By Hector Gonzalez
Staff Writer

January 21, 2015--In his first State of the City speech, Santa Monica Mayor Kevin McKeown on Tuesday outlined six “game-changing” trends he believes will shape Santa Monica in 2015 and years to come.

Addressing civic and business leaders during a breakfast gathering at the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce, the mayor said the beachside city is rapidly becoming a high tech hub where alternative modes of transportation are a viable alternative to the car, but warned that rental prices threaten to make it a “haven for the ultra- rich.”

McKeown cited technology, transportation, water sustainability, housing affordability, the rise of residents as major stakeholders in future planning, land use and updated zoning codes as “game-changers” that will require “thoughtful policy making” by City officials.

Technology, although “still a subset of the local economy” is exploding in Santa Monica, McKeown said, with some 2,400 tech companies employing about 22,000 people, roughly a quarter of the city’s total workforce.

“Innovation crackles in our city, especially driven by eighteen co-work spaces and start-up accelerators,” the mayor told audience members. “Multiple technology summits and hackathons draw some of the biggest names in technology to Santa Monica to share their ideas.”

To meet new technology demands, the city “offers the fastest publicly owned fiber network in the nation,” McKeown said, adding that Santa Monica is now expanding Wi-Fi hot spots in the most frequented areas of the city.

He also announced an upcoming program, CityNet, which will deliver high-speed Wi-Fi services to residents who work from home.

A rise in the city’s population of Millennials, those born between 1982 and 2001, also presents a game-changer in transportation, McKeown said. Surveys show many younger people yearn to work in cities where driving car is an option, not a necessity, he added.

Santa Monica is meeting that challenge with the launch of Expo rail services as soon as the end of this year, by integrating its Big Blue Bus services with the Expo Line, creating 45 new miles of dedicated bike lanes, launching a bike-sharing program this year, as well as a car-sharing program due to roll out in 2016, he said.

“In short, Santa Monica is becoming a 21st century multi-model city,” McKeown said. “That’s game-changer number two.”

The City Council’s approval last year of a Sustainable Water Master Plan, the first in California, is another game-changer, the mayor said, putting the city on course “to wean ourselves off of Colorado River and Sacramento Delta water by 2020.”

To do that, Santa Monica will use a combination of ground water, conservation measures, and increasing its use of recycled water, he said.

The goal is to reduce overall water consumption in the city by 20 percent by 2016, he added.

Affordable housing is another major challenge for the city, McKeown said. In 2012, Santa Monica lost one of its main funding sources for providing affordable housing when the state stripped cities of crucial redevelopment money, a blow compounded by the failure last November of local Measure H, which would have replaced those lost redevelopment funds, he added.

“Santa Monica must not become an exclusive haven for the ultra-rich,” said McKeown. “We need to recommit ourselves to the voter-approved goal in the (city’s) charter that 30 percent of the housing built in town be affordable, and to securing a dedicated funding source or sources to achieve that outcome. The (City) Council will determine just how to do so in the next two years.”

To further protect the city’s renters, City Council members last year adopted a tenant harassment ordinance to address “an up-tick in the incidence of tenant harassment, which many attribute to the economic pressure of rising land prices and rents,” the mayor said.

“This trend will challenge our community on many levels for years to come,” he said. “Achieving housing affordability and stability will be game-changer number four.”

Residents demanding a bigger voice in the community present another game-changer, the mayor said, citing last year’s land-use referendum by opponents of the proposed Hines Project, the first such referendum “in decades,” he said.

The effort drew more than 13,000 signatures, indicating a need for more thoughtful planning at City Hall to address traffic and parking concerns, the mayor added.

“We must respect residents and find ways to manage how commercial activities intrude into established neighborhoods,” McKeown said.

In a related issue, the City’s Land Use and Circulation Element (LUCE) “outlines how future and commercial housing needs can be accommodated downtown, at Bergmot, at Memorial Park, along transit lines, etc.,” he said.

“Making good on our promises to residents to protect our neighborhoods, and finding new ways to connect with the public, encourage community involvement, and nurture positive civic engagement will be game-changer number five.”

McKeown said he expects the City Council to adopt a new zoning ordinance “and perhaps the Downtown Specific Plan as well,” citing those priorities as “game-changer number six.”

“Concurrently, staff is drafting the Memorial Park Neighborhood Plan, Pedestrian Action Plan, and Lincoln Neighborhood Corridor Plan,” McKeown said.

“When all are fully debated, deliberated and adopted, by 2016, it will have been a 12-year march to update all of our major land-use plans in Santa Monica.”