City officials forced to research documentation
CITY HALL — Citizens suspicious of Santa Monica Place redevelopment proposals have been granted court-ordered requests for correspondence between City Hall and the mall’s owner.
The Santa Monica Coalition for a Livable City (SMCLC), a group of about 100 citizens who are questioning Santa Monica Place redevelopment scenarios that they fear will side-step the public process, was granted its request by the Los Angeles Superior Court last week. The court ordered city officials to search for and release documents they so far haven’t produced.
“This is an important victory for Santa Monica residents,” said SMCLC spokesperson Diana Gordon.
Gordon said the court agreed with the SMCLC that City Hall must relinquish some documents so residents will have information to make informed decisions about a possible major redevelopment of Santa Monica Place, the indoor shopping mall between Second and Fourth streets and Broadway and Colorado Avenue.
City Hall officials were contending that only documents they release on the city’s Web site should be produced, Gordon said.
City Attorney Marsha Moutrie said her office was preparing to give the SMCLC documentation on Tuesday that would include information from public surveys and workshops, part of the community approval process for Santa Monica Place’s redevelopment.
“I hope the plaintiff will see we are acting in good faith,” Moutrie said, indicating not all of the information requested would be immediately available.
Gordon said a meeting scheduled for Tuesday was canceled by the City Attorney’s office. The purpose of the meeting, as Gordon understood it, was to allow the SMCLC to review all documents it requested at one time. The SMCLC would be able to choose those documents which it would like to scan and keep.
Instead, Gordon said her colleagues were handed over some documentation when they arrived at City Hall, which was not to the extent they requested.
Gordon said the SMCLC would prefer reviewing all of the documents on its terms, due to past experiences in which the City Attorney’s office produced paperwork that failed to answer its questions.
“They would give us duplicate documents already on the city Web site, or documents not related to what we were looking for and not asked them to produce,” Gordon said.
Gordon said she hadn’t had a chance to review the documents the City Attorney’s office offered the SMCLC on Tuesday. However, her colleagues had indicated they were disappointed in what they had received from City Hall.
“It’s fair to say that it appears we still have a serious dispute as to the city’s obligations to produce all of the documents ordered by the court for our inspection and scanning, if appropriate,” Gordon said. “There is no justifiable reason to withhold documents that were court-ordered to produce.”
City officials said it’s not a matter of withholding information, but a time issue — locating all of the documents is taking longer than anticipated.
Among the documents the SMCLC requested include: ■ E-mails between City Hall and Macerich. Those documents have yet to be searched. ■ Underlying source documents of City Hall’s costs to redevelop Santa Monica Place, as well as traffic studies and other environmental impacts. ■ Telephone surveys City Hall conducted, with input from the developer. ■ The names and addresses of residents who attended City Hall’s workshops, as well as lease and fee interest information for Macy’s and Robinsons- May, Santa Monica Place’s two anchor retailers in the mall.
The court also ordered City Hall to prepare a list of all documents that was withheld on the basis of privilege, so the court can determine whether it has properly asserted a privilege.
A status hearing is set for Sept. 26. Santa Monica Place is owned by Macerich, Inc., one of the largest owners and operators of retail malls in the United States. Randy Brant, senior vice president of leasing of development leasing for Macerich, said the indoor shopping mall needs to be redeveloped because it was based on an old, out-dated suburban model that does not compete well with other shops on the Third Street Promenade.
The question of what kind of development should replace Santa Monica Place is one the city has been trying to answer in recent years.
The City Council scrapped a proposed development to replace Santa Monica Place last year due to controversy about the height of high-rise buildings that were slated for the site. If implemented, the project would have demolished the existing mall and erected three 21-story residential towers, an eight-story office building and an eight-story apartment building. Those buildings were to be built on top of a new outdoor mall, which developers described as a natural extension of the Third Street Promenade.
Macerich has taken public comment from workshops, surveys and other outreach in order for consultants to come up with proposals to help “re-imagine” Santa Monica Place.
Alternative proposals to the current Santa Monica Place site were supposed to be presented publicly this summer, followed up by presentations to City Hall this fall with the hopes of approval. So far, the proposals have not been presented.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 3, 2005. Read the original PDF.