The Planning and Community Development Department has opened the community engagement website for the Downtown Plan Expansion for the next three weeks to give local citizens a chance to weigh in on the opportunities for housing, a Warriors Arena, new civic spaces, and the mobility and streetscape features that would accompany a redeveloped South of Laurel neighborhood.

The City is looking at the neighborhood south of Laurel Street for opportunities to increase housing capacity of the city, add economic activity to our downtown, support the desire of the Santa Cruz Warriors to find a site for a permanent arena facility, and identify opportunities to incorporate new civic amenities like plazas, paseos, or pocket parks.

Community members can log in to the project website at www.cityofsantacruz.com/downtown and review the materials about the options for this area before logging in to the community engagement site to provide their input and ideas. Community feedback will be used together with the project goals to shape the preferred development scenario that will be studied for the environmental review component of the project.