Moving auto dealerships is an open ended question
Auto dealerships may be spread throughout the city in upcoming years, alleviating the pressures that neighborhoods off of Santa Monica Boulevard have dealt with for a long time.
The Santa Monica City Council recently voted to look at other areas of the city that could accommodate auto dealerships and their service departments so they are not all on Santa Monica Boulevard, as they are now.
The study, which the council will be updated on in February, will not look at a specific neighborhood, but rather many areas that could be zoned for auto dealerships.
While the study may be general, Mayor Pro Tem Kevin McKeown thinks the idea, which was brought forward by Santa Monica Mayor Michael Feinstein, is a valid one. However, he cautioned that it should-n’t be directed at a particular area.
“This has the potential to be a truly visionary idea,” he said. “What I want to avoid us doing is having a section of the city think their future may somehow be compromised... This city has a lot of small, locally owned, independently operated businesses that we should be trying to retain. How do we proceed with this without casting a pall over a part of the city... but that we want to have vibrant and not have people think it’s going through a major change?” he asked.
Feinstein agreed with McKeown and said his comments in the future will indicate that no specific areas are being targeted. However, one of the areas discussed by some people is Lincoln Boulevard.
The neighborhoods north and south of Santa Monica Boulevard have dealt with a lack of parking, constant traffic on quiet streets and auto repair noise for years. The city tried to combat some of their concerns by enacting a preferential parking zone that allows residents park in their neighborhood to from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. But that only addressed some of their issues.
Feinstein said he began discussing with the dealers about relocating some of their services to other areas of the city to balance private interests with commercial ones.
One of those dealers is Dan Sheridan, who owns Sheridan Toyota and is chairman of the automobile dealers task force.
He told the Daily Press last month that when auto dealers first complained to the city about parking and regulation problems, the council asked for a report outlining their grievances and detailing the changes they proposed. The end result took two years, cost over $100,000 and is about 200 pages long.
But just before the dealerships were about to submit their findings, the city council enacted the preferential parking. The Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce then sued the city claiming that preferential parking infringed on the rights of businesses, but the chamber lost the first round in court and has appealed the decision.
Now, in an effort to work more cohesively, the task force and city staff will look at the possibility of creating an “auto mall” somewhere other than Santa Monica Boulevard.
But Chuck Allord, who represents Neighbors for Safer Santa Monica and lives near the auto dealerships, said the city shouldn’t create new commercial zones to accommodate what he describes as “horrible neighbors.”
“Mr. Sheridan has been the most problematic problem in this area,” he told the council. “Mr. Sheridan and his father have ignored all the complaints from the residents for the past three years. They just couldn’t care less.”
“Mr. Sheridan and his father have ignored all the complaints from the residents for the past three years. They just couldn’t care less.” — — CHUCK ALLORD Neighbors for Safer Santa Monica
He said the council won’t be addressing the problem by creating an auto mall. He also alleged that the council is receiving “pay offs” by auto dealers. However, he didn’t provide any evidence of that at the meeting and Mayor Feinstein vehemently denied that any city official was being paid off.
Auto dealerships are big business for the city, bringing in the single highest source of tax revenue. Annually, dealerships generate about $10 million for the city, which consists of about 3 percent of the entire city budget.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 2, 2002. Read the original PDF.