> ## 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.

# Not big on development
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/not-big-on-development-editor/
- Published: 2008-07-07T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T20:05:29.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*By Mathew Millen*

Thank you, Bill Bauer (page 4, June 16, “Unleashing the growth monster”) for exposing Santa Monicans for Renters Rights (SMRR) hidden agenda in the proposed Land Use and Circulation Element (LUCE). This document drafted with the help of SMRR apparatchiks is really a Trojan Horse. What is hidden in the belly of the beast is a plan to increase the density in all neighborhoods of the city so SMRR can build new rental housing to maintain their power. The co-chair of SMRR is also the Chair of Community Corp of Santa Monica, (CCSM) which has received millions of dollars in taxpayer money to develop low income housing for SMRR voters. The LUCE plan primarily benefits SMRR and CCSM, not the residents of the city. The proposal is to allow four-and five-story buildings on many city commercial streets. The first floor would be commercial, with three or four stories of high density low income housing on top. Not condos, no home ownership opportunities for the middle class renters, and no senior citizen housing, just low income multi-family housing for SMRR supporters. If you want to see what the future holds, drive by 15th and Broadway, 26th and Santa Monica Boulevard, Berkeley and Santa Monica Boulevard, and Main and Pacific Avenue. These tall CCSM buildings all have single-and multi-family residential behind them, blocking the sun, destroying neighborhood character, and allowing the tenants to peer into the yards and units of the adjacent residential units.

The purpose of the LUCE is supposed to set guidelines to improve the livability of our city. This proposal does just the opposite. If you are concerned about traffic, and parking, consider what your neighborhood will be like if it is flooded with projects mentioned above. If you don’t want your neighborhood to look like the low income projects mentioned above, with more congestion, more traffic, contact the City Council and complain.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 7, 2008.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/070708.pdf?ref=smdp.com)