Dear City Council,

I attended the last public meeting discussing the planned housing on downtown parking lots 1, 2, & 3. I and others asked why the parking lots at Burgess Park and the main library arent being considered for housing. The answer was that the city had agreed to not develop housing in our parks. That isnt completely accurate. Yes, the city council agreed to protect green spaces in our parks, but not necessarily the parking lots at Burgess park. In particular, if I recall correctly, Councilmember Combs wanted to keep open the possibility of building on the Burgess park parking lots.

How do we get this topic reopened? We should definitely retain the city councils commitment to not building on any green space in any of our parks, but we should consider building on the parking lots at the city center without impacting the green spaces. Having housing next to the park, the pool, the library, city offices, retail, etc. would be of great value to the new residents without creating a parking challenge for downtown merchants along Santa Cruz. Below is a link to a map showing the total of 6 parking lots that could be considered for housing development. If we put some housing on the city center parking lots and some housing on the downtown shopping district parking lots, the impact to either location will be reduced.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1llfZN2AjjbBrjOGPedyCwFYywT8rfoYl/view?usp=sharing

Thanks for your consideration

Cheers, Brian
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Brian Kissel
brian.kissel@gmail.com
Mobile: 650.397.1414

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