Exemptions allow some construction, but officials face pressure to loosen lockdown.

The coronavirus epidemic and the subsequent public health shelter-in-place order that froze construction, among other industries, arrived just as the city of Seaside was preparing to embark on a building spree. City officials have been promoting new vertical development and positioning Seaside as the answer to the regions’s housing shortage.

They planned on adding thousands of new units to the city in the next few years and at least some of their proposed real estate projects appear to be moving forward, despite the lockdown. Work on the Ascent project on Broadway Avenue downtown, for example, has begun, with crews demolishing two old structures to make way for 12 multi-story apartment buildings with 106 units.

They can work without being cited by county officials thanks to one of eight exemptions to the construction freeze: affordable housing projects are considered essential and the Ascent project will feature 16 affordable units.

The county order’s definition of essential construction includes building healthcare facilities and temporary shelters, maintenance of public infrastructure and repairs that are necessary to make homes and businesses safe and sanitary.

One provision gives government agencies unlimited leeway to designate their public works projects as essential. Almost as soon as the order came out in April, Hartnell College and Monterey Peninsula College moved to declare their campus upgrades essential. Several school districts soon did the same.

Some local residents have complained. “This looks like a loophole the county did not intend,” Marta Kraftzeck of Monterey wrote in a letter to officials regarding construction plans by Monterey Peninsula Unified School District. “The work does not provide continuity of existing services and does not help distance learning, education, or provision of food to students. And it places the health of the workers and their families at risk unnecessarily.”

Even as some construction is allowed to proceed, most folks working in the industry are out of work. Scott Robinson’s painting company, Cardoza & Robinson Painting, works on custom homes. He managed to get federal paycheck protection. “We have been very fortunate,” he says. “We are able to pay our employees to sit at home.”

But he’d prefer to be out doing jobs.

“I understand the safety aspect of keeping everyone confined,” Robinson says. “There aren’t more than three or four painters to a job. You can put a lot of space between people. There should be no reason why we couldn’t work.”

As the county’s current shelter-in-place current order nears its May 3 expiration, there’s pressure on county and state government to relax restrictions in the next order. Manny Pinheiro, who heads the Building and Construction Trades Council for Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties, says union groups are in talks with county governments and the office of Gov. Gavin Newsom.

In a letter to Monterey County, Pinheiro said he was hoping for “a policy that ensures the safety of our workers but also allows for the continuation of their work and maintains a pulse in our incapacitated economy.”