Interview conducted by Margaret Kinstler — Courtesy of Capitola Village Residents Association
Fourteen-year City Councilman Dennis Norton was appointed Mayor last December. He is 68 and professionally is a home designer. He currently serves as a board member for Save Our Shores, is a board member of the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission, and is on the Board of Directors of the Capitola Chamber of Commerce.
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CVRA: How long have you lived in Capitola?
Mayor: Since 1971, so 44 years.
CVRA: How long have you served on City Council?
Mayor: A total of 14 years. I have another year and a half left of my term. I’ve served on the Planning Commission for 6 years. And have been on the Santa Cruz County Regional Transit Committee for 13 years.
CVRA: What do you see as your greatest accomplishments?
Mayor: Probably just holding the status quo! There’s been very little change in Capitola and I think the people ask for that. Purchase of the rail corridor was huge.
CVRA: What do you think about the proposed new parking structure, new civic center, sale of City Hall and creation of a hotel in its place?
Mayor: I feel very strongly that we need to build a three story parking structure and turn the new, temporary parking lot into a park. A linear park would be a great asset in our community. It’s not for tourists. It’s being able to have a walking path through there as well as a bocce ball court and maybe even someone could talk about creating a dog or a skateboard park at some time.
As far as a hotel goes, you know we are a tourist town and there’s no way of turning that back. We need to be conscious about the size of development but at the same time there is no better revenue that the TOT tax [Transient Occupancy Tax]. It’s ten percent of the gross. It’s a fabulous income generator for cities. A hotel could work somewhere in Capitola Village as that income generator. It’s good for the people who visit ours City to pay for the services they get.
CVRA: Does the City need the money?
Mayor: Good question. The wharf needs attention. It was last rebuilt in 1984. The ocean wins. We need to get the police department out of the floodplain. We need a new city hall. The second story of the current city hall was built on top of an auto repair shop.
CVRA: What do you think could be done to improve the life of Village residents?
Mayor: I have a problem with people driving too fast. I think it’s possible to make some of the streets — particularly those that are adjacent to all the beach traffic, one way out of those neighborhoods. Traffic calming measures, one-way streets, can help but we’d want to find visually pleasing measures.
CVRA: Do you see tourist and employee parking in the neighborhoods as a problem for residents? If so, what could be done about it?
Mayor: With a third story parking lot, we could accommodate a hotel in the village and also make people park in the lot rather than the village.
CVRA: What about more permit parking in the Central Village, streets like Cherry Avenue, San Jose, Stockton Avenue, Riverview Avenue which are so heavily impacted by tourist and employee parking and where many of the houses are very old and have no parking?
Mayor: The problem is that the Coastal Commission wouldn’t allow it. And remember the City doesn’t owe them that space. At the same time, we have to protect them.
You know what’s funny? We’ve been having this Mayor’s select committee and talking about how to get public input into the whole idea of a parking structure, new city hall etc., and someone from Depot Hill said, “I don’t really have a problem with parking.” I said, “That’s because your whole neighborhood is permit parking. People can’t do that today, so the pleasure you enjoy gets pushed off on everybody else.”
CVRA: On Riverview Avenue, we have eight 2-hour parking places and over a dozen houses with no parking spaces.
Mayor: Well, that’s one street that we should have year round permit parking. There’s no reason that they [beachgoers and employees] should be parking there. We need to make the permit parking uniform. And we need to do something about employee parking.
CVRA: Are you in favor of adding more permit parking in the village?
Mayor: Yes, but can I go back to the hotel? You cannot really have a parking garage or a park without reasonable revenue source. We don’t really know what that will be, but one thing that has been proposed is the hotel site. The reason is that that site is so valuable in comparison to what it’s being used for now. So if you want to finance the two, one thing you could do is a hotel works there. But water is going to be an issue there, and it may stop the whole thing for a long time.
CVRA: You encouraged me to start the CVRA. Do you think it’s serving a useful purpose? How could we improve?
Mayor: Yes, I think the CVRA facilitates communication between the City and the village residents. It, along with the Chamber of Commerce and the BIA are the primary method the City Council has for communication. I’d like to see the other neighborhoods of the city, like Cliffwood Heights and the Avenues develop resident association for those residents to communicate with each other and with the City.
CVRA: What do you do for fun?
Mayor: I have a boat and am looking forward to getting it out for salmon fishing. Also I have a trailer and like to take trips with my girlfriend. But it’s just great to stay at home for the weekend in Capitola and not get in my car.
CVRA: What do you do for work?
Mayor: I’m a home designer. I’ve probably designed about 60 houses or remodels in Capitola in my years as a designer.
The interview over, Dennis gets back at work, “designing peoples’ dream houses.”
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Website: www.capitolacvra.org