SANTA CRUZ >> With only three meetings left this year, the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors will have a packed agenda Tuesday, including items that range from funding for more than two dozen local nonprofit organizations, as well as local codification of state housing law that incentivizes increased density in single-family zones.

The supervisors will consider approving the dispersal of more than $5.9 million in government funding to 23 local organizations serving lower income residents across the county and region. The awards are part of the third, three-year cycle of the Collective of Results and Evidence-based Investments program also known as “CORE.”

The program, originally launched in 2015, is jointly supported by the county and city of Santa Cruz, with the county contributing about $4.8 million from its general fund for the grants and the city adding more than $1 million of its own.

The third cycle awards — lasting from fiscal years 2025 to 2028 — were recommended for 28 of the 100 proposals, received for a total of $3.4 million. A new feature of this latest cycle, however, is that more than $668,000, or 15% of total available funding, was set aside for the Board of Supervisors and City Council to apply toward priorities they have identified that were not covered through the recommended awards.

Another feature to help fill any gaps that may have gone unnoticed during the funding consideration process is potential for reduction of awards by as much as 5%, or $172,021, in order to piece together additional awards in various sizes to ensure all of the program’s funds get spent.

Both the board and the City Council previously agreed to dedicate $1.5 million of the total available funding to homeless prevention and services managed by the county’s Housing for Health Partnership, according to the county’s staff report.

The evidence-based, competitive grant process emerged as a replacement for the Community Programs model that had been primarily giving grants to the same nonprofit organizations for decades. When last cycle’s awards were announced in 2022, proponents argued the process was much fairer and put all applicants on equal footing while some organizations that experienced funding cuts were outraged at how the decisions were made.

When the dust had settled, the board, having collected feedback from applicants, approved a series of adjustments to the CORE funding process last year.

As has been done in previous cycles, the proposals were reviewed by a diverse panel of local community members and experts before recommendations were rendered along with a supplementary appeals process.

Two-unit developments

Also listed on the board’s agenda Tuesday is a housing item that seeks to align local rules with recently implemented state law.

Senate Bill 9, signed into law in 2021, requires expedited approval of a housing development with no more than two primary units on a single-family zoned parcel, the subdivision of a parcel in a single-family zone into two parcels, or both. Put simply: the law makes it possible to establish as many as four living units — including accessory dwellings — on a plot that previously had only one.

According to the bill, projects in compliance with local objective zoning, subdivision and design standards will receive ministerial approval, meaning they’ll be given the green light without discretionary/subjective review, California Environmental Quality Act analysis or public hearings.

Projects can still be denied if they pose a threat to public health and safety, according to the staff report.

The board previously held a public hearing for this item at its Oct. 29 meeting, but it sent it back for review by staff after some disagreement about sensitive habitat rules.

State law does not permit these projects in environmentally protected areas and the version of the ordinance recommended to the board by the county’s Planning Commission also excluded parcels with sensitive habitat areas. But some supervisors felt this could prevent ministerial construction on larger parcels that only have a small section with sensitive habitats and that small language tweaks could make the ordinance more in line with the intent of the state law.

The board will now consider alternate language drawn up by staff that retains eligibility for parcels with sensitive habitat area, but sufficient mitigations must also be put in place for the proposals to move forward.

Other items

• The board will hold a public hearing for the proposed rezoning of 30 parcels in order to implement the 6th Cycle Housing Element.

• To comply with the Political Reform Act of 1974, the board will consider adopting a conflict of interest code and review all designated positions and disclosure categories as part of a process that occurs every two years.