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# City ignores threat, wants review of downtown projects
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/city-ignores-threat-wants-review-of-downtown-projects/
- Published: 2002-05-24T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T00:18:02.000Z
- Author: Andrew Fixmer
- Tags: Entertainment, Downtown, #archive-import

*Despite objections from the state and the threat of a lawsuit, city officials plan to make development downtown a more public process.*

The city council narrowly agreed this week to pursue making a significant change to how development projects are approved downtown, sending the vast majority before the planning commission and architectural review board for public approval.

Right now, downtown buildings smaller than 29,000 square feet only need approval from the city’s building department.

But putting those same projects before the public would make the building’s design, appearance and size more subjective.

Developers and market-rate housing advocates have threatened to sue the city over such a move. The state’s department of housing and community development has raised some concerns about the proposal, even though it has approved the city’s future housing goals.

Councilman Herb Katz, a local architect, voted against the idea.

“I have large concerns with the whole approach,” he said. “I don’t believe everybody has to have input on every project.

> “I have large concerns with the whole approach. I don’t believe everybody has to have input on every project. That would be micro-managing.” — — HERB KATZ Santa Monica councilman

“That would be micro-managing.” Many officials are frustrated with developers who purposely make their projects small to avoid the public review process.

“Building under a threshold just to avoid a public process is anti-community,” said Mayor Mike Feinstein.

Santa Monica land use attorney Chris Harding said the ordinance would make building apartments in downtown more expensive, discouraging developers. He claims it would create a sense of uncertainty whether they could get planning commission approval.

“This proposed measure, if enacted, will undermine the key component of the city’s housing production strategy, which has been to provide procedural incentives for new housing in the city’s downtown,” Harding wrote in a letter to the city council. “These incentives are largely responsible for the city’s recent success in providing new housing.”

The state has asked the city to submit any changes Santa Monica makes to its development policies that could possibly prevent housing from being built. The city is contesting whether the state has the right to review local policies.

Harding has argued to the state that the city would be violating California regulations if it made building housing downtown more difficult.

Santa Monica already has an ordinance that requires more public review for proposed developments in every neighborhood except downtown. The council wants to extend the existing ordinance to encompass all of the city.

The city also is proposing to conduct a study on how the changes would negatively affect housing before the new regulations are approved.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 24, 2002.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/052402.pdf?ref=smdp.com)