By John Hibble
After fifteen years of planning and community input, Aptos Village is poised for redevelopment. No, it doesn’t have anything to do with a Redevelopment Agency or state money. It is redevelopment because it is replacing part of the village that once was.
During the lumber era the village was filled with lumberyards and railroad tracks. According to an old pamphlet …”there once were five railroad spur tracks loading out of Aptos, and folks from the cities took Sunday excursions on trains from the “Village” up to see the brawny loggers at work.
Sedate though it may appear now, Aptos, in addition to its two hotels, the present Bayview and what is now the Aptos Club, boasted thirteen saloons and two railroad stations, and a deep sea pier from which ships carried flour and apples to Australia. Loggers poured gold across the counters of the stores and ranchers came down from the hills with their teams wearing bells to warn other drivers on the narrow road to turn aside — ”teams a comin’ downhill fast.” Visitors needing clean shirts could send them to the laundry where two sisters scrubbed them on scrub boards.”
During the apple era the Village was filled with packinghouses, vinegar works and support buildings. The Suntan Special brought visitors from Alameda and San Francisco. But those buildings have all been torn down. When Highway One bypassed the Village it went into decline.
How did this new Aptos Village development get started? Aptos Village had one of the first Community Design plans in the state. It is a specific plan that governs how the village should develop and is required by the State of California. It was originally designed by the community and adopted in 1979 and revised in 1985.
In 1999 a notorious developer tried to build a modern high-rise office complex in our village, which would have been a disaster. Our Supervisor stopped the project and initiated a complete review and update of the Aptos Village Plan with input from all of the stakeholders including State Parks and the public. It took ten years to finalize and approve the plan. The design is walk able and includes two new streets. The architecture is respectful of the buildings that still exist. The Aptos Village Plan has been available for viewing for five years on the county’s website at www.sccoplanning.com/Portals/2/County/Planning/env/Aptos_Village_Plan.pdf.
The Barry Swenson Company became involved in the process and designed their project to match what the community had asked for. Jesse Nickell of Barry Swenson offered to let the bicycle community use the Post Office jump site temporarily. They leased the jumps to County Parks for $1 per year and even helped to build the jumps. The kids got to legally use the land for eight years.
The Aptos Village development project was approved unanimously two years ago by the County Board of Supervisors. Aptos Village will be a showplace of water efficient design and has a Platinum rating. The homes and businesses in the Village will have high efficiency fixtures and will even have ultra-high efficiency washing machines pre-installed. The project will use artificial turf, rain gardens, pervious paving, and bioswales that will treat storm water and maximize infiltration back into the soil.
The Aptos Village project has not only reduced district wide water consumption enough to mitigate the amount of water required for the completed Aptos Village, but it has also reduced district wide water consumption by an additional 60% more. Water savings have been achieved by replacing hundreds of inefficient water fixtures throughout the water district with those that are highly-efficient, thereby reducing overall annual water consumption at no cost to the District’s customers. Even after the project is built, total district water consumption will be reduced by 4.4 million gallons per year.
Historically, Aptos Village has been a hub of activity, as a lumber town in the late 1800s and a commercial apple-processing center from 1900 to 1959. During the 1960s most of the buildings were torn down. The Aptos Village project is replacing what has been torn down with what the community has said that we want and will reestablish the Village as the heart of our community.