year will look like, city leaders asked for a presentation this week on the so-called CARE court program.

Santa Cruz is seeking public input on the first draft of its latest housing element, a document that guides growth and development for the next eight years. The state's Regional Housing Needs Assessment element compels the city to add 3,736 housing units by 2031.

The fencing around the park’s pond, playground and public green spaces since last year were taken down April 1 but the benchlands remains fenced off, awaiting pending environmental restoration work.

Mayor Fred Keeley will pitch to voters a bond measure that would specifically focus on homelessness and housing spending. He plans to unveil the details of this month.

Despite the pandemic and a series of winter storms, tourism on the wharf has rebounded sharply. Restaurant owners and their landlord—the city of Santa Cruz—are aiming to do more than merely meet demand in time for summer.

The council approved a resolution to allow the city to enter into a loan agreement with the EPA for water system improvement projects.

When Ocean Lodge stopped its participation in Santa Cruz’s hotels-for-homeless program, many were stranded without housing.

Loch Lomond is the primary water storage facility, but it sometimes relies on the reservoir during periods of heavy storms.

The RV safe-parking program, hosted in the parking lot of the National Guard Armory in DeLaveaga Park, is operated by nonprofit organization The Free Guide and funded through June 30 by the city of Santa Cruz.

After years of pushback from community activists and a more recent nudge from a state coastal oversight body, the city recently removed signage banning overnight vehicle parking on several Westside streets.

January’s relentless storms brought power outages, floods, landslides and falling trees. But Santa Cruz residents had one critical resource they never had to worry about: clean drinking water.

Nearly four months after Santa Cruz voters backed a downtown mixed-use library project, the eight-story development could be headed for a possible final council approval March 14.

With the library/affordable housing project set to displace the market from its longtime home on Lot 4, director Nesh Dhillon aims to choose an interim spot during construction by this summer.

After a failed attempt to develop “Ocean Place,” a new developer proposes a 354-unit, three-building apartment complex between Marianne’s Ice Cream and Togo’s on Ocean Street.

The Santa Cruz Planning Department delivered a plan, dubbed the Draft Coral Street Visioning Report, and city officials hope to have the public weigh in on a “homeless service-oriented vision” for the area.

In partnership with Santa Cruz-based developer Workbench, the church plans to build a 40-unit apartment building.

Santa Cruz citizens and neighbors are summoning energy and vision to “Save West Cliff.” Next up: a Feb. 13 “community conversation” about the iconic 2.7-mile promenade.

The Santa Cruz City Council changed the way that it appoints citizen commissioners before then nominating and appointing members to seven advisory bodies.

Several collapses of the sidwalk and roadway along West Cliff Drive spurred the city of Santa Cruz to close sections of the street and sidewalk as repairs are made.