Commission bypassed in favor of city council
Developer Howard Jacobs plans to appeal the Santa Monica Planning Commission’s denial of his Main Street project before the city council tonight.
On Dec. 5, the planning commission denied Jacobs’ application to build a 133-unit housing and retail development at the former Pioneer Boulangerie Bakery site and across the street. Jacobs owns both parcels, located just south of Pico Boulevard on Main Street.
Nearly all of the commission members said the development, which is about 170,000 square feet and covers more than a city block, would overwhelm the neighborhood and would aesthetically ruin the north end of Main Street.
However, the plans the city council will review tonight are different than those that were denied.
Jacobs has been presenting the modified plan to council members during private meetings for the past month and a half. He is appealing the planning commission’s decision to the council directly, instead of bringing it back to the commission.
Jacobs did not return phone messages left Friday and Monday. But he has told some council members that he wants to continue with the appeal instead of bringing the modified plan back to the plan-ning commission because the commission didn’t certify the project’s final environmental review, which has to be approved for the plan to move forward. The commission said the review’s traffic analysis was flawed.
Meanwhile, Jacobs is suing the city, arguing that it has dragged its feet in completing the environmental impact review on the project, which, by state law, was supposed to be done within 12 months.
Jacobs claims the delay has cost him millions of dollars because he has had to extend escrow on the property, as well as pay $82,000 a month in maintenance expenses.
He claims the city council put the project in jeopardy when it delayed hiring a consultant to complete the environmental impact report in April of 2000. At the time, the city told him that the report would be done in July of 2000 and before the plan-ning commission in February of 2001.
The contract with EIP Associates, the West Los Angeles-based consulting firm hired by the city, wasn’t signed until December 2000. Jacobs was told the project would be reviewed by the plan-ning commission in May or June of 2001. The report was completed late last year.
And despite the lawsuit, council members say they remain impartial in their review of the proposal. Council members are scheduled to discuss the lawsuit in closed session before the public hearing tonight.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 12, 2002. Read the original PDF.