By Jason Islas
Lookout Staff

March 8, 2012 -- On Monday, the Architectural Review Board approved a temporary sign to be placed outside Tesla's new showroom in Santa Monica, a visible sign that the first auto showroom on the Promenade  is on its way.

The “super graphic” will be placed on the construction barrier currently outside the future site of Tesla Motors' new store near Wilshire Boulevard on the northern edge of the Promenade.

The content of the “super graphic” isn't specified in the staff report, the size is. The applicant requested an 8-foot high by 25-foot wide temporary barricade graphic. A “super graphic” is defined as “a painted design that covers all or a major portion of a wall, building, or structure,” according to staff.

Though Tesla's new showroom -- which will fill the glass storefront of the now-departed Arcadia Books -- will be for only electric vehicles and will not include maintenance, the arrival of the first auto showroom on the Promenade was not without controversy.

In order for Tesla to move onto the Promenade, the City had to change some zoning codes.

Auto retail was not specifically prohibited by Chapter 9 from setting up shop in the Bayside District 1 – which includes the Promenade – but there was a provision that excludes “any use not specifically authorized.”

When the plan to revise the code went before the Planning Commission in October of last year, it proved divisive.

City staff argued that an electric car showroom would attract more foot traffic to the Promenade, but some commissioners weren't convinced it would be the right kind.

“I'm sure we'll attract visitors and people who...are attracted to the theme-parkness of it,” Commissioner Jennifer Kennedy said in October.

When the commission ended up in a deadlock, the motion to amend the zoning ordinance failed, but the decision was appealed and overturned by the City Council in December.

Council members Terry O'Day and Bob Holbrook first brought the issue up to the Council in August because they felt that there should be a showroom for alternative fuel vehicles on “our premier sales block,” according to O'Day.

But the Council was certain to make sure that this wasn't going to open any floodgates.