Santa Cruz residents fight “Overbuilding” at planning commission meeting

A new group out of Santa Cruz says they’re trying to stop what they call overbuilding in the city.

They came out to a special city planning commission meeting to speak out against a corridor rezoning process.

They’re called Save Santa Cruz and formed close to a week ago. They sent a letter to the planning commission Thursday asking them to re-evaluate the corridor rezoning process.

According to the city website, that process falls under the 2030 General Plan. In it they have designated 4 corridors including Soquel, Water, Ocean and Mission Streets. They’re calling the spots change areas. The proposed changes include allowing additional housing and height to buildings through projects that meet certain criteria.

Save Santa Cruz says plans like those can lead to an “Overbuilding Crisis” and want the Planning Commission to work closer with the City Council before taking action.

“We’d like them to send this all back to the City Council which of course is in charge and say to the city ‘Maybe you need to think about this, maybe reboot the process, think about doing it a different way'” said Gary A. Patton who spoke for Save Santa Cruz. ” ‘At least listen to the people yourselves ’cause we’ve been getting a lot of negative input and we think you need to hear that.’ “

City staffers at Thursday’s meeting say much of the concerns from those at the meeting are addressed by the 2030 General Plan that they say was created with input form the public.

To find out more about the Santa Cruz Corridor Zoning Update you can head to the project’s website by following this link.