21-story towers are off the table for now
CITY HALL — A plan to raze Santa Monica Place mall and extend the Third Street Promenade received an early nod of approval late Tuesday, though officials ordered the developer to put aside its controversial blueprints and first collect opinions from the public.
The Santa Monica City Council voted unanimously to enter into negotiations with the mall’s owner, Macerich Co., to plan the future of the 10-acre site, which officials hope someday will serve as a nexus between Main Street, the Promenade, Santa Monica Pier, Civic Center and a proposed light rail station downtown.
Macerich officials last November proposed razing the indoor mall and neighboring parking structures, and replacing it with a new, outdoor shopping mall that would rearrange the existing 560,000 square feet of retail space and add 70,000 square feet of offices, 300 condominiums and 150 apartments. An immediate backlash erupted in the community over the height of the project, which suggested dramatically reworking the Santa Monica skyline with three 21-story condo towers and two shorter buildings for apartments and offices.
Echoes of that backlash continued at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, even after Macerich officials presented an emasculated plan for their central downtown property which removed the towers entirely. Slides of the proposal featured a white block over the residential portion, with the words “To be determined after community input” printed over it.
Mall officials repeatedly have stressed that tall, thin towers are preferable over short, wide buildings, saying they allow for more light and air, and are more interesting architecturally. Still, Randy Brant of Macerich acknowledged the towers likely will be cut way down before the project can proceed.
“When we presented this to the public, it seemed to be a non-starter,” Brant said Wednesday. “There’s no reason to continue to illustrate something that’s been made very clear to us won’t work.”
“There’s no reason to continue to illustrate something that’s been made very clear to us won’t work.” — he said. — RANDY BRANT Macerich Co
A PUBLIC COMMENT What will work for the property is still unclear. Though the council agreed to proceed, it directed Macerich to hire two consultants to work with City Hall and the public on formulating a plan.
One consultant will facilitate an extensive community outreach program that as of yet is unplanned. The other consultant will perform a financial analysis of the site, taking particular notice of the two city-owned parking structures, which occupy about 20 percent of the property.
Supporters and critics packed the council chambers on Tuesday, and spilled into City Hall’s corridors and lobbies, where extra seats were set up with televisions broadcasting the council meeting.
Nearly 30 people addressed the council regarding the controversial plans, including three former Santa Monica mayors.
Business interests urged the council to seize what they called a momentous opportunity to economically boost downtown. Critics derided city officials for considering the plans while they embark on a rewrite of the land use element, the document that governs development throughout Santa Monica.
“I respectfully request that you set aside this... plan and come back later with something that is not an insult to even the simplest of minds, something more in line with what is acceptable to the people of Santa Monica,” said 49-year resident Emmalie Hodgin.
“I do believe that they are the ones who have given you your temporary power,” Hodgin continued. “I do hope that you have not come down with the political virus of the season, that causes one who gets his foot in the door to get the notion that he now has a mandate to stomp all over the house.”
“It’s sort of a new process.”
“We haven’t done something like this,”
Those who supported proceeding with the negotiations said the financially faltering mall needed to be rebuilt and reminded the council that City Hall will retain control over the project until it gives final approval. The inward-facing mall is outdated and in recent years has lost many merchants to the thriving, pedestrian-friendly Promenade, mall officials said.
“I don’t want to look at unappealing parking structures anymore,” said resident Tom Cleys, adding the Frank Gehry-designed indoor mall, which was opened in 1980, always has been disconnected from the rest of downtown. “We need to do something about it. It’s not a good experience for the citizens.”
Macerich officials suggested a public outreach model that included holding evening and weekend forums at elementary schools in seven areas of the city; calling two large, city-wide meetings; setting up displays of the mall proposal; and soliciting comments on the Internet. It’s unclear whether the paid facilitator will opt to change or complement that outreach model.
Assistant Planning Director Andy Agle said Wednesday the public input process would be expedited, but added neither the timeline nor the form was known.
CHAIN REACTION One major reason the council decided to move forward with the Macerich project is because it feared waiting would sabotage the opportunity.
The current mall’s two major anchors, Macy’s and Robinsons May, enjoy long-term leases signed years ago when indoor malls were built around large stores. The chains only recently agreed to close for two to three years during construction, and likely would opt to renovate their existing properties if made to wait for too long while City Hall decides what to allow, said Arthur Coppola, president and CEO of Macerich.
Still, Coppola stressed the importance of ample public comment.
“We well understand that we have a long public process ahead of us, and that we have to have buy-in from the community, otherwise the project shouldn’t be built,” he said. “We have to have buy-in from the city.”
After agreeing to move forward with the plans, the council also decided to tie together planning for the mall site with planning for a development of as many as 325 housing units in the Civic Center on the south side of Interstate 10.
Planners said tying the two projects together may delay the Civic Center project, but will allow the city to be comprehensive in its approach.
In addition to the new housing developments, mostly along Ocean Avenue, the planned Civic Center includes walkways and green space surrounding City Hall and the courthouse, as well as the already completed new police and fire station, and a parking structure currently being built behind the courthouse, among other improvements. Officials are considering closing Main Street to vehicle traffic in the Civic Center area.
City Councilmen Ken Genser and Kevin McKeown argued against combining planning for the Civic Center and Macerich projects, saying benefits were minimal and the trade-off of delaying affordable housing too severe.
After losing in that attempt, Genser raised hairs on the council by indicating that combining the two projects would open the door for towers of up to 12 stories high at the mall site, because the City Council already has agreed to consider buildings that high in the Civic Center.
Genser asked that the record reflect his “no” vote against combining the two plans was because he felt it was “inappropriate to approve a plan that would call for 12-story towers at Santa Monica Place.” City Councilman Bobby Shriver took exception to the comment. He immediately sought to correct the record by explaining his vote was not fashioned to set a precedent for building heights at the Macerich site. Mayor Pam O’Connor stepped in to quell the slight outbreak as Shriver and City Councilman Herb Katz called Genser’s last-minute addition an “unfair comment.”
“We try working together,” O’Connor said. “But every once in awhile, yes, we’re going to have them (disagreements).”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 27, 2005. Read the original PDF.