SANTA CRUZ >> The city of Santa Cruz will hold a second virtual community meeting about the Clocktower Center project proposed to be built in downtown Santa Cruz after the previous meeting, which had nearly 200 attendees, ran late and the public question-and-answer component was cut short.

The second community meeting will also be held over Zoom and will be dedicated to receiving public comment about the project, which has two variations. One version of the mixed-use building, proposed to be built across two parcels at 2020 N. Pacific Ave. and 113 Knight St. and 115 Knight St., is eight stories and the other is 16 stories.

The developer of the project, Workbench, is also the firm behind the recently contested five-story development that will replace the current Food Bin and Herb Room on Mission Street in Santa Cruz as well as a list of others in the city and county.

The 16-story version of the U-shaped building is about 200 feet tall and approximately 280,000 gross square feet, or the total square feet as measured from the exterior face of the building wall. According to the project plans, the 260 housing units in the building will be a mix of one, two and three-bedroom units, and the average size of the units is about 400 gross square feet.

Alongside submitting plans for the 16-story, 260-unit mixed-use building, Workbench also submitted plans for an eight-story alternative project with 174 units and about 121,000 square feet.

The ground floor of the 16-story project contains a parking garage, which would house commercial and residential parking spaces. The ground floor would also house a commercial space with frontage on Pacific Avenue and a residential lobby, alongside amenities for residents. The upper floors of the building would contain residential units, additional amenities and bicycle storage, among other features, and the rooftop is intended to feature a public commercial use.

According to the Workbench website, both versions of the building are meant for people who don’t own cars and would feature 78 total automobile parking spaces with 64 standard spaces, four handicapped-accessible spaces and 10 spaces intended for electric vehicles.

The developer is making use of recent state laws that allow developers to ignore local building standards if the project’s base number of units includes a certain percentage of lower-income housing units or if the building is within a certain proximity to a transit center, among other criteria.

The city of Santa Cruz currently has an affordable housing inclusionary rate of 20% and Workbench has committed to providing 30% of the units in the Clocktower Center project as affordable units. Because of that commitment, the developer is able to utilize state laws and increase the number of units in the project by 100%, or from 130 to 260.

For information and to view the previous community meeting, visit cityofsantacruz.com.