The Economic Development and Redevelopment Department is charged with working to make Santa Cruz a more beautiful and more economically viable place to call home. In doing so, the department strives to achieve the following goals for the City of Santa Cruz:
- To foster economic development programs that provide diverse opportunities for stable, meaningful work at livable pay; to meet retail and service needs of residents and visitors; to create a strong municipal tax base; and to preserve environmental quality and enhance the character and quality of community life.
- To foster quality urban design that will serve to preserve and enhance the distinctive scale and character of Downtown Santa Cruz and will ensure that the Downtown Area will continue to function as the major public gathering place and a viable retail setting.
- To implement a program for increasing the supply of low- and moderate-income housing throughout the community by providing opportunity sites, financing, and other mechanisms to accomplish the City's housing objectives.
- To continue to make targeted economic, design, structural, and other improvements in several key Project Areas, including the Beach/South of Laurel Planning Subarea, the Mission Street Corridor, and the Eastside Business Improvement District.