Council waiting until Aug. 9
CITY HALL — Finally together in the same room to address mutual concerns, elected officials held off on requests by elected college leaders to allow vehicular access for students at the Bundy satellite campus this fall.
The Santa Monica City Council on Tuesday deferred a last-minute proposal by the Santa Monica College Board of Trustees that would guarantee students temporary parking space for the fall semester at the new Bundy satellite campus, located at 3171 Bundy Dr. The college’s proposal was a response to a recent City Hall staff report which suggested SMC find an alternative to using the city’s Airport shuttle parking lot before fall college classes begin. In addition, the staff report suggested SMC agree to address broader issues related to its growth plan throughout Santa Monica.
A political poker game played out for nearly two and a half hours, with four members of the City Council, still present after 1 a.m., directing staff to use SMC’s rushed proposal as an “outline” to develop trafficking and parking solutions associated with the new Bundy campus site. Staff’s recommendation is expected to be heard in time for the Aug. 9 meeting. In addition, the City Council directed staff to invite neighborhood groups and Los Angeles Councilman Bill Rosendahl, whose electoral district also borders the Bundy campus, to take part in proposed roundtable discussions to develop long-term solutions associated with SMC’s growth management plan.
It was the first time city and college officials publicly met to discuss the new campus. At stake for SMC is a coveted shuttle lot it may be able to use until November and vehicular access for its students at the nearby Bundy campus, terms that the college’s proposal would allow. City Hall, which has leased the shuttle parking lot to SMC for years, authorized construction on the site for a new Airport Park, set to begin in November.
City Hall agreed to allow the college to use the shuttle lot through the summer, allowing students to park and attend summer classes through late August.
City Manager Susan McCarthy said the college was well aware construction of the new park was scheduled for November, adding that once it begins traffic on Airport Avenue would likely be hindered for 15 months.
The Bundy campus, which has enrolled 460 students this summer, is planned to provide classes to some 800 students once it is fully online, SMC officials said.
The site has a 100,000-square-foot, four-story building housing classrooms intended for nursing, teaching and community education courses. In addition, Bundy has a 30,000-square foot, two-story building the college is not using, and a surface parking lot capable of holding 609 cars, which SMC officials said will meet the needs of expected campus operations.
However, vehicular access to Bundy is currently limited to college staff and the disabled. The satellite campus is buttressed against the city of Los Angeles to the east, with a small road that permits turning in and out of the site from Bundy Drive. The Bundy campus is also fronted by Los Angeles to the south and east, on the corner of which is Stewart Avenue, a north-south neighborhood street the college has agreed not to use for campus access, except in the case of emergencies.
Bundy is also buttressed against the city of Santa Monica to the north, lined with commercial buildings City Hall leases, which separate the Bundy campus from Airport Avenue, a two-lane east-west road that leads to 23rd Street.
City Hall has agreed to allow summer students to park at the shuttle lot. The students walk south across Airport Avenue and down Donald Douglas Loop in order to access the satellite campus.
BAE Systems, Inc., the site’s former owner until 2001, was permitted vehicular access to the facility by Donald Douglas Loop. In addition, BAE also had vehicular access to the site through a north-south passage that led to Airport Avenue. That access, near the Spitfire Grill, and owned by City Hall, has since been shut off to vehicular traffic, along with Donald Douglas Loop, since the Bundy campus went online for summer classes, SMC officials said.
Indicating Bundy site owners have historically been able to access Airport Avenue, SMC Interim President Tom Donner challenged what he believed was City Hall’s intent to corner the campus, without being able to exercise access rights previously associated with the site.
“Until the college purchased the property, there has never been an issue of access to it,” Donner said. “We had no reason to believe that we would be cut off.
“All we are asking for is to be treated the same as the previous owners.”
SMC’s proposal would allow the college to use the shuttle parking lot however long it is available, up to a year, in which the “pilot program” would be reviewed. If Airport Park construction begins as planned, SMC would find an alternative to its parking demands. Similar to City Hall’s staff report, the proposal also calls for a “blue-ribbon” panel to begin discussing broader issues related to traffic and congestion between the college, City Hall and the city of Los Angeles. The proposal was approved on Monday, the day before the meeting, during which SMC also discussed possible litigation with City Hall during a closed session.
However, some Santa Monica city officials said the college’s “quick fix” might be side-stepping the issue, indicating that since the college operates under federal and state laws, it continued to not abide by Santa Monica municipal growth policies.
Affirming the point, Councilman Ken Genser said SMC had a history of not taking responsibility of its expansion. In the case of the Bundy campus, Genser noted the college, which has owned the site for four years, has only provided a master plan for it in recent months. The college also failed to provide an environmental impact report and a traffic mitigation plan, conditions for growth other public and private entities must provide before embarking on a project.
Genser said this tendency to disregard Santa Monica’s growth policies was causing neighborhood groups to demand a binding contract in which the college agreed to be accountable for its growth.
Don Girard, SMC executive assistant, while previously giving a tour to reporters of the Bundy campus, said the college was being mischaracterized as the primary source of Santa Monica congestion problems. He said neighborhood groups were largely responding to general fears of growth and development which blamed the college, but in fact were not true.
To support this position, Girard referred to the fact SMC’s satellite campus program was intended, in part, to offset traffic and parking concerns for residents living near the main campus at 1900 Pico Boulevard. In addition, the college had scaled possible plans for the Bundy campus to address neighborhood concerns.
Girard said the college’s expansion is mostly complete and that it would be geared toward maintaining or re-servicing its level of programming.
However, he said a binding agreement some have requested of the college could potentially weaken its position in the future to ensure its mission.
“The board of trustees is committed to providing educational access, and there is no reason it should give up that authority,” Girard said.
This attitude was mirrored by Councilman Bob Holbrook and Herb Katz, who felt the real issue was becoming lost.
“I’m tired of hearing who is at fault, and I believe (the college’s) proposal has merits,” Katz said. “We should go ahead with the pilot program
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 28, 2005. Read the original PDF.