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Board approves utility easements for Cross Creek connector after Red Rock HOA seeks waterline easement
Summary
On April 15 the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a package of utility easements for the Cross Creek connector. A nearby homeowners association asked the board to guarantee a waterline easement and written commitments from South 32, which the board did not formally adopt but heard during public comment.
The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved utility easements related to the Cross Creek connector project during its April 15 meeting.
The move clears recorded easements attorneys reviewed with representatives of Sulphur Springs Valley Electric Cooperative and mining company South 32, county staff said. "This has been, well, reviewed by county as well as attorneys, involved with both Sulphur Springs and South 32 with regards to the easements. So the easements are all proper. The legal descriptions are all accurate," a county attorney told the board.
The board took the action after a resident and the Red Rock Acres Homeowners Association asked the county to grant a separate formal easement for an underground waterline and to secure a written commitment from South 32 to provide temporary water service if the community's aging line fails. "We are requesting that the Red Rock HOA be granted a formal easement for underground water on properties and public right of way owned and controlled by the county," said Stephanie Arness, who identified herself as representing Red Rock Acres.
Arness pointed the board to maps included with the agenda (Exhibit A, proposed SSVEC electrical easement overview and enlargement detail 3) showing alignments near Red Rock Drive and Red Rock Lane and asked the county to work with the HOA to determine and grant a permanent easement for the community waterline.
County staff did not state on the record that the board would add the HOA's requested separate waterline easement at that meeting. The easement items before the board covered the utility easements needed for the Cross Creek connector; after a brief confirmation from counsel that the legal descriptions and review were complete, the chair called the vote. The motion carried unanimously.
The board's vote approves the legal easements described in the agenda packet and authorizes staff to record and implement them. The agenda packet referenced SSVEC and related electrical and utility easement documents; the board's approval did not include a recorded written guarantee from South 32 to provide temporary water service to Red Rock Acres. Arness told the board she had been promised temporary water service in the past and asked for that assurance in writing.
County staff and the association are expected to follow up on the HOA's request outside the meeting. The board did not announce additional formal direction or schedule a separate action item on the requested waterline easement during the session.
Votes at a glance: the motion to grant the Cross Creek-related utility easements passed on a unanimous voice vote.
