In July, the City Council will act upon proposed changes in development standards and permitted uses for Montana Avenue approved Wednesday by the Planning Commission.
In May 2000, because of neighbor concerns and hard work by Councilman Kevin McKeown, City Council approved interim standards restricting the size of developments and prohibiting new incidental food outlets on the commercial strip of Montana that stretches 10 blocks from 7th Street to 17th Street. If recommendations approved by the Planning Commission (based on City staff recommendations) are adopted permanently by City Council, neighborhood livability around Montana could be threatened once again.
Neighbors on both sides of Montana and I strongly support more restrictive conditions as a way of keeping our low-key, neighborhood street from being overrun by mini-malls and food and drink establishments catering to the entire world.
Main Street is a prime example of a commercial street where round-the-clock activity has made life a living hell for neighbors. Many businesses, especially those with food or food and alcohol service, operate from 6 a.m. until past midnight. After hours, the early a.m. freight deliveries, cleaning noise, trash disposal, sidewalk and patio washing and loud music from uncaring employees’ radios supplant the drunks’shouting and screaming, car horns, alarms, stereos and squealing tires. As one Main Street adjacent resident told me, “It never stops and the city does nothing.”
Which all leads me back to Montana Avenue. We don’t want to see the street, which is entirely surrounded by residential neighborhoods, to become another “Main Street” at the expense of our livability.
About a decade ago, the city painted single traffic lanes on Montana Avenue. Eager to see what affect this had on side street traffic flow, some of us checked city traffic studies of the area. The studies showed traffic counts doubling on the 1400 block of Idaho Avenue — a strictly residential street south of Montana. Traffic had substantially increased on the 800 blocks of 14th and 15th Streets, too. However, traffic patterns were relatively unchanged on most other residential blocks.
There was (and is) a constant parade of vehicles driving from Montana, down Court 14 or 15th Street, west on Idaho and up 14th Street to Montana. Drivers circled the block looking for preferably free places to park while they patronized two newly opened coffee shops and a new bagel shop on the South side of the 1400 block of Montana Avenue.
City staff agreed these three new incidental food businesses were causing the dramatic increase in adjacent street traffic — not the new paint striping. And, it provided further proof that persons “driving” to these locations are most likely not “locals” living adjacent to Montana Avenue.
Incidental food establishments are virtually indistinguishable from cafes and permitted to provide a quarter of the parking required by a restaurant. It’s unfortunate that the two “official neighborhood groups,” staff and even the Planning Commission itself ignored the fact that most incidental food outlets on Montana are woefully underparked and contribute substantially to adjacent residential traffic, pollution and parking woes.
Hopefully, City Council will correct this and prohibit new incidental food permits. And, I strongly suggest adding a permanent freeze on future alcohol permits as another way to preserve the peace for surrounding residents, especially at night.
Another issue concerns sidewalk dining. Montana sidewalks are less than 10-feet wide — much too narrow to safely accommodate both sidewalk diners and pedestrians. The staff recommended that a four-foot wide clear path must be maintained. That’s not going to happen because of parking meters, news racks, poles, tables, chairs, trees, pets, shopping bags and infant carriers. Therefore, City Council has an opportunity to correct another bad planning error and vote for public safety.
Development standards requiring Planning Commission review of all projects in excess of 5,000 square feet and lower development standards for new construction should be approved to allow more public input on potentially incompatible projects.
It’s not in the adjacent resident’s best interests to re-open the street to more intensive and potentially harmful neighborhood impacting uses, so it’s up to the City Council to step in and set things right, again.
I urge all neighbors on both sides of Montana Avenue to phone City Council at 310-458-8201 or e-mail Tell them not to let Montana Avenue become the ugly, loud, traffic-generating, alcohol-soaked monster that Main Street has become. (Bill Bauer is a longtime Santa Monica resident and freelance writer.)
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 18, 2004. Read the original PDF.