According to leaders of the City of Scotts Valley, the city is doing A-OK.
On Sept. 16, the Senior Life Association of Scotts Valley hosted the annual State of the City address at The Landing. The theater was filled with local residents who had questions about everything from new housing construction to the Town Center project to water consumption to e-bikes, and their concerns were addressed by officials on the dais.
Mayor Derek Timm introduced speakers Steve Walpole (Chief of Police), Mark Correira (Fire District Chief), David McNair (Water District Manager), Tanya Krause (Superintendent of Scotts Valley Unified School District) and Roger Snyder (School Board President). Each of them took a turn at the podium to share the efforts undertaken by their respective programs, and the 90-minute presentation had something for everyone.
Timm shared that Scotts Valley takes in $31.9 million in revenue annually ($15.2 million from taxes), has 95% of budgeted staff positions filled and boasts more than 12,200 residents and 1,000 businesses, but his main focus was on the development of the Town Center project that has been treading water in the background for years.
The long-anticipated purchase of the Town Center property received a major boost thanks to Congressman Jimmy Panetta, who helped secure a $1 million earmark from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. That funding was directed specifically to assist with the acquisition. Timm said this allocation was a critical step in moving the project forward and turning the vision for a community Town Center into reality.
Timm estimates that the project will result in 30,000 to 40,000 feet of retail in the new center, along with pathways for visitors to access other shopping and dining options. Overall, said Timm, the city was more intent on getting feedback from residents rather than allowing the project to be developer-driven.
In addressing the housing construction boom, Timm noted that there are some projects that will be built without ever coming before the city for approval. State housing policy continues to reshape how local governments manage development, meaning cities like Scotts Valley have far less control over what gets built.
In recent years, Sacramento has passed roughly 70 housing bills—and new ones are added each legislative cycle—that restrict the ability of municipalities to reject certain housing projects.
“These laws are complicated and often come with unusually short deadlines,” Timm explained. “If a developer submits a project, the city must respond within 30 days. It’s difficult for staff to keep pace.”
Scotts Valley has been assigned a Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) goal of 220 new housing units that must be approved or planned within the next seven years. Timm said developers are increasingly using these state laws to bypass local review and limit the scope of community discussions around new projects.
Other projects championed by Timm include a new Marriott Residence Inn and a new playground at Skypark, and he promised an update on the Valley Gardens development.
Police department achieves full staffing
Police Chief Walpole, the 2024 Man of the Year, was pleased to announce that the department is now fully staffed, thanks to an increase in wages and outreach to other local agencies.
“This is only the second time our department has been fully staffed in the last 25 years,” Walpole said.
In 2024, traffic stops were down 14% and citations were down 4%. The chief dispelled the rumor that traffic tickets are a great money maker for the city.
“Traffic citations are not a revenue generator. Whatever fine you eventually pay on a traffic ticket, only about 10% comes to the city and the rest of it goes to the courts, the county and the state,” he said.
Burglaries in the city were down more than 50%, but thefts were up over 40%.
“There was a change to the law at the beginning of this year that made shoplifting a crime again, so that was part of the increase,” Walpole reported.
In answer to a question about e-bikes, Walpole said the department is aware of the issue and has started to ticket riders accordingly. The department also received an Office of Traffic Safety grant to do some special enforcement on e-bikes.
“We have been citing these kids left and right and impounding their bikes. It has had some effect, but if there are kids that are running red lights and stop signs on their e-bikes, putting more rules on top of it isn’t going to help out,” Walpole said. “I was driving an unmarked car to this meeting and I saw a kid with another kid on the back of the bike run a red light right in front of the fire station. Thank God no fire truck was coming through.”
In closing, Walpole introduced the crowd to Police K9 Sam (by photo only), a drug-detection Labrador retriever that might be the cutest and most popular officer on the force.
Fire chief reflects on busy year
Fire Chief Correira reported on the 2024 stats from the department.
