> ## 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. # Santa Monica moves toward deal to park Zoox robotaxis at Main Library - URL: https://www.smdp.com/santa-monica-moves-toward-deal-to-park-zoox-robotaxis-at-main-library/ - Published: 2026-10-19T10:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-19T10:00:03.000Z - Author: Matthew Hall - Tags: Government & Politics, City Hall Santa Monica is working toward an agreement that would let Zoox, the Amazon-owned autonomous vehicle company, stage and store up to 150 of its robotaxis in city-owned parking facilities, including the Main Library parking structure. The City Council voted 6-0 Tuesday to authorize staff to continue negotiations with Zoox and, if the two sides reach terms, enter into a license agreement. Councilmember Dan Hall recused himself from the vote. City staff are working with Metropolis to facilitate the agreement. Primary consideration is being given to the first underground level of the Main Library structure and parts of the library's surface lot. The Kiss-and-Ride lot south of the Downtown Expo station is also being assessed, and City Manager Oliver Chi said it could serve as an interim site for Zoox in the short term. According to the staff report, the arrangement would follow the Parking Division's standard license protocol and would indemnify the city for incidents involving Zoox vehicles. The city expects the deal to generate about $500,000 or more a year in new recurring revenue, which Chi said Zoox would pay on a per-space basis. Chi told the council the library structure has plenty of unused capacity. It has three levels of parking, he said, but only one is regularly in use, and a third level has been closed entirely because of operational issues. "We have plenty of capacity — unused parking capacity that's sitting vacant at the library," Chi said. He said the city had previously spoken with another autonomous vehicle company about staging at the library, but those efforts were unsuccessful. Chi described the proposal as a pilot that could run for up to one year. He said Zoox is establishing a charging station elsewhere and would use the city sites only for parking. City staff are still determining Zoox's technical requirements and whether the facilities meet them. Staff said the partnership would place Santa Monica in a leadership position on the future of mobility and give the robotaxis a city-supported staging location away from homes. Chi said keeping autonomous vehicles out of residential neighborhoods has been a city priority in recent months. Councilmember Natalya Zernitskaya noted that the library structure closes at night, unlike some other city garages, and asked how that would be handled. Chi said the structure would remain open while Zoox is using it and the city would need proper staffing to manage the vehicles on-site. He said staff are also considering whether some of the roughly 30 mostly unused spaces on the ground-level lot could be included. Zernitskaya also asked what exactly the council was approving. Chi said the city already has administrative authority to sell parking reservations in its structures, but staff wanted to "daylight the issue" for the council and receive authorization before implementing the program. In response to further questions from Zernitskaya, Chi said Zoox is running a pilot in San Francisco and is coordinating a broader rollout of robotaxi service, with Santa Monica included in a Los Angeles regional deployment. He confirmed the vehicles are fully electric. Hall asked to split the agenda item so he could step away from the Zoox portion. He said he might hold between $2,000 and $100,000 in Amazon stock, which could constitute a financial interest because Zoox is an Amazon subsidiary. "Even though I think I own less than 1/128-millionth of the company — I may have a financial interest in this matter," Hall said. "So out of an abundance of caution, I will recuse from this action." Snell recused himself from a separate vote on the Metropolis portion of the item, citing an organizational conflict. The Zoox proposal comes as the city remains locked in a legal fight with another robotaxi company, Waymo, over overnight operations at two charging lots in the city. Waymo began using the lots at 1222 and 1310 Broadway in November 2024 to charge vehicles serving the greater Los Angeles area. The sites were operated by Voltera Power on property owned by SMF Property Holdings LLC. Residents complained of reverse beeping, humming, late-night worker noise, flashing lights and alley congestion. In November 2025, the council voted 6-0 to declare the facilities a public nuisance and ordered overnight operations shut down. Waymo did not comply and sued the city Dec. 17, 2025, arguing its operations were lawful. The city filed a countersuit a week later. On July 27, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge granted the city a preliminary injunction barring Waymo from operating the lots between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. while the nuisance case moves toward trial. The judge found the city was likely to prevail and that the harm to residents outweighed the harm to Waymo, which could still offer overnight rides using vehicles charged during the day. Waymo said it had taken steps to reduce noise and light and had invested heavily in the community. Waymo petitioned for a writ of supersedeas Aug. 11\. The court granted the petition and stayed the injunction while the appeal is pending, allowing Waymo to keep operating at the sites.