2 weeks Ago
SANTA CRUZ — A Texas-based development firm recently submitted a pre-application to the city of Santa Cruz for an eight-story, mixed-use building at 201 Front St., currently the site of Ace Hardware and in the city’s proposed Downtown Plan Expansion area.According to the plan set submitted in early March by the Lincoln Property Co.
, which has an office in San Francisco, the eight-story structure would encompass nearly the entire lot and includes a center courtyard, parking facilities and a basement level. The existing buildings on the lot would be demolished to make way for the proposed building.An eight-story building may eventually encompass the lot currently occupied by Ace Hardware and a parking lot in the south of Laurel area in Santa Cruz.
(Aric Sleeper/Santa Cruz Sentinel)The project description in the plan states that, “With its important location, this project is poised to become a unique landmark and a visual statement to the Santa Cruz urban context. The design seamlessly integrates into the urban setting, offering a bold contemporary metropolitan aesthetic, while maintaining a harmonious relationship with the heritage, character and urban vibe of Santa Cruz.”The plan set also makes reference to a new arena across Spruce Street on the 600 block of Pacific Avenue and the “future Spruce Plaza,” which is a component of the Downtown Plan Expansion project that has yet to be considered and approved by the Santa Cruz City Council.
At the recent Santa Cruz Planning Commission meeting where the Downtown Plan Expansion project was discussed, Santa Cruz Planning Director Lee Butler mentioned that the developer of the 201 Front St. project was considering implementing the city’s Downtown Density Bonus program’s off-site land dedication option. This option was proposed for the first time at the Planning Commission meeting and is an addition to the existing program that has not yet been approved by the Santa Cruz City Council.
Under that proposed addendum to the Downtown Density Bonus program, a developer can choose not to include any inclusionary or affordable units in a development project if they provide the city with off-site land that it would then work to develop affordable housing on. Through that option, as it was presented at the Planning Commission meeting, city planners turned affordable housing developers would also receive an unspecified amount of extra compensation for their work.The plan set submitted for the “SOLA 201” project does not indicate that any inclusionary or below-market rate units would be included in the project.
A preapplication was submitted for an approximately 85-foot-tall mixed-use building at 201 Front St. in Santa Cruz. (Aric Sleeper/Santa Cruz Sentinel)Although the project page states that the building is five stories tall, the plan set describes an eight-story building.
The proposed structure, across the street from the Anton Pacific building, would be about 85 feet high and contain about 10,000 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor and 245 residential units.The apartments range in size from about 495-square-foot studios to 1,795-square-foot live/work units. In sum, the proposed building would contain 16 studio apartments, 40 one-bedroom junior units, 99 one-bedroom units, 78 two-bedroom units, six three-bedroom units and six live/work units.
The building would contain 256 parking stalls located in the basement and the first three levels of the structure. The building would contain a leasing office and a co-working space on the ground floor, a fitness center, clubhouse and a south-facing roof terrace, according to the plans.To view the project, visit cityofsantacruz.
com..
