Council to address infrastructure, housing
The city of Capitola's ongoing efforts to repair its transportation infrastructure and update its housing plans will come into focus this week at an upcoming City Council meeting.
The council will first consider a staff recommendation to authorize the city manager to execute a professional services agreement with CSW/StuberStroeh Engineering Group in the amount of $1.19 million for repairs to Cliff Drive, which suffered extensive damages during last winter's storms.
The route is a heavily used arterial road, serves as the primary evacuation route for the low-lying Capitola Village area and provides coastal access and parking for visitors, according to the staff report. But the storm surge and heavy rainfall in January damaged the rip rap revetment adjacent to the road and induced some localized bluff erosion.
To help fund the effort, the city successfully secured emergency relief to the tune of about $839,400 from the Federal Highway Administration and Caltrans Local Assistance program of which roughly $743,000 will be reimbursed, according to the staff report. The city also previously received $450,000 from the California Coastal Commission Local Coastal Program Local Assistance Grant Program for a future anticipated project on Cliff Drive and some of this money can be used as the local match needed to secure the federal aid.
The city has outlined a two-phase approach for the effort and the funding stipulates that the project must be ready to request construction funding by September 2025. The
first phase involves understanding the existing conditions, opportunities and constraints associated with Cliff Drive, which will then lead to development of project alternatives.
The second phase will focus on completing the environmental review process and obtaining permits for environmental regulatory agencies and the California Coastal Commission, according to the staff report.
Housing element
Capitola's Community Development Department is also preparing to share the latest on the city's ongoing effort to update its housing element before the state-mandated Dec. 15 deadline.
According to state law, housing elements must be updated every eight years. This newest cycle, known as the 6th Cycle, requires the city to identify adequate sites and establish policies and programs accommodating for the construction of 1,336 units from 2024-2031. That is more than nine times the total required in the previous cycle, which was 143.
After months of stakeholder meetings and community workshops, the city submitted a draft of the housing element to the state's Department of
Housing and Community Development for review in May. City staff has received two rounds of preliminary comments from state authorities and each time its housing element was updated and reissued for public review.
The latest round of edits
includes possible planning for housing opportunities on state lands such as the DMV at 4200 Capitola Road and New Brighton State Beach. Modifications to the city's shopping center and community benefits incentives programs were requested to ensure deliverables are based on the outcome of the mall redevelopment land use study, ordered by the City Council at its Sept. 14 meeting.
The latest draft of the housing element, released Sept. 19, is available at cityofcapitola.org. A hard copy is at City Hall, 420 Capitola Ave.