The Santa Monica City Council on Tuesday directed city staff to study how a nonprofit conservancy could help build and sustain the Great Park planned for the Santa Monica Airport site, which is scheduled to close at the end of 2028.
The council approved the item on a voice vote with no opposition or abstentions late in its Oct. 13 meeting. Councilmember Lana Negrete made the motion, and Councilmember Barry Snell seconded it.
The item directs City Manager Oliver Chi to return in spring 2027 with a study session on possible organizational models for a Great Park Conservancy, the range of city involvement in creating one and whether the city can and should seed an initial funding round.
Councilmember Dan Hall, who brought the item with Councilmember Ellis Raskin and Mayor Caroline Torosis, tied the effort to Measure LC, the charter amendment voters passed in 2014.
"They made it clear that the land at our airport belongs to the public, and that it should become parks and open space when we close it, unless the people vote otherwise," Hall said.
Hall said building the park is a capital program, but keeping it running is an ongoing operating challenge. Cities that solved the first problem and forgot the second "are cautionary tales," he said, while those that planned for both have great parks.
He framed the study around three questions: "Who governs, who pays, and who answers to the public?"
"We want donors to give without gaining control," Hall said. "We want the public to keep its voice."
Hall said private money is "ready to be committed" and the city wants to be able to put it to work from the park's first day. He said the council would eventually explore other tools, including a Great Park Enterprise Fund and possibly an enhanced infrastructure financing district, but that Tuesday's item was focused on philanthropy. Any conservancy, he said, should be designed alongside the park's master plan rather than added afterward.
Residents push for lasting protections
More than 20 written comments were submitted on the item, most of them supportive. Many, however, asked the council to widen the study's scope.
Alan Levenson, president of the group Measure LC Defense, wrote that the five-page motion never mentions Measure LC. He cited a January 2025 city attorney memorandum warning that, under the state Surplus Land Act, selling or leasing airport land long term could limit the city's ability to restrict residential use despite the measure. He also wrote that the city had removed longstanding land-sale safeguards from its municipal code in March.
Levenson and more than half a dozen other residents, several using nearly identical language, asked the council to direct staff to study permanent protections such as formal park dedication, recorded deed restrictions and conservation easements, and to identify a dedicated funding source.
Airport Commission Chair Andrew Wilder, writing in his personal capacity, and resident Patti Braun pointed to the city's existing Airport Fund as a model for an enterprise fund that would keep revenue generated on the 192-acre site in the park.
The council did not take up those requests during its brief discussion before the vote.
'Day one' activation
Torosis said she had taken part in a city design program for mayors focused on planning for the park, where participants spoke with experts around the country, including the person who led Brooklyn Bridge Park.
"The number one thing that we've learned in all of these discussions and study is that if the park is not activated on day one, we're going to have a problem," Torosis said.
She said she hoped the study session would look at using a conservancy both for the park's opening and for the long term, saying the city must ensure "a robust series of activations on Jan. 1, 2029."
Commission seeks a role
People involved with the city's Recreation and Parks Commission asked that it be involved while staff prepares the study, not only at the session itself.
Karen Melick, who leads the commission's ad hoc group on fundraising and naming rights, wrote that five minutes of public input after staff has made its recommendations "is not adequate participation." She also wrote that she was concerned about waiting until spring, saying fundraising requires a nonprofit that can begin accepting pledges now.
Commissioner Sonam Makker, writing in an individual capacity, asked the council to have staff weigh a citywide parks foundation alongside a Great Park-only conservancy. Makker warned that a single-park entity could draw donor dollars away from the city's other parks.
In his remarks, Hall said the difficult questions should be asked both at the council and at the commission.
Not every comment backed the park plan. Katie Lee, a Mar Vista resident who lives on a hill overlooking the airport, urged the council to keep the airport open and to avoid "rushing toward closing the airport."