Last Tuesday, City Council approved initial changes to the proposed updated general plan that would allow up to a 75-foot height limit on stretches of the city’s boulevards. The additional height (over what is currently permitted) would be achieved by giving developers 10-foot height “bonuses” in exchange for “public benefits.”
Voting for higher buildings were Mayor Herb Katz; Mayor Pro Tem Richard Bloom and Pam O’Connor and Bob Holbrook. Opposing the new height limits were Bobby Shriver, Ken Genser and Kevin McKeown who argued that the bonuses would result in buildings that were too tall.
Just what are “public benefits?” Affordable rental housing, more parks, traffic improvements (not likely with this council) or homeless services? And, by whose standard is a public benefit determined? Planning by competitions to please city bureaucrats and injecting arbitrary social values into the zoning codes will only make for more bad development and wealthier land use attorneys.
For the record, Katz, Bloom and Genser are running for re-election. Shriver is still undecided.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 28, 2008. Read the original PDF.