Five candidates are on the ballot for Santa Cruz mayor. If one receives over half the votes on June 2, they’ll serve a four year term. If no one gets more than 50%, the two candidates with the most votes will face a runoff election in November.
At an outdoor debate this month, all five candidates agreed on many of the issues facing Santa Cruz. All oppose offshore drilling and local cooperation with ICE, for example. Their stances on development and the affordable housing crisis are more nuanced.
Santa Cruz is one of the most expensive places in the country to buy or rent a home. The city is surrounded by a greenbelt of parks, which makes sprawling difficult. Most candidates agree that infill development, which would make certain areas denser, is necessary. But they disagree over where and how much to develop.
Ryan Coonerty
"The state has mandated that we build 3,000 housing units, and the question is where are those units built," said Ryan Coonerty. He’s served as mayor and a county supervisor and has ties to local businesses.
"I believe that most of those units are best built in our downtown," he continued. "I don’t love some of the design. I don’t love some of the elements of it that I think we could improve. But, if you can do that, then you can protect and preserve our parks and open space."
He spoke about developing a food hub and affordable housing at the site of the old downtown library.
Coonerty is the only candidate who’s received significant campaign donations from local developers and real estate agents. He’s also worked as a consultant for developers building new high rises downtown.
Joy Shendledecker
Joy Shendledecker works with local shelter programs. She helped establish the RV Safe Parking program when a city ordinance limited oversized vehicle parking.
Shendledecker wants to require developers to build a greater percentage of affordable homes in large housing projects and to identify places for permanent housing in every district.
"We have effectively had redlining and exclusionary zoning in our city since its inception," she said. "State laws that basically do away with single family zoning—we need to get on board with that and keep building that infill."
Shendledecker also supports public housing and expanding renter protections.
Gillian Greensite
Gillian Greensite is a local activist who worked in rape prevention at UC Santa Cruz for about 30 years. She’s been heavily involved with the Don’t Morph the Wharf group and protecting heritage trees in town.
Greensite is concerned about what she calls “overbuilding.”
"Infill is obviously the better way to go than sprawl, however we are doing infill on steroids," she said.
She’s concerned the city is planning even more than the state requires, and adds some areas on the westside should remain undeveloped for industry jobs.
"We should be really preserving our industrial lands."
Greensite has said she would push back against state laws requiring housing development.
Ami Chen Mills
Ami Chen Mills is a writer and climate activist. She organized the Get the Flock Out campaign, which ultimately led to the city canceling its automated license plate reader contract.
She disagrees with Greensite about westside development.
"I am not a fan of super huge buildings downtown," she said. "I like the idea of actually building out, and I don't mind actually losing some of those industrial spaces that have been sitting empty for decades on the west side, and I think we could build some housing there."
Mills wants the city to limit building heights downtown and in neighborhoods and use currently empty lots. She also supports re-zoning neighborhoods for multi-family housing and creating a public rental registry that would track units and rent prices.
Chris Krohn
Chris Krohn has served as mayor and a city councilmember and worked as an internship director at UC Santa Cruz for 20 years.
Krohn also wants a rental registry and says the city should work more with affordable housing providers and not luxury developers.
"I agree with the infill, but I think something that's not talked about as much are community land trusts as well as the city buying up properties and keeping them affordable in perpetuity," he said.
Krohn also wants to create a department of housing and Santa Cruz housing commission where renters and landlords can take grievances.
