Village Embarks on Long Road to Approval

By Olin Ericksen
Staff Writer

May 17 -- What should the city’s future civic center look like and how can you help design it? City officials want to know.

On Thursday, City officials will gather the public’s first comments in an extended design discussion for Santa Monica’s new civic center -- also known as the Village – which is the largest public works project in the city’s history.

City officials and design team members will be at the meeting to gather input, answer questions and recap the visions the City Council approved in two separate meetings held since December 2004. (See Stories Dec 17 2004 and June 30 2005)

The open house will include graphic displays of the master plan for the site and conceptual designs prepared by The Related Companies of California, the developer selected by City Council in January 2006, as well as written materials explaining the history and status of the Village development.

At a subsequent June 17 public meeting, four concepts dreamed up by Related, with proposed building heights and density, will be presented to help stimulate discussion at the workshop.

The focus will be maximum building heights and the appropriate grade for the pedestrian walkway envisioned along 1st Court Alley, which will be next door to the new RAND Corporation building.

Four concepts presented at the June 17 workshop will include two different massing concepts, each with a 56-foot and a 65-foot height variation (the “65-foot height” version actually includes a mixture of 56-foot and 65-foot building heights), according City officials.

The City council approved the height limits in June 2005, paving the way to construct some 325 new housing units, including 160 units of low-income and affordable housing (for both sale and rental), live/work spaces, senior housing and family style units. The ground floors will be reserved for retail and other uses.

The plan also includes some 13 acres of new parks, an extension of Olympic Drive to Ocean Avenue, an early childhood development center, an annex to the Civic Auditorium and 100,000 square feet of additional space for City services.

As the largest tract of land developed for the public in Santa Monica’s history, the development of the Village has been a work in progress, with contentious issues being hashed out at City Council and Planning Commission meetings.

How many units should be developed on the site, how high the structure or structures should be and whether the project should be developed separately from the redesign of Santa Monica’s indoor mall have been some of the most hotly contested issues.

The first two community meetings signal the start of what could be a long road to construction.

After the May 18 and June 17 meetings, the information will be presented to the Housing Commission for its consideration and comment at a meeting tentatively scheduled for late June.

Staff will then present to the City Council a summary of input from the community and the Housing Commission, focusing primarily on the key issues of building height and concepts for the grade along 1st Court Alley.

The council is expected to take up the item in July or early August, when staff and the development-design team will ask for specific direction on the design parameters and the two other key issues.

Following the council meeting, the development-design team will prepare an updated design concept and engage in a dialogue with the community at one or two more workshops, according to staff. Issues taken up will include details for the public open space, public art and the sustainability goals for the Village development.

The council will then consider the design concept and entitlements late this year or early next year.

The Village development would then proceed through the normal development review process, which is expected to last approximately one year.

This development review process involves hearings before the Planning Commission, the City Council (if the Planning Commission decision is appealed) and the Architectural Review Board. Finally, the California Coastal Commission must approve the project, since the Village development is located within the coastal zone.