By MY WRITE BY BILL BAUER
Tomorrow night, the City Council will act on a proposal to exempt “affordable housing projects consisting of not more than 50 residential units from any requirement to obtain Development Review permits and/or Conditional Use Permits.”
I wrote about this last month (Dec. 4, Page 4), when it was before the Planning Commission. Despite the commission forwarding the ball to City Council for approval, my objections still stand.
In Santa Monica, it’s “residents be damned,” because our politicians’ and bureaucrats’ desire for low income housing preempts our right to speak out. If anything, City Council should be opening up all development to public scrutiny and comment, including low income housing, board and care, congregate housing and homeless shelters already exempt from review in most neighborhoods.
This proposal will exempt 100 percent of affordable housing projects of 50 units or less from the development review requirement in multifamily neighborhoods and eliminate the Conditional Use Permit (CUP) requirement in the Main Street commercial (CM), special office commercial (C5) and industrial conservation (M1) districts.
Council approval of the review exemptions would extend and codify temporary regulations that allow the kinds of ugly, oversized, multi-unit buildings we now see going up at Main and Pacific streets, 15th Street and Broadway, 26th Street and Santa Monica Boulevard, and Santa Monica Boulevard and Berkeley Street to virtually every multifamily neighborhood in town.
In a nutshell, developers of low income, rental housing can build larger buildings with more units, greater massing, higher density, reduced setbacks and less on-site parking than developers of market-rate housing where there’s no ceiling on income. The size and scale of low income housing is governed by existing city codes and state regulations.
Over the years, City Council has routinely implemented regulations making it easier and more profitable for developers to build low income housing including restricting public review to speed up the development process. City Hall’s housing policy “continues to provide development incentives and reduced planning fees for development of affordable housing,” says a staff report.
So, low income apartment projects are approved administratively behind closed doors and “fast tracked” into construction without any public input, including suggestions that might mitigate negative aspects on neighbors. According to Councilman Kevin McKeown, funding cycles on low income rental projects are so short that a lengthy review process could jeopardize their financing.And, we know the social engineers on City Council want to provide as much affordable housing as possible in the short-est period of time.
Last year, the city exceeded it’s quota of affordable housing. There are already at least 68 property tax exempt, low income, apartment buildings in Santa Monica. Most of them were built and/or operated by Community Corporation of Santa Monica — a City-affiliated developer of low income housing. CCSM manages well over 1,000 low income units spread throughout the various multifamily and low scale commercial neighborhoods, especially the Pico corridor. Other providers, including L.A. County, manage low income buildings within our borders.
How much low income housing do we need? Why the big rush to build more? Like with the homeless problem, “doing our small part to help those less fortunate” has become an obsession that’s negatively impacting the community. Most tenants in our low income housing came from out of town. In fact, CCSM actively recruits prospective tenants from all over the county.
What is particularly self-serving is architect and Planning Commission Chair, Gwynne Pugh’s vote to uphold the proposal and send it to City Council for approval. CCSM is a client of Pugh’s firm, Pugh + Scarpa. They designed the controversial, low income project at 15th Street and Broadway, among others. Heaven forbid the “pesky public” gets in their way and gums up the works.
We’re now dealing with increased traffic and parking issues, school overcrowding and crime impacts because so many of these projects are in our midst. Maybe we’ve reached the point that there’s too much of a good thing?
But, to deny residents the right to review and comment on any sizable, large scale development (no matter its noble purpose) and expand restrictions on public input or exclude citizen participation in decisions that affect our neighborhoods and community livability is undemocratic and unacceptable.
Before tomorrow night, e-mail, phone, fax or write City Council — or just show up. Tell ‘em, “Don’t muzzle my voice on the community’s future.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 8, 2007. Read the original PDF.