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Golf Club Drive: Is a Santa Cruz housing solution beyond this trestle?

Santa Cruz Sentinel - 8/12/2018

Aug. 12--SANTA CRUZ -- With the dream of providing housing for their son and others with disabilities, Heidi Cartan and Philippe Habib invested their life savings to buy property in Santa Cruz and now they have city approval to build Costanoa Commons, a $9.75 million project.

Their land, 6.75 acres, is in a rural oasis where the city's 2030 vision calls for up to 400 residential units on 20 acres on Golf Club Drive to provide housing that is in short supply -- but coming up with a plan requires up-front costs by various property owners who until now were not in agreement.

Don't expect housing to spring up overnight.

"We're still years away," said David Cury,65, a UC Santa Cruz alum and local developer who with developer John Swift has owned about 6 acres in the area for 20 years. "These things take a lot of time."

To Cury, the idea of creating a new neighborhood is "super exciting," but he doesn't having any details to share.

"It's not designed yet," he said.

Few people live in the Golf Club Drive area, blessed by sunshine and Pogonip Creek, a haven for deer on their way to the 640-acre Pogonip greenbelt.

There are no sidewalks, no bike path, no street lights. Access is via a one-lane country road under an old railroad trestle, which by some estimates could cost $1 million to $2 million to widen. But it's tantalizingly close to Highway 9 and employers in the Harvey West industrial area.

Cury and Swift recently bought vacant land on Pioneer Street behind the former Goodwill headquarters, which has led to talk of a new road to improve access to Golf Club Drive.

"It's a logical way in for bicyclists and pedestrians," said Cury, who thinks a road could be "very expensive" -- a couple million dollars.

THREE YEARS

Habib, 55, spent three years to get a green light from the city.

He is the manager of Coastal Haven Families LLC, the parent group that pooled their resources to buy the Golf Club Drive property from Cathy Puccinelli, whose family owned the land past the trestle for more than 100 years.

The parents will split the land into three lots, build nine homes and a garage with a studio apartment for 22 young people and their caregivers on one lot, on the second lot restore the historic 1878 farmhouse, and build up the farm and greenhouse on the third lot where several organic farmers got their start.

The farm was fallow but now the garden is full of vegetables and flowers, with chickens cackling nearby. The young people harvest the crops alongside paid staff and volunteers and sell at the farm stand on Saturdays.

The parent group is paying to extend the sewer line, which would benefit future development, but the city approval came with three conditions the Costanoa founders feared would make their project financially impossible.

Habib wanted to challenge the approval to get those conditions removed but worried a delay would put the project past Oct. 15, when grading is halted for the rainy season.

"We need to get our project underway," he said. "Costs rise 5 percent a year."

UPFRONT COSTS

The Golf Drive area, where six individuals own six parcels, is zoned single-family residential. Development was restricted until 10 years ago when the city made changes to potentially allow more than 200 housing units.

Then the economy crashed, banks stopped lending, the state ended redevelopment funding that financed housing, and development plans in the city of Santa Cruz were shelved.

Two years ago as the housing shortage intensified, the city's 2030 plan recommended 10 to 20 units per acre.

Translation: That's 200 to 400 units.

As Swift put it, "the (city) council told the staff to do more units than fewer."

The "Golf Club Drive Area Plan," which would determine how many homes could be built, has not yet been written.

It's a plan Golf Club Drive homeowner Jim Felich has been wanting for 25 years. He estimates putting that plan together will cost $100,000.

Lee Butler, the city's community development director, said the city will be "intimately involved" in preparing a public engagement process for that area plan, but it won't happen this fiscal year.

How much of the housing will be affordable is sure to be one of the questions.

'DIE IN PEACE'

When Habib and his wife began working on the Costanoa Commons project, they knew they were taking a risk.

"None of us are wealthy," Habib said.

Ten other families got involved, taking out a second mortgage or cashing in a retirement account to buy the Puccinelli land on faith that the city would approve.

They planted the farm, brought in volunteers alongside chickens.

Their children, whether using a wheelchair or living with autism, Down Syndrome or cerebral palsy, participate to the best of their abilities.

"We bought land that would have housing and a nonprofit farm so our wonderful young men and women would have a safe place to walk unsupervised," said parent Sarah Fairchild. "Develop skills, meet people from the community work and play with friends."

Habib works a full-time job in San Jose.

His wife serves as the farm manager, a volunteer position, while caring for her son Noah, who at 22 has aged out of the school system and stays at home.

"There are no day program openings for him," she said. "I call this my 'die in peace' initiative because it really tries to address the fundamental question haunting all parents of special needs kids. Where will they live and who will care for them when we can't any longer or have passed away?"

BIKE PATH

Habib said he approached the city with a smaller project at first, but he was proposing multi-family housing in a single-family zone.

Ryan Bane, a city planner, suggested he apply to the city Historic Preservation Commission to allow multi-family use in exchange for rehabbing the 1878 farmhouse.

The commission approved the project and Habib expected it would sail through the next step, zoning administrator approval.

But the week before the July 18 zoning administrator's hearing, Swift and Cury requested the city add three conditions to the Costanoa Commons project.

