Capitola City Council broke the stalemate over property rezoning to meet a state requirement Thursday night with a three to two vote in favor of confining action to two site, including a contentious location on Park Avenue.
Capitola City Council broke the stalemate over property rezoning to meet a state requirement Thursday night with a three to two vote in favor of confining action to two sites. Working with suggestions from the planning committee and concerned emails from residents, Councilmember Dennis Norton proposed rezoning the 600 Park Avenue and Capitola Inn sites with a number of development restrictions. Mayor Begun and Kirby Nicol both voted in favor of Norton’s suggestions against Ronald Graves and Sam Storey.
“Dennis has offered an olive branch of sorts,” said Graves. Although he said he thought the restrictions acceptable, he and Storey preferred not to include the Park Avenue site, advocating instead for a site on McGregor Drive.
Last week the council clashed over the rezoning of two properties for high-density low-income housing for the state’s 2004 affordable housing element: 600 Park Avenue and city-owned McGregor Drive. Norton contended that the McGregor Drive property was ill-suited because it’s 1.5 miles from the nearest grocery store, has no sidewalks and is noisy due to proximity to Highway 1.
While many Park Avenue area residents disagreed to the suggested rezoning, a few came forward advocating rigid restrictions. For both sites Norton included 20- and 50-foot street setbacks for one- and two-story building, respectively; a sidewalk; building heights measured from the existing grade and preserving the existing vegetation as a buffer zone. Jamie Goldsmith, part of the planning commission, does not think that Norton’s restrictions will be a big problem for state approval.
All of Santa Cruz County, including the unincorporated areas, has been working to reach the June 30 deadline mandated by the Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA).
