The Capitola City Council on Aug. 28 declined to select a specific zoning approach for the Capitola Mall redevelopment and instead continued the item to the Sept. 11 meeting. Council appointed Councilmembers Orbach and Westman to a subcommittee to hold preliminary talks with mall property owners, including Merlone Geier, and to update the council on progress.

The council considered three main options for implementing the city’s housing-element directives for the block bounded by Cliff Street, Capitola Road and 40 First Avenue: (1) revise the city’s objective standards (an extensive zoning amendment with broad public engagement), (2) an expedited, limited objective-standards approach that staff said could meet the state Housing and Community Development (HCD) schedule, and (3) a site-specific form-based code that is more prescriptive and typically requires heavy stakeholder buy-in.

Staff told council that the city’s housing-element language supports increased height (up to 75 feet in redevelopment areas), floor-area ratio adjustments to exclude structured parking from FAR, and adoption of objective standards or similar code amendments that make multifamily redevelopment feasible. Merlone Geier, a major property owner on the block, wrote to staff urging option 2—the expedited objective-standards path—so the developer could move more quickly to a project design. At the meeting some residents and planning commissioners urged more public engagement and recommended a more deliberative hybrid approach (which council labeled “option 4” during discussion).

Councilmembers debated tradeoffs. Vice Mayor Morgan and others emphasized speed and the need to meet housing-element implementation deadlines and said option 2 would maximize the chance of an early project submittal. Councilmember Westman and others said the site’s multiple property owners (and reciprocal easement agreements) make an inclusive process crucial; they urged the council to get a clearer, early concept from Merlone Geier so the city can align standards to a realistic project.

Rather than choosing among the three formal options, the council voted to continue the item to the Sept. 11 meeting and asked the new council subcommittee (Orbach and Westman) to meet with mall stakeholders, coordinate with staff, and brief the council. Council members said they want a path that both advances the housing-element objectives and creates a predictable, achievable framework for a design that can win community buy-in.