The County Planning Department knows there are hundreds of unpermitted dwellings throughout the unincorporated areas of Santa Cruz County, especially up and down the San Lorenzo Valley. Aimed at insuring a basic level of health and fire safety in these living spaces, the county has rolled out a new “Limited Immunity Amnesty Program,” called the Safe Structures Program, to improve the safety of both residents and neighbors of these “not-entirely-legal” residential spaces, while trying to avoid the dreaded “Red Tag” that puts people out of much needed affordable housing.
Almost two months since the Santa Cruz County Civil Grand Jury released its findings about the San Lorenzo Valley Water District (SLVWD) board of directors, the public still remains critical of the response from the directors.
It would seem the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) would be the last agency that needs convincing rents have risen sharply in Santa Cruz County. Yet that is what the Housing Authority of the County of Santa Cruz needed to do- prove the HUD-imposed rent caps for the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program were simply too low for the program to be successful.
After buying home insurance from Liberty Mutual more than 35 years ago, Bob St. Clair received a letter stating that because his house in the Whispering Pines neighborhood of Scotts Valley was facing increased risk of wildfire and difficulty of access by emergency vehicles, Liberty Mutual was “choosing not to renew” his home insurance policy.
With the City of Scotts Valley anticipating several new housing and commercial projects in the coming years, a question among many is, can the water supply support the future of the town.
Imagine a pager beeping in the middle of the night, waking you from the depths of a dead sleep. There’s no option to simply ignore it or crawl back under the covers. Instead, you must immediately get dressed and mentally prepare yourself for the unknown.
Candidates interested in running for any of the school or special districts or city offices up for election on November 6, 2018 may begin to file candidate papers with either the Santa Cruz County Elections Department for districts, or the appropriate City Clerks’ Office for city offices beginning Monday, July 16.
Linda Skeff is on a mission- to eradicate invasive species and restore native plant habitat up and down the San Lorenzo Valley. After three years of leading teams of AmeriCorps Volunteers to “pull out the invasive and restore the natives”, Skeff has her sights on a nearer term goal than the whole valley, but no less ambitious.
Next month, several participants will run the trails through Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park marking the 50th anniversary of Felton’s oldest long-distance race.
While the housing affordability crisis has given rise to calls for tenant protections and rent control across the state, one of the last strongholds of affordable home ownership – mobile homes- now has a bill in the state assembly aimed at providing more protection and legal recourse to those who own their own home, but rent the space their home occupies from the owner of the mobile home park.