Residents look to stop building until city has a plan
CITYWIDE — A group of residents frustrated with development throughout the city are waiting for the hammers to drop, at least for a little while.
A coalition of neighborhood groups will ask the Planning Commission tonight to support a building moratorium for Santa Monica until a new general plan is approved by the City Council.
Residents are currently working with city staff to develop a plan that will outline how land should be used for the next two decades.
The process has been delayed because of changes in leadership in City Hall.During that time, several projects, including three large residential developments totaling 896 units and 19 condo projects totaling 400 units, have gotten the green light.
The coalition believes those projects, and others approved in the near future, could make the general plan update irrelevant. Residents are particularly concerned about the future of the light manufacturing district, which appears ripe for change and has become a target of developers.
“Residents have spoken time and time again over the past three years... about their vision for our city, and it does not include the unprecedented growth the city has sustained over the past 23 years,” said Diana Gordon, co-chair of the Santa Monica Coalition for a Livable City, which has partnered with Friends of Sunset Park, North of Montana Association, Wilshire-Montana Neighborhood Coalition, and the North of Montana and Ocean Park associations in calling for the moratorium.
“Meanwhile, without an update plan, development projects throughout the city are steamrolling ahead,” Gordon added. “It’s time now for our city to put the brakes on what is essentially unplanned development …”
The existent general plan is more than 20 years old and a new one is at least a year away from adoption.
Developers had mixed reactions to the moratorium. Some were concerned about the effects a stoppage might have on projects already underway, while others said it would make them reluctant to purchase property in Santa Monica if they were unable to build for at least a year or more.
In a city desperately seeking affordable housing, the moratorium could exacerbate the problem, developers warned.
Representatives with the coalition said they are open to excluding certain types of development, such as single and multi-family residential housing and affordable housing, which are exempted by law from a building moratorium.
Cities do have the ability to pass a moratorium on development, but face a high burden of proof. Under the law, before a government body can adopt or extend any moratorium on development, it must find that there is a current or immediate threat to the public’s health safety, or welfare.
West Hollywood recently adopted an emergency interim ordinance to halt approvals of luxury housing projects that replace sound housing stock while it revises its 1988 housing element. The practice of replacing existing market rate units with a lesser number of larger, high-priced luxury units was eroding the city’s supply of middle income housing and was at odds with its own housing replacement goals and state mandates, officials there said.
“We believe that these same development pressures exist in Santa Monica, causing the loss of long-time, ‘rooted’ residents who are unable to find other suitably priced housing,” a letter from the coalition to the Planning Commission states. “What is imperative is that we free up the staff resources to move ahead and complete the general plan revisions as soon as we can, and that we ensure that all interim development not be at odds with that update and with residents’ targeted goals of scale and size for Santa Monica.”
Still, moratoriums are rare, according to Eileen Fogarty, director of planning and community development in City Hall, but they can be useful tools. Fogarty feels one may be in order for Santa Monica as the Land Use and Circulation Element of the general plan is hammered out.
Residents and city staff have made progress over the last six months on the update, holding forums on placemaking and neighborhood preservation. The next step is tackling the light manufacturing district, where current projects are out of step with the desires of residents, Fogarty said.
“The real issue, to me, is not placing a moratorium on one kind of project or another, but on one area over another,” Fogarty said. “We are going to see change, and in one area, there are clearly projects that are not representative of what we’ve heard from residents. Those projects are in the industrial area.”
Typically, when a moratorium is passed, Fogarty said, projects already approved move forward and are not affected. However, the council could choose to cast a wider net.
Planning Commissioner Jay Johnson said he too is open to a moratorium on development, but only in certain areas.
“I doubt we need a moratorium in (single family residential), but certainly in the (light manufacturing district),” Johnson said. “Downtown is another area that has been really targeted for development,but I can’t be too precise without first having a hearing and seeing everything in front of me.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 20, 2007. Read the original PDF.