Decarbonizing Requires All-Electric Homes • Supportive Housing on the Way In Soquel

COMMUNITY NEWS

Decarbonizing Requires All-Electric Homes

To mitigate the impacts of climate change, starting Jan. 1, 2023, the County of Santa Cruz will require all new residential construction in urban unincorporated areas to be designed with permanent sources of electricity as the only form of energy.

“This is a major first step in our ongoing efforts to reduce our carbon footprint from the built environment,” said David Reid, the County’s director of the Office of Response,Recovery and Resilience. “Through our Climate Action and Adaptation Plan, we can achieve carbon neutrality and protect the planet for future generations by taking more actions to decarbonize our lives like this one.”

The rules, adopted Nov. 15, 2022 as part of a State Building Code update, do not affect construction in Capitola, Scotts Valley, Watsonville or the city of Santa Cruz.

Electricity is required for all forms of energy consumption in homes, including heating and cooling, cooking appliances, water heating including pools and spas, and clothes dryers.

The rules apply to all newly constructed residential developments, including residential areas of mixeduse projects, multi-family, single-family and accessory dwelling units within the urban services line.

The rules do not apply to non-residential buildings, non-residential sections of mixed-usebuildings, or buildings outside the County’s urban services line.

Nor do they apply to existing or permitted residential buildings or CZU Fire rebuilds in San Lorenzo Valley and Bonny Doon, which are outside the urban services line. n

Supportive Housing on the Way In Soquel

Contruction is underway at 2838 Park Ave., Soquel, to build Park Haven Plaza, a three-story building with 32 one-bedroom apartments and four twobedroom apartments for veterans, foster youth aged out of the system and families at risk of being homeless.

EECAR is doing the undergrounding work now.

The developer is 2838 Park Ave. LP, affiliated with Novin Development of Walnut Creek.

The cost is projected to be $19 million, funded by state, county and private sources.

Modular units built off site are expected to speed up construction time and lower the carbon footprint.

Completion is projected for June 2023, according to developer Iman Novin.

This is supportive housing with an on-site manager, and assistance from nonprofit Abode Servcies of Fremont o help residents apply for services such as healthcare, education, and food.

The project received $10.7 million in from the state’s Homekey program created By Gov. Newsom.

All told, Homekey has awarded $2.753 billion to create 12,676 housing units across California.

In December, Homekey awarded $36 milliuon statewide, including $2.4 million to the County of San Benito to buy 11 factory-built homes and $2.2 million to the County of Santa Cruz to adapt a former medical office in the city of Santa Cruz into two studio and five one-bedroom units.

The Department of Housing and Community Development will release a third round of Homekey funds in early 2023.

Photo Credit: Jondi Gumz

The first step in building housing at 2838 Park Ave. is undergrounding.

For information, visit hcd.ca.gov and the Homekey Awards Dashboard where Homekey project awards are tracked by dollar totals, project type, progress and region.

Dr. Vasavi Chinnam, a dentist, maintains the office at 2340 Park Ave., Soquel. Thrive Natural Medicine, a holistic medicine practitioner that had shared that site, has moved to Aptos at 36 Seascape Village. n

“Aptos Youth” from page 6

So far, they have done episodes on the environment, social media, interviewed elected officials including Congressman Jimmy Panetta and Supervisor Zach Friend, and had many more insightful discussions. The podcast is a fun way for youth to connect with people in their community and share their ideas in a fun and collaborative way.

Youth programs not only open opportunities for the students to meet up with other kids but also with caring adults. With this, not only do the adults support the kids, they support each other. For the Aptos Community Youth Program, Freeman is that adult.

“Actually a lot of adult-led organizations…need youth,” says Freeman on why there is a common misconception around youth just needing adults.

This connection creates a strong and connected community in Aptos.

Especially during the pandemic, Aptos Community Youth Program provided an essential role in creating a lot of chances for Aptos youth to experience new things in a group even during a disconnected time.

“The program has given me opportunities through events and trainings that I believe I wouldn’t have found on my own,” says Aptos Community Youth Program member Michelle Zapata. She says it strengthened her leadership and her communication skills.

These skills are very valuable to the future of youth and provide backbone skills like interviewing, managing, and problemsolving -- all of these skills open doors for careers and a better future for the youth.

Freeman added, “I think it’s helpful to just to have a program where you can try something…that’s how it prepares you because it helps you kind of discern that voice within yourself that’s like ‘who am I?’...that’s why I try to offer a wide variety of things in our program as much as we can.”

Aptos Community Youth Program acts as a never-ending outlet for youth to figure themselves out and gain confidence in doing that through a safe and fun group. n