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# Council to approve $165,000 demolition of former motel on Ocean Avenue
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/condemned/
- Published: 2005-01-25T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T06:02:17.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Government & Politics, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*Demolition and ‘green’ toilets add up to $204K*

*By Daily Press staff*

COUNCIL CHAMBERS — Knocking down a building, and reimbursing people with efficient toilets and urinals account for about $200,000 in taxpayer spending tonight.

The largest expenditure on tonight’s City Council agenda is $164,996 to demolish an old motel on Ocean Avenue.

City Hall and the city’s redevelopment agency bought the building at 1657 Ocean Ave. in 2000 as part of the 11.3-acre purchase of the RAND Corp. property. The front portion of the building houses Chez Jay restaurant and four former motel units, which will remain under a lease with the city’s redevelopment agency. The rear section, to be (Editor’s note: This is part of an ongoing series that tracks the city’s expenditures, which appear on the upcoming Santa Monica City Council consent agenda. Consent agenda items are routinely passed by the City Council with little or no discussion from elected officials or the public. However, many of the items have been part of public discussion in the past.) demolished, includes six former motel units. That section of the building is dry rotted, water damaged and has lost structural integrity, city staff said. The result is that it’s unsanitary, unsafe, a public health hazard and dangerous for emergency workers to enter, city staff said.

The City Council is expected to approve a contract with Gonzalez Construction Co. to demolish the building for $149,996, plus a contingency of $15,000.

The other expenditure expected to be approved tonight is a rebate program that will cost $40,000\. City Hall is expected to enter into a 10-year contract with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California to rebate Santa Monica businesses that use water-conserving facilities such as “ultra low-flow” toilets and urinals, efficient washing machines and “pre-rinse, self-closing spray heads.”

Under City Hall’s sustainable city plan, the goal in the community is to reduce water consumption by 20 percent from 2000 usage levels. Then, the usage volume was 13.6 million gallons per day. The goal is 10.88 million gallons a day by 2010.

City Hall adopted in 1988 stringent water conservation ordinances, codes and programs to encourage people to use water-efficient devices. In recent years, the program has awarded rebates to water customers in Santa Monica. As a result, 971 water-efficient devices have been installed, which will save more than 1,010 acre-feet of water over the lifetime of their service. City Hall’s contributions have varied from $30 to $250 per rebate and, the MWD’s contributions have varied from $50 to $2,000.

Over 10 years, the value of avoided water usage of 400 acre-feet is $172,400, based on current water costs, city staff said.

If approved tonight, the program would continue to provide rate payers with new and permanent means of reducing their utility costs, and to reduce the city’s total water usage, city staff said.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/012505-01_01.jpg)

The old motel on Ocean Avenue will soon be razed to make way for a new Civic Center development proposed by City Hall. (Photo: Alejandro Cesar Cantarero II/Daily Press)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 25, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/012505.pdf?ref=smdp.com)