City’s general plan last overhauled in 1984
CITY HALL — Opportunities and challenges Santa Monicans will face in the future are now available for public review and discussion.
City Hall’s planning department released on Monday the completed “Opportunities and Challenges” report, which builds on the community visions presented in the “Emerging Themes” report reviewed by the City Council and planning commission in April.
As part of the two-year, ongoing overhaul of the city’s planning and traffic plan, the latest report examines existing conditions and trends that pose challenges to the kind of community Santa Monicans want in the future.
The new report also defines focus areas for further exploration during the next phase of the project, categorized as “choices.”
The planning department will host a community meeting from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Aug. 16 at the Ken Edwards Center, 1527 Fourth St., to informally discuss and answer questions about the report with the public.
Public hearings are expected to be held at the Sept. 7 planning commission meeting and Sept. 27 City Council meeting, with staff reports available prior to each meeting. The report is available online, at all city libraries and at the planning department’s counter in City Hall.
The report looks at trends associated with 12 broad-based “emerging themes” presented at the April 26 City Council meeting that were taken from a six-month public input process. Santa Monicans were asked what kind of development and transportation policies should be in place in the city for the coming decades.
The themes, not in any particular order, are intended to emphasize the need for Santa Monica to encourage traffic and parking solutions, strong neighborhoods, sustainability, diversity and safety, and to maintain a small-town community feel.
The themes were approved by the Santa Monica City Council. City staff members said the themes are a starting point by which they will continue to analyze information received from the public, and begin drafting new development and transit policies starting in October. The last time the policies were overhauled was in 1984.
One of the themes, to have a “community built at an appropriate town-scale,” states “existing height limits should be maintained, and high-rise buildings are not appropriate in any part of Santa Monica. In addition, “smaller scale, locally owned stores will further the city’s character and Santa Monica’s vision as a small and unique town.”
Promoting a town-like feel will require City Hall to seriously look at streetscape designs, as well as height and scale of development, the report states.
Another theme aims to offer transportation patterns that work well together throughout the city.
The report states that “despite perceptions of massive traffic congestion, Santa Monica’s intersections generally perform well during peak times,” with only 11 percent operating at an “unacceptable level of service.”
Most of these constricted areas are on Olympic, Pico and Ocean Park boulevards and Centinela Avenue, along routes near the I-10, according to the report.
The report states that as the local and regional population continues to grow, increasing traffic congestion will be inevitable in Santa Monica, unless “non-automobile modes of transportation continue to expand.”
In addition to increased traffic congestion, another problem the city of Santa Monica may continue to grapple with is “the resistance in many neighborhoods toward significant volumes of auto traffic on their streets.”
To address such issues, the report suggests City hall look further into developing more below-ground parking, perhaps at city parks.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 8, 2005. Read the original PDF.