Planning Commission Votes Not to Recommend College Parking Structure

By Jorge Casuso

After three hours of public testimony and deliberations, the Planning Commission concluded Wednesday night that a 350-page Environmental Impact Report lacked the crucial information needed to decide the fate of a replacement parking structure at Santa Monica College.

In a 4 to 0 vote -- one commissioner was absent and two others have resigned -- the commission recommended that the City Council look at alternative ways of mitigating the traffic generated by the proposed 486-space, five-story structure on 17th Street just south of Pico Boulevard.

The proposed structure -- which will be built on the site of the old municipal pool between the Technology and Physical Education buildings -- will replace a parking structure demolished after it was damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake. The old structure (which is the site of the new pool) was accessed via both 16th and 17th streets.

"This is being considered in a vacuum," said Commissioner Barbara Brown. "I recommend that the council not approve the plan until the college can come back and demonstrate they have exhausted all other options.... We don't have the info to say anything."

The commission worried that the proposed structure will snarl traffic on Pico Boulevard and create a volatile mix of crossing pedestrians and incoming vehicles at the 17th Street entrance.

"There is a real concern by the community, members of the public and the college as well," said commission chair Kelly Olsen. "Santa Monica College is surrounded by residential. We're just not on the same page. I hope we can find a way to get on that same page, philosophical and practical."

The commission recommended that the council examine the proposed plan to add two dedicated left-turn lanes on Pico and widen the entrance to the structure.

"I think that we're trying to get a bowling ball into a mayonnaise jar and not have it break," Olsen said. "That's the issue we have to address. There's going to be a tremendous pedestrian conflict. This isn't enough. We don't know what enough is right now."

The commission also recommended that the council explore alternatives to the structure, as well as ways to encourage motorists to take alternative means of transportation.

These could include everything from building the structure at a remote site and shuttling students in to putting meters in the proposed structure or charging on a pay-per-use basis, instead of using the current permit system, which give unlimited access to the structures.

College officials said they had explored the different measures and found them wanting. Paying at the entrance, they noted, would create a backup of cars entering the structure. As for building the structure at a remote site, the college has explored the option and encountered opposition.

"No one wants to have the parking in their backyard," said Tom Donner, executive vice president of the college. "We've looked at other areas of town, but they haven't been practical."

According to a traffic report by Santa Monica based traffic consultants KAKU Associates, "The proposed project would generate significant neighborhood traffic impact on 14th Street north and south of Pealr Street and on 16th Street south of Pearl Street."

The study also found that the replacement structure "is projected to generate a net increase beyond the original Structure B of approximately 740 daily trips."

The commission voted against staff's recommendation to adopt a Statement of Overriding Considerations, which would allow the project to go forward without mitigating five traffic impacts, after hearing from half a dozen residents.

The residents opposed putting a left turn lane on 23rd Street at Pico and worried that the proposed structure would delay construction of the new municipal pool at the site of the demolished structure. (City staff said it would not.) The biggest concern is that the structure will drive traffic into the neighborhood.

"It's a matter of life or breath," said Clyde Smith, a member of the board of the Pico Neighborhood Association. "The massing of parking on Pico has its limits. A pint can only hold a pint. The demand is too much to bear."

The proposed structure would help make up for the 700 parking spaces lost after the earthquake. The shortage is being alleviated with a shuttle system based at the Santa Monica Airport, where the college has a campus.