THE RIO DEL MAR LAND BRIEF
Land in the
Monterey Bay Plains and Terraces setting.
Rio del Mar CDP has 3 square miles of land in Santa Cruz County. Its Census reference point is in Monterey Bay Plains and Terraces, within Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains.
Oak woodland, chaparral and grassland occupy foothills and low coastal mountains around the Central Valley. Narrow agricultural valleys interrupt this landscape of dry summers and wetter winters.
Regional context: Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains ↗ · Classification at the Census reference point
Rio del Mar and Santa Cruz County
Rio del Mar is associated with Santa Cruz County in the Census boundary data. Start with the parcel’s tax bill to match the property to that jurisdiction, then confirm which government handles its land use.
Rio del Mar by land and water
The Census records 1.61 square miles of water within Rio del Mar, or 34.9% of its total area. It is 8.2 percentage points higher than the 26.7% recorded for Santa Cruz County. This is geographic context; waterfront status and usable land must be checked at the parcel.
For scale, Rio del Mar CDP has 4.1 times the land area of nearby Seacliff CDP (0.73 square miles). These areas describe boundaries, not comparable property prices.

