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In This Issue...
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Driving Impaired: The Costs & Consequences
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Opinions
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Updating the Aptos Village Plan
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Updating the Aptos Village Plan
By County Supervisor Ellen Pirie
Aptos residents have shared a common vision for Aptos Village for many years. The vision is of a small village that is the "heart" of Aptos, a place for the young and old to live, work, shop, walk, eat and be entertained, with a mix of housing, shops and offices.
The idea is that some people will be within a short walk of the village, while others will be driving by on their way to and from work or school. Many of the needs of daily life would be available in the neighborhood-serving businesses of the village.
While that has been the vision since the first Aptos Village Plan was adopted in 1979, and several development proposals have been put forward, the vision was never realized. The primary reason was that the configuration of parcels and ownership in the village made it infeasible to develop coherently.
The process of updating the Aptos Village Plan started in 2001 when the Aptos business community and area residents began discussing how to make development more feasible and in keeping with the current desires of the community.
Comparing the Old and the New
The 2009 updated Aptos Village Plan, now in draft form, shares the same vision but addresses the parcel configuration, a key to keeping the plan from becoming a dust collector. It also contains important additions of green concepts, limitations on residential development, and changes to allowed commercial development.
I thought it would be instructive to compare the key features of the existing Aptos Village Plan with those of the draft Plan update.
Land Uses
While both plans call for a mix of residential and commercial uses, the existing plan covers an 80-acre area and would allow 2,500 to 3,000 more residents. The number of homes allowed to be built isn't specified.
The updated version covers a much smaller area and would allow 63 modest new residences to accommodate about 200 people.
In the existing plan, the homes would be on the edges of the village with some mixed use in the village core. The updated plan envisions three housing areas: six townhouses on the northern slope, up to 11 townhouses on the south side of Granite Way, and apartments above businesses in the core area.
Building Size and Appearance
Whereas the existing plan identifies 1890 as the architectural style and allows only wood siding, the updated plan allows a variety of styles and siding so that buildings appear to have been built over time.
The idea is to avoid the "theme park" look that has been frozen in time. The updated plan requires a repetition of existing designs, such as porches and overhangs.
An important difference is the limitation on the size of stores and buildings.
The existing plan, while encouraging small-scale commercial development, limits a single building to 10,000 square feet but does not limit the total square footage of commercial buildings. The updated plan also emphasizes small-scale commercial uses, but limits the total commercial use to 75,000 square feet.
The updated plan would also allow the 12,000-square-foot Apple Barn, the largest building in the village, to be moved and become the anchor retail. It is anticipated that this historic barn will be readapted as a grocery store. The plan also allows a "sub-anchor" store of up to 7,500 square feet.
In the updated plan, stores are limited in size so that it is unlikely that they will be chain store "magnets," pulling lots of shoppers from outside the area.
The maximum building height allowed in the existing plan is two stories. However, the updated plan would allow two-story buildings, two-story buildings with lofts, and four three-story buildings, or partially three story.
Parks
The current village plan includes the existing Aptos Village Park but no others. The new update adds two new parks.
One is a 10,000-square-foot village common or village green in the center of the village. We expect public events and gatherings such as art, wine and craft fairs, holiday celebrations, and other community get-togethers to take place on the village common.
On many days, however, no special event would be happening and the village common could be used by children playing, friends sitting on the grass and talking, and others eating a picnic lunch.
Traffic Circulation
Traffic circulation is another key difference between the existing and updated plans. The existing plan allows the extension of Granite Way from Cathedral to Aptos Creek Road, and is one-way only, southbound. Under the current village plan, Trout Gulch Road would become a one-way northbound street from Soquel Drive to Cathedral.
The updated version has no one-way streets. Instead, there would be a new east-west street between Trout Gulch and Aptos Creek Road. There would also be a new north-south street from Soquel Drive to that new street, intersecting at the village green.
Signals would also be added at Trout Gulch and Soquel Drive and at Aptos Creek Road and Soquel Drive. Traffic studies have concluded that the signals will result in traffic moving better than it does at present, even after build-out of the village.
The existing plan does not allow vehicles in interior portions of the village. Instead, buildings are accessed by pathways.
In the updated plan the streets are designed for pedestrians and bicyclists, as well as vehicles. They are narrow in order to slow traffic and incorporate on-street parking, trees, sidewalks and street-facing buildings. The buildings are to have walkways around them.
Parking
The lack of convenient parking in the village is one of the most frequent complaints that I hear from residents. The existing plan has very little information about parking (it probably wasn't an issue in 1979) but calls for parallel parking rather than the existing perpendicular parking along the north side of Soquel Drive.
The updated plan emphasizes parking, more than doubling the amount from the current 400 spaces to 800 to 900 spaces. A new parking area for the Forest of Nisene Marks State Park is also included.
Green Building
The existing Aptos Village Plan is silent on several topics that are included in the new plan — water, energy and green building.
The updated plan requires that any development in the village conform to the water conservation restrictions of Soquel Creek Water District, which now require that water demand be cut by 1.2 gallons for each gallon of new water demand.
The parking lot and street layout integrate rain gardens and vegetated swales to filter pollutants and percolate storm water. The proposed storm water management plan includes an underground cistern to capture and reuse runoff to supplement landscape irrigation. Trees and shrubs that are native or adapted to the Aptos Village micro climate are specified, thus reducing irrigation water demands and maintenance. Deciduous trees are proposed for solar cooling in the summer and heating in the winter.
In the updated plan, buildings must comply with the county's green building code. A sampling includes use of recycled materials, low emission paint, flooring made of recycled materials, windows rated for efficiency and located for solar orientation, and weather sensitive irrigation control and recycling of construction debris.
The draft update to the Aptos Village Plan is now available for viewing at www.sccplanning.com. If you have comments, concerns or questions about the draft, please feel free to send them to me at Ellen.Pirie@co.santa-cruz.ca.us. The draft update is expected to go to the Planning Commission in January and then to the Board of Supervisors. I hope you will review the plan and come to the public meetings to share your thoughts.
And as always, I'll be at the sheriff's office in Rancho del Mar on Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. to hear from constituents on this topic, or any other.
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