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By Jorge Casuso
June 20 -- The City Council Tuesday night unanimously
endorsed a list of principles that will guide development
in Santa Monica for at least the next two decades and took
steps to halt several major projects in the industrial area.
The 55 principles -- which include promoting “walkability”
and alternatives to the car, as well as enhancing neighborhood
services -- will guide the update to the City’s Land
Use and Circulation Element (LUCE) of the General Plan, which
was last revised 25 years ago.
“These are principles that will guide the preservation
of our neighborhoods and guarantee a high-quality built and
natural environment,” Planning Director Eileen Fogarty
told the council. “The neighborhoods are the building
blocks. The neighborhoods are our character.
“We are not looking at separated buildings, we are
looking at an urban fabric,” Fogarty said. “The
city is evolving. Any change must contribute to our community,
not just impact it. . . Our tradition is small scale. We should
respect that tradition.”
Although council members were supportive, some worried the
principles were too vague.
“I think that these policies are fine, but they’re
general,” said Council member Ken Genser. “It
comes down to what are the details going to be. They are probably
general enough where most people say ‘fine.’”
“What we are looking at are the threads that bind us
together,” said Council member Kevin McKeown. “We
need to change our thinking about zoning. I see this as an
ongoing process, a very hopeful one.
The principles came out of three community meetings attended
by a total of some 220 residents that gauged “what are
some of the real items and actions the people care out,”
Fogarty said.
Although different neighborhoods stressed different issues
-- corridors in the Pico Neighborhood, parking in the Wilshire
Montana area, streetscapes in Ocean Park – there was
a focus on making communities meeting places.
“They want to see people, meet people, feel a part
of something larger,” Fogarty said. “There’s
no reason we can’t expect buildings with great corners,
perhaps corner plazas.”
Much of the focus of the meeting was on the boulevards.
“We have some real opportunities to ask what do we
want to create for the use of very strategic locations,”
Fogarty said. “The boulevards are our public spaces,
our public realm. How do we want them to look?”
But some residents who testified questioned whether 220 participants
constituted what City officials called an “extensive
community participation program.”
Two-hundred-twenty people represented only .004 percent of
Santa Monica’s 55,000 registered voters, said Ellen
Brennan.
“The rest of the voters have no idea what is being
proposed,” Brennan said. “Two-hundred-twenty people
is not the community.”
After approving the principles, the council discussed how
best to address a series of projects already in the pipeline
that would result in the construction of 1,150 studio units,
most of them in the city’s industrial zone.
“I’m concerned that it’s almost like the
cart is getting ahead of the horse,” said Council member
Bob Holbrook. “We could lose our ability to plan.”
Fogarty cautioned that “we have four or five sizable
projects now, and they are all residential. What we have going
forward now doesn’t meet. . . the goals” approved
by the council.
The council voted unanimously to direct staff to explore
ways to address large projects in the city’s industrial
zones and adjacent areas.
Mayor Richard Bloom said he looked forward to the next phase
of the general plan update.
“With this vote we’re going to take ourselves
one more step towards the end point,” said Mayor Richard
Bloom. “The goal is to give ourselves the tools to create
a better community for future generations.”
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