Environmental review of plan to expand downtown Santa Cruz shows few significant impacts

Environmental review of plan to expand downtown Santa Cruz shows few significant impacts

More than two years in the making, the City of Santa Cruz’s planning department Wednesday published the final environmental impact report on its planned downtown expansion, a generational vision for a denser, taller and livelier city center. 

The sweeping, 279-page report, authored by consultant Kimley-Horn, marks a significant milestone for the long-debated expansion, and analyzes the project’s forecast impact on everything from water demand and greenhouse gas emissions to scenic views and flood hazards.

Despite the monumental physical changes proposed by the downtown expansion, which includes 1,600 high-rise housing units and a new Santa Cruz Warriors arena, the report determined it would have few significant impacts on the environment. This is largely because the area targeted for the expansion is already developed and would likely be redeveloped in the future. As compared to, say, a new housing development on an undisturbed, grassy meadow, downtown and the area south of Laurel Street contains little by way of sensitive environment. 

Without the downtown expansion plan, the target area already allows mixed-use development, and available state density bonus laws make real the possibility that future redevelopment will be tall and dense. According to the report, canceling all plans for the downtown expansion “would not have substantially different impacts than the project”  because existing zoning already “allows for substantial redevelopment of the project area over time, including projects that utilize a density bonus.”  

The report identified three significant impacts: greenhouse gas emissions during construction of the project; disruption to nesting birds in the vicinity of construction sites, and potentially disturbing a tribal cultural resource. 

According to the city’s General Plan 2030, the area mapped for the downtown expansion is marked as “sensitive” for archaeological resources; however, no specific tribal cultural resources have been identified in the area, according to the Kimley-Horn report. 

“Adoption and implementation of the project would not directly result in new development, but future development indirectly accommodated by the plan could result in construction that could potentially result in impacts to tribal cultural resources if any exist on a site that is being developed,” the report said. 

The Amah Mutsun Tribal Band of San Juan Bautista has requested the city consult with it if “any positive cultural or historic sensitivity findings have been identified.”

The impact of 1,600 new housing units on the city’s water supply has been one of the public’s loudest concerns throughout the development of the downtown expansion proposal. The environmental impact report said if the city does not expand its water supply, the cumulative impact of 1,600 units, a new basketball arena and commercial space could have a “potentially significant” effect during dry periods. However, as the report notes, the city is already undergoing a plan to expand its water resources due to the already-experienced effects of climate change and drought. The report says the downtown expansion proposal is not “expected to drive the size or the timing of needed water supply augmentation projects.”

The report is available for public comment until Feb. 21 and can be accessed here.

Source: LookOut Santa Cruz