Letter to the SC Sentinel, 6/9/2022
Sonja Brunner’s Mayor’s Message, “How do We Get to Affordable Housing” (May 22) tells part of the positive story of affordable housing in the pipeline for downtown. Left out is the full story of the mixed-use project on Lot 4, a project design that actually limits housing. Moving the library from Civic Center and squeezing it into a mixed-use foot print to accommodate a parking garage (possibly as large as 400 spaces) restricts the number of housing units that can be built. This plan does not maximize our scarce city land resources.
Yet, the city plans to move the Farmers Market to Lot 7, a lot that can be utilized to build more housing than on Lot 4. Does this make sense? Better to renovate the library at Civic Center – remember Measure S, scrap the parking garage, build more housing on Lot 7. That’s how we get to affordable housing.
— Bob Morgan, Santa Cruz