Proposed Development at McDonald's Site Gets Thumbs up from Bayside

By Jorge Casuso

March 27 -- A proposed three-story office and retail complex in a crime-prone corner near the entrance to the Santa Monica pier received the unanimous support of the Bayside board Thursday night.

Although technically outside the Bayside's boundaries, the board joined the Pier Restoration Corporation and the Chamber of Commerce in backing the 61,000-square-foot project slated for the site of the McDonald's restaurant on 2nd Street and Colorado Avenue.

After eight years in the works, the Mission-style project -- which would include a McDonald's restaurant roughly the same size as the existing fast food outlet -- is slated to finally go before the City Council April 8 after the developer appealed a Planning Commission denial.

"I think it's a great use," said board member Wally Marks.

"You've satisfied all our concerns," said board member Patricia Hoffman.

To help win council approval, the developer removed a controversial drive-through, placed the vehicle exit in the alley to ease anticipated gridlock and allayed concerns that the project would generate too much traffic, said Norman J. Kravetz of Realty Bancorp Equities, which is developing the project.

The traffic concerns, Kravetz said, were fueled when City staff erroneously based its projected traffic counts on a restaurant far larger than the one actually proposed. The developer hired a consultant used by the City to update the report.

"There was a critical error in the way the City did the report," Kravetz told the board. "There is now no impact from the McDonald's. In fact, there's a decrease" in traffic generated by the fast food outlet."

(The overall development, however, is expected to generate a "significant" increase in traffic, according to the City's criteria.)

Placing the exit in the alley that leads to Colorado will eliminate potential gridlock generated by a conflict between pedestrians crossing at the intersection of 2nd Street and exiting motorists, Kravetz said.

"Every criteria, every aspect, we've met," Kravetz said. "Every objective, we've overcome… This project is the type of project that should be in this area. We have not received any negative response from anyone."

The proposed project will eliminate a mostly open, 37,500-square-foot-parcel in the "highest crime area in all of Santa Monica," Kravetz said.

"Now it's being used kind of without control," Kravetz said. "People walking in that area won't have to fear walking through that area, what they fear today.

"This site is the front door of the pier, and the front door is made shabby by the existing use," he added. "It's an impression we don't want it to have. This (the proposed project) makes it attractive."

In addition, Kravetz said, the project on the McDonald's-owned site -- which would include 300 parking spaces at ground level and in three levels of subterranean parking -- would help alleviate the Downtown parking crunch.

The spaces used by the offices, he said, would be available at night and on weekends, peak hours for Downtown and pier visitors.

The only board member who expressed concerns about the project was Henry Lichtman, an official of Macerich Corp., which owns Santa Monica Place across the street from the site. Macerich plans to relocate its food court to the third floor and fears the new development could block the ocean view.

"It will have an impact on what we're going to do," Lichtman said. "I would not move the food court up to the third level unless you have the views. We'd put it on the second level, where it's easier to get to."

The project, which was turned down 6 to 0 by the Planning Commission in December, requires a text amendment because no new fast food outlets are allowed in the district. It also needs the amendment to operate after hours and in the early morning.

If the council denies the project, Kravetz said, McDonald's would continue to operate its restaurant on the site.