SMC doesn’t have plans in place for all of $135M bond
SMC — Despite a dearth of organized resistance, a $135 million bond for Santa Monica College narrowly passed at the polls Nov. 2, garnering support from local renters but failing to earn the backing of homeowners.
Residents in the North of Montana and Sunset Park neighborhoods predominately voted against the bond, which will cost the average Santa Monica homeowner nearly $60 a year, but may only set tenants back a little over $10. Renters gave the bond overwhelming support, an analysis of election returns shows.
Malibu residents also weighed in on the bond, giving it just 0.1 percent more than the 55 percent it needed in order to pass. The bond was approved with 58 percent of the overall vote, far less than college officials projected.
It’s unclear exactly how all of the bond money will be used. While the City of Malibu has entered into a formal agreement with SMC to use part of the money to purchase open space, discussions between Santa Monica City Hall and the college broke down prior to the election. Most of the money will go towards renovating SMC buildings and to other college projects.
Assuming college and city officials can strike a deal, a portion of what’s left over may be used to fund a childhood education lab in partnership with City Hall, and some may go towards developing athletic fields.
That apparently wasn’t enough to convince the residents of Sunset Park, who gave the bond the cold-est reception citywide, with just 50 percent of voter support. Neighbors of the college have long complained that the campus continues to grow with little consideration for the community.
“A prime example is the parking structure constructed on Pico Boulevard a few years back,” said Peter Tigler, who isn’t a resident of Sunset Park but lives near the college. “Pico area neighbors asked the college to include their residential streets in the traffic study and the college refused. The $20,000 addendum that perhaps would have indicated proper mitigation would have been appropriate, but instead the college was obstinate and Pico neighbors sued. Unfortunately, we lost.”
Santa Monica’s renter-dominated neighborhoods, on the other hand, heavily backed the bond, election returns show. The strongest showing was in the heart of the eastside Pico neighborhood, where residents approved the bond with 63.4 percent of the vote, followed by residents of Ocean Park, Wilshire-Montana, and residents living downtown and in the Mid-City neighborhood.
Rent control officials at City Hall have yet to decide whether or not landlords will be able to pass the tax burden onto tenants.
Nancy Greenstein, a member of the SMC Board of Trustees, said despite resistance from the college’s neighbors in Sunset Park, the people she spoke with overwhelmingly supported the bond. General enthusiasm for the college may have been responsible for pushing an early poll gauging approval of the bond above 70 percent, Greenstein added.
“What I learned in being out there, talking about it, is most people have a positive perspective of the college,” she said, pointing out that other tax increases on the ballot for public safety and emergency room funding failed. “Either they or their family members have taken classes there. The seniors love the Emeritus Center. People have gone to entertainment there. I think the overall feeling is the community is very supportive of the college...
“I think, basically, people thought it was a good idea and some of the negativity had to do with the college and not with the bond proposal,” she added. “If that’s true, we need to work on those problems.”
The bond was originally unveiled at $175 million and included possible partnerships with the city to renovate the historic Marion Davies Estate at 415 Pacific Coast Highway, revamp the pier aquarium and help build botanical gardens at the Civic Center downtown, among other projects.
However, that proposal failed to garner enough support from the SMC board. So the plan was reduced and narrowly earned the board’s backing, sending it on to the polls, where the college spent upwards of $160,000 promoting it, campaign financing disclosure documents at City Hall show. Santa Monica Citizens Against Unfair Taxes spent less than $1,000 fighting the bond.
SMC trustee Annette Shamey, who originally voted against the bond proposal but later changed her mind, thereby sending the proposal onto the voters, said she’s hopeful the bond money will be spent wisely.
“I really don’t know where eventually some of the money will go, but I am told it will be for educational programs, which is my primary concern,” said Shamey, who has been a board member for 12 years. “And I think the partnerships they want to develop with the City of Santa Monica still have yet to be seen.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 13, 2004. Read the original PDF.