Ocean Street housing development gets fresh start
Developer hopes to begin construction in 2025
After plans to develop the mixed-use “Ocean Place” complex on the 900 block of Ocean Street failed to get off the ground after years in the making, a new development team has jumped into the pilot seat and hopes to see its revised project to completion by mid-2027.
The 3.84-acre building site spans 18 parcels at and around 908 Ocean St., which backs up to May Avenue and spans the area between Marianne's Ice Cream and Togo's Sandwiches.
The new developer for the project, High Street Residential, a subsidiary of international developer Trammel Crow Co., began the application process in July, and hopes to build one five-story and two three-story buildings with a total of 354 housing units, which would accommodate about 500 people.
The proposed five-story building on Ocean Street will have 8,860 square feet of ground floor commercial space and about a 1,000 square feet of ground floor patio space and a subterranean garage. There are a total of 354 residential parking spaces and 25 commercial spaces included in the plans.
The project applicants are utilizing California State
Density Bonus Law, which allows developers to waive local building standards if a percentage of affordable housing units are included in a project. According to the project plans, 53 units, or about 15% of the total, would be considered affordable. Plans would include demolishing eight commercial buildings and 12 residential units to make way for three new buildings.
Eight of the current residential units are occupied and the residents will
be displaced by the project, according to the High Street Residential developers at the community meeting, which was held Thursday evening, virtually and at the Resource Center for Nonviolence. According to state law and city code, low and moderate income residents who are displaced by demolition or conversion of a building are entitled to a comparable replacement unit and relocation assistance, which for the city, equates to two months of rent.
“As part of this development, we will be required to replace the units that we are demolishing with the same unit type,” said Brian Pianca of High Street Residential. “For instance there is a four-bedroom unit on site and we will be required to make sure we have a four bedroom within our development.”
The site plans presented at the meeting were new to everyone except the designers and are yet to be approved by the city planners. The new design includes a paseo that splits the property down the middle, connecting Ocean Street to May Avenue. The paseo was not part of the original plan proposed by High Street Residential and was added per a recommendation from the city.
“One of the main comments that we received from planning staff was to improve the connectivity of the site,” said Pianca. “It will really allow pedestrians to travel through the site so that they can access the bus stop.”
During the questionand-comment period of the meeting, some hailed the project while others had concerns about the unprecedented scale of the 354 unit three-building complex (the development under construction at Pacific Avenue and Laurel Street has 205 units) and the boxy design of the buildings themselves. Pianca said that the specific design components are still in flux.
“There is a balance and we are hoping to find that balance,” said Pianca. “We're open to more traditional features as we work through the process.”
One of the concerns expressed was about public access to the paseo specifically, which one community member thought could become a new loitering area for people experiencing homelessness, but Pianca pointed out that there would be gates at the paseo's entrances, and security on site.
Once the application for the project is completed and approved, the development will be reviewed by the planning commission, which the applicant hopes will happen this time next year, and move forward from there. If it is determined that an environmental impact report is required through CEQA guidelines, a public scoping will be held for the project.
For updates, visit cityofsantacruz.com.