Image: The Board of Supervisors will review a report on how to improve the permitting process tomorrow at 1:30pm (see item 12). Image source: My Santa Cruz Real Estate.
This item was continued from the previous Board meeting. It would allow cannabis cultivators to host farm tours and sell limited amounts of product on-site as part of a three-year pilot program. The majority of cultivators are located in commercial agricultural areas in South County. Tour operators have expressed interest in providing shuttle services.
The Board chose to consider this policy because of the significant challenges facing the legal cannabis industry in Santa Cruz County. Agricultural tourism is an area of focused growth for the County in general, given that agriculture and tourism individually are the County's two largest industries, each generating approximately $1 billion annually.
The 2016-17 and 2023 storm events created damage at 410 sites throughout the County road system estimated at $266.7 million. The Community Development and Infrastructure Department Division of Public Works (CDI-DPW) has repaired 74% of these sites, restoring critical infrastructure and access to the public. Most of the funding for these projects will ultimately come from reimbursements from the federal government, either the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) or the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
While CDI-DPW has obtained reimbursement obligations for most completed projects, slow payments, especially for 2023 FEMA projects, caused the County to issue $89.1 million worth of debt to maintain positive cash flow and significantly slowed progress on completion of the remaining damage sites.
With limited financial options for future disasters, CDI-DPW partnered with the County Administrative Office (CAO) and Office of Response, Recovery and Resilience (OR3) to improve the methodology to assess projects for when resources are available. The Emergency Road Damage Assessment (ERDA) Resource is a transparent, systematic, and data-driven tool to aid in these decisions. Details on the ERDA Resource and status of the 2016-17 and 2023 storm event projects are detailed in this report.
The time that it takes to get a building permit in Santa Cruz County consistently frustrate anyone trying to build anything. Our current process adds significant costs, leading to more expensive housing and contributing to our current housing crises.
At my insistence, in June 2024, the County Administrative Office (CAO) engaged Baker Tilly to complete an organizational assessment of the County’s building permit process with the goal to gain an understanding of insights from internal and external sources and to develop recommendations for moving forward with improved processes and customer experience.
This report and the resulting work plan to improve the Building Permit Process is an excellent opportunity for anyone to provide input on how we can speed up housing construction in our County.
