> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Market control could create chain reaction - URL: https://www.smdp.com/market-control-could-create-chain-reaction/ - Published: 2004-03-30T16:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T04:04:54.000Z - Author: John Wood - Tags: Business, Promenade, #archive-import *Officials worry too many corporate stores will hurt downtown business* PROMENADE — Officials charged with managing downtown Santa Monica are calling for a special meeting with City Hall, saying the debate over regulating chain stores on the Third Street Promenade needs to finally be laid to rest. Directors of Bayside District Corp., a nonprofit organization that runs downtown, said they want city leaders to focus on vagrancy and the lack of parking downtown. They say the effort to control the mix of large and small merchants on the thriving thoroughfare should be scraped. The contentious issue has been batted back and forth for at least seven years. “The issue with the large stores — it’s done, it’s not going to happen again,” said Johannes Van Tilberg, a While many feel chain stores have led to the homogenization of the Promenade, others contend the high-profile chain merchants are driving its success. City Hall is currently considering creating a law that could specifically ban corporate chain stores, a possibility that has outraged local property owners. Jack Kyser, senior vice president of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., a group that studies and forecasts area economic trends, said it would be difficult for City Hall to specifically limit chain stores on the Promenade. Doing so would involve balancing the often competing interests of existing tenants, possible tenants, property owners, financiers and everyday shoppers, he said. “It’s very hard to find a winning strategy,” said Kyser, who added there are no other cities in Southern California he knows of that have an outright ban on chain stores. “When you get that many competing interests, it almost becomes a no-win situation.” One of the reasons City Hall hasn’t yet passed a law banning chain stores is that some of the corporations affected may sue, claiming the law is unfair. Kyser said a bitter lawsuit is just one thing that could go wrong. “That’s always a risk, because any time you start to do something like this you have what is called ‘the law of unintended consequences.’ So you may think you’ve thought it all out, but there may be some things you haven’t thought of,” he said. > “To assemble these properties on the Promenade — it ain’t going to happen again.” — Bayside board member and property owner Since at least 1997, Bayside officials have discussed how to address the balance of stores on the Promenade. Though it recommended against limiting chain stores outright, the Bayside board last year supported an ordinance that limits storefront lengths. That law discourages chains, which typically demand large storefronts and a lot of window space. Still, some local leaders said more action needs to be taken. The City Council last week tabled a discussion on the matter, saying it wanted to hear from Bayside first. But Bayside officials said they’d already made clear they don’t want to regulate chains any further and called for a special meeting with the council to reiterate that. “We keep saying this and it’s like an issue that nobody wants to hear,” said John Warfel, chairman of the Bayside board of directors, during a meeting last week. Rob York, a local business consultant, said that of 38 new stores opened downtown in the last 15 months, only a few are large corporate chains. What’s more, the council should be focusing on Bayside’s priorities — safety, parking and getting new movie theaters — not on how to limit new chain stores, York added. “There’s a lot of room for large and small,” he said. “I don’t think it looks like some tidal wave of stores that people recognize.” But York’s numbers are misleading because they include properties on Second and Fourth streets, where rents are lower and smaller businesses are able to set up shop, said Rob Rader, a local entertainment lawyer and Bayside board member. Rader was one of the few board members who said the matter ought to be studied further. “I don’t think it’s fair to say, ‘Just look at the list and count the numbers,’” Rader said. “Let’s stop trying to avoid answering the question that’s been asked of us and start looking at the gentlest regulation we can live with.” Mayor Richard Bloom, who attended the Bayside meeting, told the board the issue has been discussed for too long. “In many ways, we’re as lost as everyone else out there,” Bloom said. “I think it’s a very real issue in people’s minds. I think the solutions, at a minimum, are very... complex.” *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 30, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/033004.pdf?ref=smdp.com)