Tell the City Council to vote "No" on the Flexible Density units which will be voted on Tomorrow, March 8for the following reasons.

The FDUs would create major density as they remove the minimum square footage requirement for public & private open space, driveways, parking, and sidewalks in a project.  This type of zoning EXISTS NOWHERE IN THE COUNTRY.  
We now have a State Density Bonus that overrides our Inclusionary Ordinance and results in less affordable housing percentages. This is risky for our city because we do not need more market-rate housing we need more affordable housing. We are already seeing three times the densities seen with the Corridor Plan with 831 Water without these changes. There are also proposals to increase State Density Bonuses beyond 50% and what would that look like in the near future?

If you add FDUs you could further increase the density and that would have a significant impact even further. SOUs were proposed at 908 Ocean for 433 units for less than 3 acres before this proposed change. This gives you densities seen only in New York and San Francisco due to our narrow streets in Santa Cruz this would be a poor decision.

SROs are considered a more standard zoning that is matched to grant opportunities but FDUs are not as they exist NOWHERE ELSE IN THE COUNTRY.  FDUs are going in the wrong direction. Please vote "no" on adding FCUs. Stick with the SROs

In the February planning meeting, the planner said not enough building projects are coming forward. This is due to COVID. By voting "no" you are giving more time for projects to come forward which due to the new state laws will be approved.

The FDUs densities are not accommodated by any Transportation Infrastructure.  Proposals for Bus Rapid Transit would require removing all parking on the major Corridors.  On Soquel alone, that would be 300 parking spaces -- 4 Whole Food Parking lots.  Think about such repercussions this is a serious issue! Water Street is far too narrow to accommodate this type of density.

Be wise and let this be studied further.
Thank you.

***These are important issues. 
Write SC City Council today.
Mayor Donna Meyers dmeyers@cityofsantacruz.com

Sonja Brunner sbrunner@cityofsantacruz.com

Sandy Brown  sbrown@cityofsantacruz.com 

Justin Cummings  jcummings@cityofsantacruz.com

Renee Golder  rgolder@cityofsantacruz.com  

Shebrah Kalantari-Johnson skalantari-johnson@cityofsantacruz.com

Martine Watkins mwatkins@cityofsantacruz.com

Thank you immensely for your work on this.