As students, we’ve all had personal struggles with housing in Santa Cruz, like nearly every student to come through UCSC in recent years.
An overall shortage of housing units has resulted in a crisis where 9% of UCSC students have reported experiencing homelessness. We fear that Measure M will delay or prevent progress in building adequate housing for the student and community in Santa Cruz.
If Measure M were to pass, the pace of building new housing would be even slower than it is now, as hard as that is to believe. Measure M would require a citywide vote on any development that would increase building height limits over what is allowed under the city’s current zoning requirements. According to the Measure M Impact Report presented before City Council on January 23, Measure M would restrict housing supply in Santa Cruz. The impact report states that the requirement of a citywide vote results in “additional time, additional costs, and increased uncertainty for developers.”
Given UCSC’s new housing system, which replaces priority housing for disadvantaged students with a lottery system, the need for affordable, mixed-use, dense development near transit is crucial now more than ever.
Like myself, many students are car-free, which poses a challenge when looking for off-campus housing. The biggest factor in choosing where to live is proximity within walking, biking, or bus distance from campus and other essential needs. Building housing near where students are already drawn to live, such as along transit corridors, incentivizes both development and better METRO service.
METRO adjusts routes and frequency based on neighborhood population density. Higher student concentrations prompt faster service to campus, with UCSC students constituting roughly 35% of METRO ridership. By building dense housing near existing METRO lines that go to campus, we can maximize the amount of students we house while ensuring that students can have a quick route to campus. Measure M would block the ability to build dense housing, or at least significantly delay it.
In the context of Reimagine METRO Phase 2 and METRO’s forthcoming Wave Service, building more housing near existing transit centers and transit lines is key to maximizing usage of public transit and disincentivizing car use. Disincentivizing car use is key to achieving Santa Cruz’s climate goals, with 69% of Santa Cruz County’s emissions coming from transportation.
Moreover, fostering residential areas and local businesses around transit centers not only caters to pedestrian-friendly environments but also stimulates local economies. These areas become hubs of activity that encourage exploration and naturally draw both residents and transit users to support local businesses, often beyond their initial plans.
Addressing the housing shortage and cost of living crisis requires a multifaceted approach that does not focus solely on building dense housing. We know that fighting for rent control, reforming exclusionary zoning, and establishing community land trusts are ways that can work in tandem with dense housing development to solve this crisis. Efforts like Measure M, which delay development, contribute to the exclusion of key community members, including students and low-income individuals.
Let’s be clear: we don’t want to drastically change the character of Santa Cruz that drew us here, and we value the neighborhoods of our city and their cohesiveness. However, we feel alternate thoughtful and collaborative approaches can address the need for transportation reforms without compromising Santa Cruz’s character. Forcing city-wide referendums with a binary yes/no question for every development, as Measure M calls for, fails to effectively address the housing crisis. Please join the many pro-housing organizations, including the UCSC Student Housing Coalition, and vote No on Measure M. Voting continues through March 5.
