From Deborah Marks: PLEASE COME TO THIS IMPORTANT MEETING TUESDAY MARCH 27,2018 CITY COUNCIL MEETING 2:30 SESSION (TOWARD END OF MEETING) The State Density Bonus is now state law. It was passed in 2008 and made active in January 2018 . The City of Santa Cruz added 3 Tiers of protection and accountability and a minimum unit size requirement to minimize impacts. This is the only protection in this ordinance for neighborhoods. Now the City Council wants to vote to remove all of these protections. Bottom Line: There will be a loss of local control in the City. Especially if you live within proximity ½ mile to a transit corridor (Ocean, Water, Soquel, Mission) with bus service. This ordinance basically negates the neighborhood protections of Ocean St Area Plan (approved), Corridor Plan (not approved) and 2030 General Plan. Some (but not all) of the Damage includes: Drastically reduced setbacks Reduced minimum lot size for building Elimination of density rules Reduced landscaping around a project Drastically reduced parking requirements. A dramatic increase in height. No Design review standards NO noticing to neighborhoods No public hearings. No oversight by Planning Commission or City Council. Planning Staff could approve projects and you will never even know about it. Developers do not even have to prove that generous financial incentives for a project are needed to provide the intended public benefit. If projects comply with this ordinance, existing zoning rules for height, density, open space, setbacks, landscaping, parking requirements are overridden. The 3 Tiers provide some degree of mitigation. Eliminating the 3 Tiers also eliminates “Pro Forma” which holds a developer ACCOUNTABLE that the extra incentives will have the desired outcome. Essentially, we lose LOCAL CONTROL. Hello to those 65’ plus or even taller buildings backing up to neighborhoods. Goodbye messy public hearings and oversight by local officials. A low-level planner will be the one to say Yay or Nay. Add this to dozens of new state laws that were already passed and others in progress that remove local control over new developments in this city. SB 35 (passed) SB 827 to name a few. A project could have A SMALL NUMBER OF AFFORDABLE UNITS AND STILL GET INCENTIVES TO BUILD TALLER AND MORE DENSITY WITH MORE IMPACT. This is an example of the mindless BUILD BUILD BUILD mentality of people who think that if we just flood the city with new MOSTLY MARKET RATE housing our housing problems will be solved. (How did this work out in San Francisco and Portland? No low rents there). The FINAL City Council vote is Tuesday, March 27th. Of course, they put this item in the afternoon session making it hard for working people like me and some of you to attend. This was already approved by the Planning Commission so if it the City Votes to remove the 3 Tiers and minimum unit size that will be it and developers will have a field day here in Santa Cruz. PLEASE write a letter to the City Manager and the City Council. This is an odd request because even though I hate the Density Bonus Ordinance with the 3 Tiers and minimum unit size it will be far far worse without it. SO, tell them: 1. It is wrong to put an agenda item with such far-reaching consequences on an afternoon session. 2. The City should keep the Three Tiers and the current minimum unit size in place. 3. Developers who are given incentives need to be held accountable This letter should be sent to citycouncil@cityofsantacruz. com CC: Martin Bernal City Manager mbernal@cityofsantacurz.com Below is a Link to The Agenda. The meeting starts at 23o this item is at the end of the meeting If you go to city website you can see all of the related documents and read them if you want to. Click on this Density Bonus Zoning Ordinance Amendments (PL) documents are on the right. http://scsire.cityofsantacruz. com/sirepub/mtgviewer.aspx? meetid=962&doctype=AGENDA HERE IS THE LETTER I WROTE TO COUNCIL : To: Santa Cruz City Council From: Deborah Marks 207 Leonard St Re: State Density Bonus Ordinance I am writing to ask you to keep the only level of neighborhood protection in the Density Bonus Ordinance which is the 3 Tiers and the minimum unit size. My neighborhood, Central Park Neighborhood, consists of 3 small streets of single story historic homes within one block of the intersections of Water and Ocean and Soquel and Ocean. This puts us dead center in a 'transit zone' that would allow for the most high-level development projects allowed in this ordinance. Residents of this neighborhood, worked tirelessly with the City for close to 10 years to get some level of neighborhood protection from the changes that were made by the Ocean St Area Plan. I believe this ordinance has the power to negate the few concessions that were granted to us. To allow major high-density developments be built with only the approval of Planning Staff and no mitigation requirements is completely unfair to adjacent neighborhoods. Additionally, to put this agenda item in an afternoon session is just wrong. This means working people like myself are excluded from the process. This change to the Density Bonus Ordinance is a major game changer in our community. While the Ocean St Area Plan Corridor Plan sparked numerous community meetings this one is being snuck in under the radar, with essentially no community meetings, discussion or input. I realize the Density Bonus Ordinance is State Law and was already passed, but the Tiers is something the City can control to maintain some semblance of rational City Planning. Does our city really wish to abrogate local control completely and let Developers and City Planners have the last word on projects that could decimate neighborhoods? The ordinance with the 3 Tiers and minimum unit size included is already a gift to developers. My first request is to delay the meeting and put it in an evening session so working people can attend. My second request is that when you do vote on this ordinance, vote to keep the 3 Tiers and minimum unit size. Respectfully, Deborah Marks