By Lorraine Sanchez
Dear City Councilmembers, Many of the basic concepts and goals of our (Land Use and Circulation Element), such as sustainability, walkability, connectivity, etc., are very important in and of themselves.
However the concept of “Public Benefits” has not been adequately debated. Many, many of your constituents feel that the benefits being proposed in no way compensate for the level of development envisioned in this plan.
We are only 8-square-miles, and in this space multiple Urban Village Centers are proposed … the terms “Village” and “Urban” are contradictory. Terms like modest growth, low scale, community values re-scale and heights are not defined. Our city staff seems to think that anything under six stories is modest and low scale.
We are a very well developed city with adequate public benefits.
What we want is adequate parking for residents in Wilmont, a library in the Pico Neighborhood, preservation of our trees, less traffic from workers, students, and visitors so we are not trapped in our neighborhoods, maintenance of a low scale sky line (defined as mostly one, two, and some three to four stories, depending on the neighborhood centers) and less development.
Under the guise of providing workforce and affordable housing, you are asking for an increase in density that is not acceptable.
There is no way we can build or grow ourselves out of the overcrowding and gridlock we now have.
This LUCE document pleases the developers, the city staff, and what seems to be most of you. There is only one voice among you who listens and represents our interests and concerns. The rest of you seem quite sure you know what’s best for “the city,” and that seems to exclude us residents.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 25, 2008. Read the original PDF.