Scotts Valley

Fewer homes planned for Scotts Valley Town Green

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Press Banner staff report

Original article: http://www.goldenstatenewspapers.com/press_banner/news/fewer-homes-planned-for-town-green/article_8dd18b4e-3182-11e9-9cdb-63c259aab380.html

FEBRUARY 15, 2019, SCOTTS VALLEY, CA >>> The developers behind the Scotts Valley Town Green project are reducing the amount of residential units they are seeking and hope to start construction early next year. Town Green LLC held the last of four planned public meetings Feb. 7 at the Community Center. They talked about why the project had evolved from a retail center to a residential one in the more than ten years since the Town Center Specific Plan was first drafted. “I think everybody realizes the retail environment’s changed so we’ve adapted our plan to what we think will stand the test of time,” Doug Ross, a principal with the developer, said referring to the rise of Amazon and other online retailers. After being questioned by a community member, Ross talked about why that change is necessary.

“There’s no question that close to half, or more based on surface area, of this project is residential because we need that economic engine to pay for all these improvements, pay for the town

The proposed space for the Scotts Valley Town Center remains vacant.
Photo by David Leland/Press Banner

green and provide a community facilities district so we can maintain this without any additional burden to the city,” he said, referring to not increasing taxes or fees to pay for the Town Green. He also added that they have reduced the number of apartments and townhomes on the 13.5-acre site in response to public outcry expressed during three other meetings, 125 survey responses and meetings with 67 local businesses.

“What we’ve done over the evolution of these community meetings and other feedback is we have reduced our housing units,” Ross said. “Our proposal originally, if we were selected by the council, we had 310 units. We’re now reducing that density down to 225, 235 range depending upon our product mix. We’ve lowered the heights — originally had a lot of four-story buildings. Now the majority of our buildings are two- and three-stories.”

Ross told people at the meeting that the Town Green would be more than residences, describing a central point for social events. “We’ve got a large focus on food, beverage and entertainment because we think that will be the catalyst to draw people to the town,” he said, describing indoor and outdoor dining, a one-acre open green space for events and walkable street. “We’ve identified a potential anchor that we can’t disclose at the moment.” Another community member asked about the amenities that are already on the land, including the dog park. Ross said they were working with the city to relocate the dog park before construction.

The developers are also working with the farmer’s market to relocate there as well as Scotts Valley festivals. The plan’s architect, Jon Wordon, called adding a town center to an already established urban environment the equivalent of a “heart transplant” with all the preparation and care that goes with it. The developers must submit their plan, economic data, environmental impact report and other documents to the city by the end of March. The planning commission will then make a recommendation to the City Council, which has the last word about the future of Town Green.
“This process is going to continue and we want to get everyone’s input,” Ross promised. He said the group hopes to have final approvals by the end of this year and break ground by next spring. The affordable housing elements he said would be funded by tax credits and come after the main construction had begun. He said they were moving fast with one goal in mind. “What we don’t want is to create this great town green and then have it under construction for the next five years, have it as a noisy dustbowl.”

Contact the Press Banner at pbeditor@pressbanner.com or (831)438-2500.

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Talk About Money: Benefits of Measure A worth the cost in taxes

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Measure A will authorize the Scotts Valley School District to borrow $35 million for safety upgrades and to build a new middle school.
By Mark Rosenberg
http://www.pressbanner.com/view/full_story/25113609/article-Talk-About-Money–Benefits-of-Measure-A-worth-the-cost-in-taxes?instance=home_community

Thursday, May 15, 2014 – “If you could find a major city that actually had a functioning, good public school system, you should buy all the real estate.” – Sam Zell. It is beyond the means of readers of this column to buy all the real estate in Scotts Valley, but that doesn’t make the advice of the multi-billionaire real estate developer any less valid. I wasn’t able to reach Zell to ask his opinion on Measure A, which, if approved by 55 percent of voters on June 3, will authorize the Scotts Valley School District to borrow $35 million for safety upgrades and to build a new middle school.

Property owners would pay $57 per $100,000 of assessed value every year until the loan is paid off in about 25 years. Last month, I looked at the numbers. This month, I planned to ask local Realtors if they think Measure A is a good deal for property owners, even if they have no kids who will attend the new school.

But I’ve had second thoughts. Local realtors might be reluctant to say anything negative about the plan because they don’t want to upset anyone in education-obsessed Scotts Valley. Being anti-schools in Scotts Valley is like being anti-garlic in Gilroy. So I spoke with Realtors outside the city, who are less worried about ruffling local feathers.

“I can see both sides,” said Frank O’Mahony, a Realtor in Santa Fe, N.M., home to many retirees. “Why pay a few hundred dollars a year extra to educate someone else’s kids?” In his previous job, O’Mahony worked for the state of New Mexico, recruiting companies to the state. “We lost several relocation opportunities because the companies thought the quality of schools in New Mexico was not what they needed,” he said. “Quality schools are part of the infrastructure that attracts people willing to pay more for your property,” he said. “You have to invest in streetlights, cops on the beat, roads and good schools. The cost is minimal compared to the investment in quality of life.”

Closer to home, Barbara Stewart is a realty broker in Los Gatos who recently handled a sale of a home in the Cupertino School District, where test scores are the highest in the region. The house was listed at $925,000, drew 56 offers and sold for $1.33 million. Stewart said the exact same home three blocks away — which would be outside the Cupertino district — would have sold for about $1 million. She said she sees a similar situation in Los Gatos, where schools also have high test scores. A few hundred dollars a year, Stewart said, is little to pay compared with the cost of sending a child to private school, where tuition can run $25,000 to $50,000 a year.

Even closer to home, Wayne Shaffer is a broker in Santa Cruz who owns property in Scotts Valley: a nine-unit apartment building, an office building and some commercial land with total assessed value of about $3 million. He won’t have kids attending Scotts Valley schools, but he’ll be paying an extra $1,700 a year if Measure A passes. “It’s a negative,” Shaffer said. “But having great schools makes Scotts Valley a safer community.” He said he doesn’t plan to raise rents to offset his higher costs. High vacancy rates prevent him from raising office rents, and he doesn’t like to raise rents on families. But, if one of his apartment tenants moves out, the new tenant will pay more rent, he said.

Personally, as a Scotts Valley homeowner, I’m not thrilled about being on the hook for hundreds of dollars a year in extra taxes to pay for a school my kids will be too old to attend. But a new school will support property values and help keep Scotts Valley a safe and thriving place, so I’m voting yes.

– Mark Rosenberg is a financial adviser with Financial West Group in Scotts Valley, a member of FINRA and SIPC. He can be reached at 831-439-9910 or mrosenberg@fwg.com.

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