APTOS — Construction of the Aptos Village Project is progressing as planned, with structural work on the Hihn Apple Barn completed earlier this month.
Approved by the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors in 2012, the project will feature a New Leaf Community Market grocery store and deli housed in the historic barn, several new homes and restaurant and retail space.
Developers say the shopping area will be the centerpiece of a project that will transform Aptos by giving it a civic center.
Workers have now begun installing infrastructure such as utilities, water mains, fire hydrants and storm drains.
They are also working on a retaining wall along Granite Way and foundations and framing for townhouses.
A specialized company earlier this year moved the apple barn 80 feet to the west and turned it 180 degrees.
In May, the Historic Resources Commission allowed developer Barry Swenson Builder to add a skylight and reduce the number of new doors in the historic Hihn Apple Barn.
Barry Swenson also plans to retain a larger portion of the loading dock to be used as a deck for the store.
A group of protesters, however, says that the permit allowing changes to the historic structure expired last year, and as such none of the changes made to date have been done legally.
The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday will hold a jurisdictional hearing to determine whether they will hear that appeal.
The group — We Are Aptos — has been fighting the project since construction began in 2016. In addition to the permitting issues, the group alleges that the developers have not taken into consideration the history behind the property, which includes habitation by Ohlone people and Chinese settlement.
We Are Aptos organizer Becky Steinbruner also hopes the developer will allow phase 2 of the project to be used for a community space.
“I care too much about this community to say, ‘oh, well. They are going to do what they are going to do,’” she said. “That’s why I keep going. I believe in the power of the people.”
