Planning commission approves 67‑unit Mission Street mixed‑use project amid neighborhood concerns

The City of Santa Cruz Planning Commission on July 17 approved a six‑story, 67‑unit mixed‑use project at 811–819 Mission Street, voting unanimously after an extended public comment period that focused on parking, a missing loading zone and privacy impacts for adjacent homes.

Project planner Rena Zoe told commissioners the applicant proposes to demolish three residential dwelling units, combine three lots and construct a six‑story building with ground‑floor commercial space. The site is zoned community commercial under the city general plan and, because the CC zone lists no base density, staff calculated a fully conforming base of 33 residential units; the applicant requested a 100% density bonus to reach 67 units.

The project team said it redesigned the building after community meetings and is offering several voluntary measures to soften impacts. Jessica Presley, representing Workbench on the applicant team, said the application “reflects months of collaboration, design refinement, and community engagement” and that the team sought to “create a thoughtful, context sensitive development to provide attainable housing and minimize impact to the existing neighbors.” Developer Andy Goldberg told the commission he would “remain open to all ideas that can help the project be more widely accepted by the neighbors.”

Why it matters: state housing laws and the density‑bonus framework limit local discretion on projects that meet objective requirements, while individual neighborhoods often bear street‑level impacts such as spillover parking, loading…