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# City policy opens floodgates for development
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/city-policy-opens-floodgates-for-development/
- Published: 2003-02-07T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T01:30:52.000Z
- Author: Bill Bauer
- Tags: Opinion, Pico, #archive-import

For decades, Santa Monicans for Renters Rights leadership has bragged about how they’ve kept a lid on runaway development. SMRR propaganda labels developers and real estate interests along with hotel owners and landlords as vile, evil anti-Christs and poxes on the community.

It appears that being anti-development is a big SMRR smokescreen. The truth is that the SMRR leadership and SMRR politicians have opened the door for an ever-escalating number of larger building projects.

Just a few months ago — and days after the election — the Santa Monica City Council performed a sleight of hand that would have made Houdini proud. After reducing the public review threshold on new commercial construction to 7,500 square feet, they allowed projects with affordable housing to exceed existing height and density code requirements — and public review.

Within weeks, two projects were announced to take advantage of these more liberal development standards. One is a moderate income housing/retail project at Pico Boulevard and 14th Street. The other project is condo project with minimal retail space slated for the Castle Signs property at 19th Street and Broadway. (Castle Signs? There’s a landmark Santa Monica business. So, where’s the Landmarks Commission?) Because these projects meet the minimum “mixed use” standards, they benefit from the 50 percent reduction in square footage and can build an extra floor. They qualify for recent setback and side yard exclusions. Landscaping is virtually nonexistent.

My friends, this is just the beginning of the flood.

In spite of community concern about growth and development, SMRR leaders and SMRR politicians are obsessed with more and more development, especially with a housing component. Even SMRR co-chair Patricia Hoffman was spotted wearing a big, yellow “Housing” button at a recent Bayside board meeting. Too bad it didn’t say, “Schools.”

How tight is the SMRR leadership with developers and real-estate interests? Eyebrows were raised recently when SMRR co-chair Denny Zane wrote to the planning commission on his Urban Dimensions company letterhead asking them to set aside a condition imposed on 808 Wilshire Boulevard in the early 1990s.

The condition was that a new gas station be built into 808 Wilshire Boulevard to replace the neighborhood gas station originally on the site.

Douglas Emmett and Company, one of the area’s largest realty and property management firms, recently acquired 808 Wilshire. Because the gas station had never opened for business, Douglas Emmett wanted to convert the space to offices.

Zane was mayor in 1990 when he voted for that very same condition — which was ultimately approved by the City Council. Zane now says that he has changed his mind about the condition and that he was asked, asked by Douglas Emmett to write a letter stating his opposition to the requirement for an on-site gas station. Despite Zane’s request, the Planning Commission upheld the condition.

I find it interesting that Zane, who opposed the construction of a Target store on 5th Street and Santa Monica Boulevard because of traffic concerns, but supports a 500-seat community theater proposal by Santa Monica College for its Madison Campus on Santa Monica Boulevard and 14th Street — in the middle of a quiet residential neighborhood.

According to SMC sources, Zane had been receiving a $3,000 monthly retainer from SMC to coordinate their Madison Theater project and is currently working with the SMC Foundation for an undisclosed retainer to solicit donors for the project.

And aren’t Mayor Pro-tem Kevin McKeown and his fellow affordable housing advocates trying to commandeer public acreage in the new Civic Center for an affordable housing project, ostensibly to house hotel workers?

Mega developer, Community Corporation of Santa Monica, a city-affiliated provider of affordable housing, states in its 2003 Strategic Plan that CCSM “advocates for” 600 units of affordable housing in the Civic Center instead of the 325 units recommended in the current plan.

There’s a long list of properties slated for development by CCSM in the next year or two. All contain the pre-requisite affordable housing, mixed-use element so they can “max-out” in regard to size and mass.

Will the public be heard on these issues? Forgeddabout it. You’ve been taken out of the picture by an affordable housing lobby which is made up of a small, but well organized cadre of our most politically influential citizens. And, their agenda takes precedent over everyone else’s. (Bill Bauer is a freelance writer and a longtime Santa Monica resident.)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 7, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/020703.pdf?ref=smdp.com)