A street vendor wheels his goods past the Evergreen Apartments on Hollow View Lane in Watsonville Monday. (Photo by Tarmo Hannula)

Watsonville’s new Housing Element, to be reviewed by the City Council tonight, plans for development of the Atkinson Lane area in order to meet state mandates for constructing new units. The Santa Cruz County Farm Bureau has challenged construction of housing there in court.

After building more than 1,300 new housing units from 2000-07, the city will have to complete 923 more units from 2007-14 to satisfy state mandates, according to the document.

The Housing Element is a part of the city’s General Plan and must be updated every five years. It must identify sites where housing of all types — but particularly for low- and moderate-income residents — can be built, have a plan to assist in the development of those sites and identify and address any development constraints.

The city’s prior Housing Element, certified in 2003, addressed the 2002-07 time frame. The new element will cover the planning period of 2008-13.

The city had been mandated to create more than 2,200 new housing units, but due to the economic downturn, that number was reduced by 60 percent. The city has either already built or is planning nearly 200 of the 923 required, according to the document.

For the complete article see the 02-09-2010 issue.

Click here to purchase an electronic version of the 02-09-2010 paper.

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