Coming Together For Capitola

By Teresa Hidalgo Dance

The recent winter storms that hit Capitola and the rest of Santa Cruz County presents a special struggle, not because of the savage destruction that prompted an unprecedented visit from President Joe Biden, but because of the media attention that Capitolans are now caught up in.

“The different thing about this storm,” said Steve Allen, owner of the Capitola Venetian Hotel which, along with the adjoining Venetian Court Apartments, suffered $200,000 in damages, “is all the social media photos and videos which gives potential guests the impression that Capitola is devastated and the wharf is destroyed, that there are no restaurants to go to,” thus scaring them away.

For Allen, long-time guests are canceling reservations and occupancy is down by 50% from a year ago.

“That is what is really impacting us right now more than the storms—the lost revenue,” Allen said.

What out-of-town visitors might not realize is that most of the restaurants and shops in Capitola Village are open and that the beach is accessible for surfing and strolling.

Aware of these additional losses, people have begun the work to rebuild quickly and urgently. The government, from Biden to the Capitola City Council, is doing all it can to help those devastated businesses rebuild as soon as possible.

U.S. Rep. Jimmy Panetta got assistance started by working to secure federal support, which resulted in Biden announcing a disaster declaration for the Santa Cruz area on Jan. 14. Consequently, the Federal Emergency Disaster Administration (FEMA) can be tapped to repair and replace disaster-damaged facilities in Capitola as well as assist individuals and households affected.

In the days following Biden’s visit, two sites for Disaster Recovery Centers were set up at Ramsey Park in Watsonville (since moved to Watsonville City Hall) and the Felton Library to provide in-person support to impacted residents who need assistance from multiple county, state, and federal agencies, according to Katie Herlihy, community development director at the City of Capitola. Also, the Small Business Administration set up a Business Recovery Center in the community room at Capitola City Hall.

Chloe Woodmansee, assistant to the Capitolacity manager, reported that city staff estimate repair costs to Capitola infrastructure to be $2.6 million.

Determining costs to repair damage to public property such as the Wharf and Stockton Avenue Bridge require further inspection.

Woodmansee said there was major damage to the esplanade, the jetty, and Cliff Drive as well.

As for private property, 10 businesses along the esplanade had significant damage, from Zelda’s on the Beach to Margaritaville.

Woodmansee added, “Luckily, very few homes in the city were flooded or damaged. The residences affected were primarily the Venetians.”

Specifically, 16 private residences at the Venetian Court were flooded and three units above Margaritaville were damaged as well.

The Venetians consists of a 20-room hotel and two rows of private residences. According to Allen, construction began in 1924 as the first condominium complex in California.

It’s been a family business for Allen for the past fifty years.

“We’re moving slowly because these are older buildings and we want the repairs to be done correctly,” said Allen. “The Venetian Court is a historical landmark so we can’t change anything with the exterior. We just have to replace what was there.”

These restrictions have posed some difficulty to Allen’s efforts to bolster the seawall in front of the property.

“We are having conversations with the overall ownership association and the California Coastal Commission, if the seawall could be strengthened or increased,” Allen said.

The city has expedited the rebuilding of these damaged businesses by waiving building permits, a generous provision amounting to thousands of dollars. The city has sent field workers as the main point of contact for these businesses and residences, as part of the expedited process for the rebuilding permit review.

Robin Woodman, a building official with the city, is one of those field workers.

She said, “I’ve been down there a lot and mostly what I’m doing is just listening and trying to assist them through the process….It’s amazing to watch all the business owners working together in order to make things happen. It’s not just one business working for themselves; they’re all working together to help each other out.”

Herlihy said, “We are right now moving from disaster assistance into recovery.”

The focus in City Hall is to rebuild in such a way as to prevent, as much as possible, similar devastation from severe winter storms in the future.

“In the long term,” said Herlihy, “we will be working with our planning commission and city council to think about the future of sea level rise and planning for its impact.”

The help doesn’t stop there. From insurers to volunteers, from business people less affected by the storms to charity foundations, the community around Capitola is coming together quickly to help out.

Herlihy observed, “I think everyone is going out of their way to accommodate businesses and residences. It’s pretty amazing.”

She revealed that insurance representatives were down at the Esplanade as early as right after the storms. Herlihy sees that kind of community support as keeping the encouragement going after the initial shock.

Carrie Arnone, CEO of the Capitola-Soquel Chamber of Commerce, said her office is working to connect employers with immediate job openings with the workers in Capitola displaced by the storm. Employers and potential staff can go on a job board spreadsheet located on the City of Capitola website http://www.cityofcapitola.org Here job seekers can search for jobs and employers can post job openings.

Dozens of employers from Capitola, Santa Cruz, and even Monterey have already responded.

Community Foundation Santa Cruz County, for its part, has released about $600,000 in disaster grants as of press time. It has been working with frontline nonprofits, public safety agencies, the small business community, and others to support the county’s storm-related needs.

Even before FEMA funding could get through for debris removal at the beach, volunteers from the nonprofit Save Our Shores have already begun that work. They were joined by a hundred more volunteers notified by the Capitola Recreation division leader Nikki Bryant LeBlond. On a sunny Sunday after the storms, the volunteers filled a dumpster with debris and pressure-treated wood. Capitola Recreation plans to coordinate a second beach clean-up in the near future.

Despite the millions of dollars lost to the storm, something more valuable has arisen—the awareness that the Capitola community is resilient and will never leave its distressed members to fare on their own. The bonding within the community that is taking place in the rebuilding efforts is invaluable and can be counted on in the future, stormy or not.