SANTA CRUZ – Workbench, the developer behind the proposed Clocktower Center project in downtown Santa Cruz, recently submitted a preliminary application to the City of Santa Cruz to construct a mixed-use building on the vacant lot at 1024 Soquel Ave.
According to the city’s website, the submitted preliminary application calls for a six-story, mixed-use building with a rooftop terrace consisting of commercial space on the ground floor and 76 residential units.
The preliminary application is part of SB 330, the Housing Crisis Act of 2019. The law requires local agencies to compile a preliminary application checklist and application form to expedite the review process and establish the development standards and fees that will apply at the time the application documents are submitted. The City of Santa Cruz or any other municipality is then prohibited from applying any new ordinances, standards, or policies to a project with a complete preliminary application.
According to the plan, the six-story project would be about 75 feet tall. The mixed-use development would offer about 1,200 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor, which would form the corner frontage along Soquel Avenue and Cayuga Street. The plans state that the development would contain a mix of 33 one-bedroom, 10 two-bedroom and 33 studio apartments for a total of 76 units. The plans mention that non-habitable space in the project will later be converted into additional residential units not included in the 76-unit total.
Although state law does not require car parking because the facility would be less than a half-mile from a major transit stop, the project calls for 61 car parking spaces in a 7,500-square-foot parking garage that would utilize a car stacking system.
According to the plans, the development will include 12 units of affordable housing, six of which will be for very low-income people, or a family of four earning at least $90,550 per year, one for a low-income family of four earning at least $145,300 per year, and five for moderate-income people, which in Santa Cruz County is $159,350 per year for a family of four.
Because the developer has reserved 12 units for moderate, low and very low income (about 15%) individuals, they are allowed unlimited exemptions and four concessions under state law. The developer has specified 10 exemptions in its plan related to building heights and stories, building setbacks, floor area ratio, residential frontages on Soquel Avenue and others.
Workbench outlines two of the four possible concessions in the plan. The developer requested that the public hearing on the project be held only before the Santa Cruz City Council and that the project not be required to be heard before any other advisory body, including the zoning board or the city’s planning commission, in order to “expedite final approval of the project, reduce property management costs, and avoid the costs associated with multiple hearings.”
The developer has also requested permission not to pay development fees until a building permit has been issued for each building in the project.
For more information, visit cityofsantacruz.com.
