WATSONVILLE — The Watsonville City Council denied extending a moratorium on medical facilities in shopping centers Tuesday.
With a unanimous vote, the council rejected a four-month extension of a 45-day moratorium it approved on April 11. The moratorium applies to new medical centers in shopping center and commercial districts, such as most of the area around Freedom Boulevard, Airport Boulevard, East Lake Avenue and Main Street.
Assistant City Manager Matt Huffaker said the city hired HDL Consulting to look into the economic effects of medical centers filling retail spaces that generate sales tax revenue. The consulting firm’s report stated that due to an aging population and increased access to care through the Affordable Care Act, the demand for medical service space will be in “significant demand” in the near future.
In 2016, Kaiser Permanente moved into the Crossroads Shopping Center, which resulted in the property owner serving eviction notices to eight businesses. Huffaker said more medical service providers are looking to expand into Watsonville, which prompted city staff to look into the issue.
“This effort was focused on the immediate significant demand we’ve received from medical officer providers,” he said.
Although the moratorium extension was denied, city staff will work on an updated ordinance and bring it back to the council at a future meeting, according to Huffaker. That ordinance could include changing the approval process for medical offices in shopping center and commercial districts, such as requiring them to seek planning commission approval.
Clark Codiga of Oaktree Property Company, which manages the East Lake Village Shopping Center, among other properties, said he was not notified by the city of the moratorium, and instead heard about the proposed extension from the newspaper.
Codiga added that he contacted other property and business owners in the city, who were unaware of the moratorium until he told them. He then read a list to the council of names of property owners and others who said they were against the moratorium.
“If you talk to businesses in these shopping centers that are affected, they want [medical centers],” he said. “You’re not going to see medical everywhere, you’re not going to see a shopping center turned into a hospital.”
During the April 11 meeting, Huffaker said that because the moratorium was temporary and considered an “emergency,” it doesn’t require the same amount of outreach that a permanent ordinance would.
Because the moratorium extension would have been temporary, it required six affirmative votes from the council to pass. But when it became clear during council discussion that there would not be enough votes to pass it, Councilman Jimmy Dutra made a motion to deny the extension and instead ask city staff to come back with an ordinance.
Mayor Oscar Rios said he was concerned that by not passing the extension, it could open the door for a medical center to move into the recently-vacated Orchard Supply Hardware building, missing out on an opportunity for a sales tax-generating business at the location.
Councilwoman Nancy Bilicich said she was not willing to extend the moratorium past the 45 days.
“There’s too many regulations,” she said. “We need some on one hand, but you can’t overdo it.”
