The Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District has received a $2 million grant that will be used to redevelop the Watsonville Transit Center into an affordable, transit-oriented housing development.
The funding will cover the architecture and engineering phase of the project, a process that will begin in January and end in December 2024.
The ground floor of this infill development will serve as a METRO transit center and ticketing office, while the upper floors will hold roughly 65 units of affordable housing.
Bus operations will be relocated to on-street bus bays to maximize the development potential of the one-acre site, METRO stated in a press release.
In addition, METRO plans to operate two bus routes with 15-minute frequencies between the Watsonville Transit Center and Santa Cruz.
“The Watsonville project is an excellent example of how infill development combined with affordable housing can also support exciting multimodal transportation opportunities,” said METRO Board Chair Shebreh Kalantari-Johnson.
METRO officials say the downtown project is a key element in Watsonville’s overall revitalization effort that will increase fair housing in the area, since all of the units will be affordable.
The project will help support the construction of future housing, since the bus services meet the state’s definition of high-quality transit, METRO said.
This designation allows the City and developers to streamline certain California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requirements and reduce parking.
“Transit-oriented development coupled with increased transit service is proven to reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMT), especially in corridors with long commutes, such as the one between Watsonville and Santa Cruz,” said METRO Vice Chair Kristen Brown. “To further increase transit use, free transit passes will be provided to all project residents.”
The grant money comes from the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments’ Regional Early Action Planning Grants of 2021 (REAP 2.0) Regional Competitive Grant Program.
