City of Watsonville Government News

Riverside Drive was closed to traffic and two homes were evacuated Wednesday afternoon between Union  Street and Marchant Street after construction crews ruptured a natural gas line.

A fast moving brush fire charged up a steep hillside on South Green Valley Rd. Near Melwood Way on July 5 just past noon.

The City of Watsonville, Watsonville Wetlands Watch (WWW), and Community Arts & Empowerment are teaming up to design and install a new mosaic mural for the entrance wall of the new Nature Center scheduled to open in Ramsay Park in late 2025.

The Watsonville City Council Tuesday night voted 5-2 to approve a question for the Nov. 5 ballot that would remove the city charter’s requirement for commission members to be registered voters.

Just across the Pajaro River from Watsonville in Monterey County, hundreds of seasonal farmworkers are now living in a recently completed housing complex created for them at the end of Susan Street.

Watsonville artist Kathleen Crocetti has created two mosaic medallions for the City of Watsonville, which were installed recently at Memorial Park, located at the confluence of Freedom Boulevard and Main Street.

After a contentious meeting on May 28, a divided Watsonville City Council approved in concept several amendments to its retail cannabis ordinances.

Local governments across Santa Cruz County are crafting their budgets for the coming fiscal year, with some due at the end of June.

Watsonville city officials gathered Friday to break ground on a major renovation and upgrade for Ramsay Park.

Over the next two decades, the city of Watsonville plans to add thousands of trees to its landscape, create a plan to take care of them and train crews of young people to aid in that effort.

The City of Watsonville has sent out a call to local artists to help create a mural for the new nature center coming to Ramsay Park.

Construction will begin in June on a 34-unit community of small temporary dwellings based at Westview Presbyterian Church in Watsonville, after the Monterey County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved agreements to build and manage the facility.

In a weed-strewn, vacant lot on Airport Boulevard Tuesday, Bryan Hilgeman was busy around his makeshift tarp dwelling where he lives, along with about 40 people in the unsanctioned homeless camp.

A special joint council meeting Saturday brought together Watsonville City Council, City Manager Rene Mendez, other city and county leaders and the public for a discussion of the swelling homeless problem.

In a little more than a year, Ramsay Park in Watsonville will boast a new dog park, a new multi-use synthetic sports field, a new state-of-the-art nature center and new lights for its pathways, parking lots and athletic fields.

Watsonville city leaders have started to craft a coordinated effort to fight rising homelessness. 

The Watsonville City Council on Tuesday voted to close the crosswind runway at the airport, a move city officials say will open up more of the city for development of housing and commercial space.

On both sides of Watsonville Municipal Airport’s two runways lay so-called airport safety zones, where development is either limited or restricted.

Watsonville City Manager Rene Mendez has been named as the new City Manager for the City of Salinas, just two years after starting his position.

When Vanessa Quiroz-Carter and Maria Orozco were sworn in late last year as Watsonville’s Mayor and Vice-Mayor, it was only the second time in the city’s history two women have held the roles.

The Watsonville City Council on Tuesday approved $200,000 for a new homelessness outreach program. Separately, Watsonville police plan to add a new police service specialist to write tickets to illegally parked cars and RVs.

The Watsonville City Council voted to end public comment via Zoom at its meetings, a decision spurred by two racist ‘zoom bomb’ calls on Oct. 24. Capitola had similar experiences around the same time.

More than 100 people spent their Saturday morning in the community room of the Watsonville Civic building, where they joined the City Council and other officials in discussions about Watsonville’s General Plan.