Santa Cruz METRO gets $2 million in funding to turn Watsonville Transit Center into transit-oriented affordable housing

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (KION-TV)-The Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District got some good news ahead of holiday season.

Transit officials announced that they received $2 million in funding to help redevelop the Watsonville Transit Center into a transit-oriented affordable housing project.

The funding was made possible by Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments (AMBAG) Regional Early Action Planning Grants.

The project will consist of a METRO transit center and ticketing office on the ground floor. The upper floors of the transit center will have 65 net-zero affordable housing units.

Transit officials said that bus services will be relocated to on street bus bays to maximize the development potential of the one-acre site.

METRO says that they plan to operate two bus routes within 15 minutes of each other between the Watsonville Transit Center and Santa Cruz.

The funding will cover architecture and engineering phase of the project which will start in January and conclude in December 2025.