ARTICLE
On behalf of the Santa Cruz County Chamber of Commerce, we send our heartfelt congratulations to Mayor Justin Cummings, Vice Mayor Donna Meyers, and Councilmembers Renee Golder and Martine Watkins for their positive votes. On Tuesday evening at approximately 8:30 pm, the Santa Cruz City Council voted 4-2 to approve (again), the Downtown Mixed Use Library Project and the Owner’s Contract — a contract of $240,000 with Griffin Structures Inc. for Phase 1 of the project. The Mixed-Use Downtown Library Project is an inspirational visionary project that will bring together three critical components for the downtown consolidating a surface-level parking lot to develop housing, a much needed shared parking facility, and a 21st Century Library built by this generation for the next generation. This is a win-win-win for our community. This project will be a game-changer for downtown Santa Cruz. What does this mean for the city and the county-wide library system? Par for the course with our City Council is the add-ons that were not a part of the initial recommendation from the subcommittee but came through the council’s deliberative approach which included several requirements: - City leaders approved the most housing affordability. - The building height will not exceed the five-story adjacent University Town Center, or if that is not possible then the height should not exceed the six-story apartments at 1010 Pacific Avenue. - This project’s affordable housing and the housing at the planned Pacific Station project at the downtown Metro station will be the priorities of the city’s affordable housing trust fund. - To the extent feasible, downtown employees would be given preference for affordable housing units. Four years ago, in June 2016, the voters stated loudly that they supported a modernized county-wide library system where each community would design and develop a library that meets the specific needs of their community. The central hub of the system was and is the downtown library. The 4-2 vote by this City Council was the right decision for our city’s future. Through persistence, patience and principled reasoned arguments in support of this project, a broad coalition of supporters stood tall throughout the lengthy planning process. It should never take over four years to get a project moving forward that has board support but that is the nature of prolonged community engagement in Santa Cruz. There are too many folks to list all of them here, but it should be noted that a hardy crew of dedicated community leaders spoke out in support of this project on Tuesday evening representing these organizations: + Democratic Women’s Club: Mike Rotkin + Santa Cruz County Chamber: Casey Beyer + Santa Cruz Business Council: Robert Singleton + DLAC, Downtown Library Advisory Committee: Yolanda Henry + Santa Cruz Public Library Advisory Commission: Rena Dubin + Downtown Management Corporation: Zach Davis + Eden Housing: Jane Barr + City of Santa Cruz Downtown Commission: Matt Farrell + Downtown Forward: Mark Mesiti-Miller + Friends of the Library: Martin Gomez and Vivian Rogers + Affordable Housing Now: Tim Willoughby Again, we want to commend our Santa Cruz City Council and the city staff, City Manager Martin Bernal, Economic Development Director Bonnie Lipscomb, Principal Management Analyst Amanda Rotella, Current Planning Principal Planner Samantha Haschert, Public Works Director Mark Dettle, Transportation Manager James Burr, Library Director Susan Nemitz, Planning Director Lee Butler, Parking Program Manager Brian Borguno, and Transportation Planner Claire Gallogly who diligently worked throughout this lengthy process to move the project forward.
On behalf of the Santa Cruz County Chamber of Commerce, we send our heartfelt congratulations to Mayor Justin Cummings, Vice Mayor Donna Meyers, and Councilmembers Renee Golder and Martine Watkins for their positive votes.
On Tuesday evening at approximately 8:30 pm, the Santa Cruz City Council voted 4-2 to approve (again), the Downtown Mixed Use Library Project and the Owner’s Contract — a contract of $240,000 with Griffin Structures Inc. for Phase 1 of the project.
The Mixed-Use Downtown Library Project is an inspirational visionary project that will bring together three critical components for the downtown consolidating a surface-level parking lot to develop housing, a much needed shared parking facility, and a 21st Century Library built by this generation for the next generation. This is a win-win-win for our community.
This project will be a game-changer for downtown Santa Cruz. What does this mean for the city and the county-wide library system? Par for the course with our City Council is the add-ons that were not a part of the initial recommendation from the subcommittee but came through the council’s deliberative approach which included several requirements: - City leaders approved the most housing affordability. - The building height will not exceed the five-story adjacent University Town Center, or if that is not possible then the height should not exceed the six-story apartments at 1010 Pacific Avenue. - This project’s affordable housing and the housing at the planned Pacific Station project at the downtown Metro station will be the priorities of the city’s affordable housing trust fund. - To the extent feasible, downtown employees would be given preference for affordable housing units. Four years ago, in June 2016, the voters stated loudly that they supported a modernized county-wide library system where each community would design and develop a library that meets the specific needs of their community. The central hub of the system was and is the downtown library.
The 4-2 vote by this City Council was the right decision for our city’s future. Through persistence, patience and principled reasoned arguments in support of this project, a broad coalition of supporters stood tall throughout the lengthy planning process. It should never take over four years to get a project moving forward that has board support but that is the nature of prolonged community engagement in Santa Cruz. There are too many folks to list all of them here, but it should be noted that a hardy crew of dedicated community leaders spoke out in support of this project on Tuesday evening representing these organizations:
+ Democratic Women’s Club: Mike Rotkin + Santa Cruz County Chamber: Casey Beyer + Santa Cruz Business Council: Robert Singleton + DLAC, Downtown Library Advisory Committee: Yolanda Henry + Santa Cruz Public Library Advisory Commission: Rena Dubin + Downtown Management Corporation: Zach Davis + Eden Housing: Jane Barr + City of Santa Cruz Downtown Commission: Matt Farrell + Downtown Forward: Mark Mesiti-Miller + Friends of the Library: Martin Gomez and Vivian Rogers + Affordable Housing Now: Tim Willoughby
Again, we want to commend our Santa Cruz City Council and the city staff, City Manager Martin Bernal, Economic Development Director Bonnie Lipscomb, Principal Management Analyst Amanda Rotella, Current Planning Principal Planner Samantha Haschert, Public Works Director Mark Dettle, Transportation Manager James Burr, Library Director Susan Nemitz, Planning Director Lee Butler, Parking Program Manager Brian Borguno, and Transportation Planner Claire Gallogly who diligently worked throughout this lengthy process to move the project forward.