"We support your project," Swift emailed Habib. "We just need to make sure that your project does not result in the obstruction of the Area Plan and future development of the rest of the properties."

To Habib, the conditions would cost parents more money and take away some of their land.

The city's vision calls for a path for people on foot and on bicycle from Golf Club Drive to Harvey West, which "would make for a more liveable neighborhood," said Cury, who bikes the 8-foot-wide Arana Gulch trail and envisions something similar.

Habib told Swift he didn't want to give up part of his property for the bike path.

Another condition called for Costanoa property owners to pay their "fair share" of communal improvements, and Habib had no idea what that would cost.

A third was a "no protest" agreement covering future transportation and utility assessments.

Habib anticipated nearly 50 conditions but to challenge these three, the Costanoa parents hired the Pelosi Law Group of San Francisco, which submitted a six-page letter asking all three conditions to be deleted.

On the day of the hearing before city zoning administrator Eric Marlatt, the Costanoa parents, fearing the worst, protested outside City Hall with their children.

They carried signs saying, "Don't hold our homes and farm hostage" and "Community Development vs Greedy Developers."

The Costanoa project was approved with the disputed conditions intact.

$11 MILLION

Swift, Cury and Felich met with Habib afterward to resolve the dispute.

"I think people are satisfied with the compromise and the final wording of the conditions," Swift told the Sentinel.

He said the other property owners support housing for the young people but they want Costanoa Commons to participate in the area plan that has to be prepared before other properties can be developed.

"We think it is justifiable," Swift said, considering the size of Costanoa Commons. "Ten units, 38 to 40 bedrooms. It's a pretty significant project."

Here is how the conditions were reworded:

--If the farm lot is developed, the property owner may -- not shall -- dedicate an easement for a bike and foot path. If the farm lot is not developed, but the area plan designates a public access through that lot, the owner may dedicate an easement and be compensated.

--If the area plan requires communal improvements requiring contributions from all property owners and if more homes beyond the 10 are built, then Costanoa Commons will pay a fair share. The city estimated transportation improvements at $11 million, including widening the trestle, curb, gutter, sidewalk, street lights and stormwater system, bike path and walkway, sewer line extension, water upgrades and improving the Golf Club Drive-Highway 9 intersection. The city formula estimated Costanoa Commons would pay $275,000 to $550,000, based on their 10 units being 2.5 percent to 5 percent of the 200 to 400 units in the Golf Club Drive plan.

--Costanoa Commons retains the right to object to future improvements and the method of calculating fair share payments.

Habib is not sure compromise is the right word but he appreciates being able to refocus on providing lifelong housing for people with disabilities and those who support them.

SHANGRI-LA

Rebecca Schell, 65, grew up on a 6-acre chicken ranch and walnut orchard on Golf Club Drive. Her family's house was a railroad stop, built around the same time as the Puccinelli's.

"I think it was 1876," Schell said. "Pogonip was my back yard."

Going under the trestle, she recalled, was like "opening up to the Shangri-La, this hidden nook, not anything like it in town...It's precious to my soul."

When her mother died, she inherited the property where her parents had a campground called Pine Grove.

Because of the city restrictions, her four children have not been able to build homes on the family's property.

Schell supports Costanoa Commons -- "they've got a great concept and a need for that" -- but is puzzled that project went forward without an area plan while other property owners have had to wait.

She is resigned to having an area plan but wonders if there's enough area to make it worthwhile.

"I'm personally not developing," she said. "They are going to have to offer me a fair and reasonable price."

LLAMA LOVE

Felich, 72, bought his 3.3 acres on Golf Club Drive with the creek in the back more than 35 years ago, next to the Puccinellis.

He planted the redwoods that stand tall and weeping willows came up on their own. .

He said Swift offered to buy his property but he wasn't ready.

A tech retiree, Felich enjoys his workshop where he builds exhibits for the Children's Museum of Discovery and is designing a solar system so he can become energy-independent.

Besides, he's got a trio of 3-year-old llamas, Tony, Curly and Fernando, who are happy where they are.

"I recognize the property will eventually get developed," Felich said. "The question is a matter of when... We don't want to see it developed piecemeal."

Getting the Golf Club Drive area plan completed would make each of the properties more valuable because developers would know the developable acreage and how many housing units can be built.

"I would like to see the property values get maximized so when I give it to my kids they'll benefit from it," Felich said.

For decades, in order to develop the land, the city required a "specific plan," a detailed plan that Felich said could cost a couple hundred thousand dollars, too much for the handful of property owners. The adoption of the city's 2030 plan lifted that requirement.

The area plan is more general and not as expensive. The first step is a traffic study, counting vehicles using Golf Club Drive, then figuring out the bike path and vehicle access.

Felich said a bike path connecting to Harvey West is "a good idea" and he plans to give 6-10 feet of his property to make it possible.

His vision is to build a senior community by the trees on his property, apartments with indoor corridors and elevators, parking underneath to leave space for a community garden.

"I'm getting older," he said. "I may end up there myself."

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(c)2018 the Santa Cruz Sentinel (Scotts Valley, Calif.)

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