Correria noted that his administration staff usually work out of the Erba Lane Station, but the building is unsafe to house those personnel due to a concrete wall that could collapse in an earthquake; given that factor, SVFD administration is now located at the Glenwood Drive facility while construction begins to shore up the Erba Lane location.
In December 2023, Branciforte joined the Scotts Valley Fire family, allowing for three permanent fire personnel to manage the call volume of the approximately 3,100 residents in the area.
SVFD ran 2,437 calls in 2024, with over 1,400 requiring Emergency Medical Services assistance. Since 2021, incident counts have increased an average of 5% each year.
“The more little tiny boxes that are built in the community, when two to three people move into each one of those, the higher the likelihood we’re going to have more incidents,” Correira said.
Expenses impacting the department include the purchase of assets, such as a new Type 1 engine (typically used in residential firefighting and initial EMS response), a new Type 6 fire truck (a smaller, more agile 4-wheel drive vehicle generally used during wildland fires) that will be deployed around the Branciforte area, and a new-to-the-department 20-year-old EMS vehicle that was a hand-me-down from Boulder Creek to Felton to Scotts Valley.
Correira also gave a nod to the tornado that touched down in the city in December 2024, along with a multiple-vehicle fire from July 2024 that consumed 10 cars, with five of them being a total loss.
In addition, new Fire Marshal Erin Collins was recognized and celebrated by Correira for her hard work and dedication to the department. Lastly, the chief gave a heads-up about the SVFD Pancake Breakfast on Saturday, Oct. 4, from 8-11am at Station 1, located at 7 Erba Lane.
Water resources and future initiatives
McNair provided an overview of water district operations around the city. With about 4,400 water connections, the district is managing their resources well.
Residents shared fears about the availability of water for the area, and McNair advised that new builds have water conservation efforts built into their construction, allowing for the city to provide water at a reduced consumption rate compared to older homes.
“A lot of these opportunity zones for future housing are using recycled water for irrigation,” McNair said.
He also spoke about an intertie with the city of Santa Cruz, which will move 1.5 million gallons of water in either direction, and the pending capital improvements budget of $1 million. The water district was the recipient of a $1 million grant to help offset the costs of the upcoming work being done within the district.
School district celebrates progress
To close, SVUSD Superintendent Krause and Board President Snyder celebrated the positive direction in which the school district is headed.
Measure O passed by just 28 votes in 2024, giving the district $85 million to launch some capital improvements on the various campuses. All the schools now have solar power on-site, which greatly reduces the district’s PG&E bills, along with heat and air conditioning installed.
Multipurpose rooms are being planned for both elementary schools (Brook Knoll and Vine Hill), and the high school will be gifted with a state-of-the-art stadium that includes a turf track, all-weather field, press box and improved locker room facilities.
In addition, there are plans for new playground equipment at the elementary schools, repairs for leaking roofs, outdated pipes and electrical wiring, and increasing student access to technology.
The middle school received a Distinguished School Award in 2024, but there are some bumps in the road ahead for the district.
“We are the seventh lowest funded unified school district in the entire State of California, and we’re disadvantaged as a result of not having a property tax base. It’s a good thing we have fewer students with high needs, but the way the state formulas work, that disadvantages us. We’ve had rising special education costs every year and those costs increase without any additional funding to help support that. So, we have to take money from our general fund in order to support our special education kids,” said Snyder, who noted that declining enrollment and increased absenteeism negatively impact the district’s bottom line.
Overall test scores in English, math and science show that SVUSD is well above the state average, and Krause celebrated the new Wellness Center that opened at the high school, resulting in increased positive collaboration between students and staff.
The school’s student-run Hope Squad also provides compassionate peer-to-peer support for students who are struggling with mental health issues, and Krause was quick to applaud the efforts of those involved with the program.
The Scotts Valley State of the City is presented each year at The Landing, right next door to the Scotts Valley Library. Keep an eye out for next year’s event by following the venue’s calendar at thelandingsv.org.
