Downtown Business Zone/Preference for Smaller Businesses (1999)
Topics: Economic/Small Business | Zoning Regulations
The city of Santa Cruz, CA, as part of its “downtown recovery plan,” wanted to have a vibrant, active Central Business District which would serve as the primary retail center for the city, and be the home for “unique” businesses “offering residents and visitors a diverse and wholesome environment.” Retail proposals in excess of 16,000 s.f. must get a special use permit. Among the criteria for such a new use is that it “contribute to an appropriate balance of local, regional, and national businesses. “It shall be presumed that local and regional-based businesses will serve to more effectively diversify the central business district’s business mix than national based chain businesses…(and) smaller and medium sized businesses will serve to more effectively diversify the business mix than larger sized businesses.”
