Youth and Families
As a working mother of three, I understand the challenges working families face in our area. From the high cost of living, to navigating local traffic every day, to drop off and pick up of kids at school and daycare, to the daunting task of scheduling summer camps for multiple children when space in local programs is limited and demand is high, raising a family in our area is tough. The City of Capitola should be doing everything it can to ease this burden, such as expanding the capacity of popular youth summer camp programs, especially for the younger age groups such as Little Campers in Camp Capitola, which only has a handful of spots available each session. The positive experiences children gain through spending time in local parks or on Capitola Beach with Junior Guards will last a lifetime and keep them coming back to Capitola for years to come.
Public Health and Safety
Fourth of July Parade in Aptos representing Sutter and PAMF (2021)
One of the main reasons people choose to live and raise families in the City of Capitola is because it is one of the cleanest and safest areas in Santa Cruz County. This takes a lot of hard work from City Staff in the Capitola Police Department, the Public Works Department, and the Community Development Department. I believe that my knowledge and experiences as a nurse practitioner providing health care in Santa Cruz County will allow me to work closely with City Staff to create policies and ordinances that will promote public health and safety and enhance the quality of life of residents of the City of Capitola as well as the many visitors that spend time in our City each year.
One of my highest priorities is to promote the physical and mental health and resilience of all individuals in the community. To me, this translates to having accessible and safe community spaces free from prejudice and having programs focused on wellness for all ages.
Economic Vitality
The decline of brick and mortar businesses over the last several decades has taken a devastating toll on many city budgets, including in Capitola. In order to restore economic vitality to our commercial zones and increase City sales tax revenues, the City needs to be proactive and progressive, implementing zoning code updates to make it easier for new businesses to get established and existing businesses to thrive and expand. With minor changes to the municipal code, the City can provide streamlined administrative approvals for more types of projects, reduce or eliminate parking requirements, and incentivize mixed-use development. These changes can restore our economic vitality, while at the same time encouraging active transportation, reducing automobile dependency, and helping achieve the greenhouse gas emission reductions called for in the City’s Climate Action Plan.
Environmental Sustainability and Coastal Resilience
If the amount of housing identified in Capitola’s 6th Cycle Housing Element comes to fruition, no amount of changes to the 41st Avenue/Highway 1 intersection will be able to handle the influx of additional automobiles. In order to accommodate these new residents, our focus must shift to public and active transportation. City Staff should work closely with the Santa Cruz Metro to construct a new metro station either on or near the Capitola Mall site and expand the number and frequency of bus lines. They must also support and work closely with the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission to ensure that Rail Trail segment 10 be constructed as quickly as possible. These two improvements will provide the City with significant alternative transportation options that will reduce local traffic and allow us to accommodate our new neighbors with less impacts.
By virtue of geologic luck and careful management of the Soquel Creek rivermouth, Capitola has been able to maintain its beach and beach-based businesses and thrive for many years. However, the climate change we are experiencing is bringing more frequent and intense storms and sea level rise, which will test our resilience. In the long run, nature always wins, so now is the time to be progressive and plan for the changes we know are coming. The City should allow for and encourage the construction of buildings in Capitola Village that can withstand regular flooding and work with the California Coastal Commission on strategies to adapt to the receding shoreline along Depot Hill.
Affordable Housing
In California, housing production has not kept up with population growth, so now every year the California legislature introduces dozens of new laws to encourage housing production, and affordable housing specifically. The resulting lack of affordable worker housing options has left our local businesses struggling to find workers to staff their businesses and increased the congestion on Highway 1 with workers living further and further away from Capitola. It is time to shift our mindset when it comes to these types of housing developments. Adopting development standards that encourage these types of development and streamlining the approval process by removing and/or eliminating subjective standards and findings and allowing for ministerial or administrative approval of more types of residential development projects will help Capitola provide the workforce housing we need to staff our local businesses and increase our local tax base.