Some feel project is too big for city
CITY HALL A long-anticipated mixed-use residential project in the Civic Center area received a major boost toward realization as the City Council on Tuesday pushed forward the first of two approvals necessary to ratify a development agreement.
The Village project barely received the four-vote majority to move forward as Councilmember Bob Holbrook abstained and Councilmember Bobby Shriver cast in opposition, feeling the development was much too large in scale. Councilmember Pam O’Connor was absent.
“Despite the fact that I think people worked their fingers off to get (the project) in the amazing shape it’s in now, I still feel it’s much too big... and will be much bigger than it looks despite the hard efforts of the design team,” Shriver said.
The development agreement will come before the council in the coming weeks for final adoption before the project moves on to the Architectural Review Board.
“It’s the kind of project that we’re going to look back on many years from now and future generations are going to thank us for building and really creating a vibrant new environment where people can live and have recreation facilities nearby,” Mayor Pro Tem Richard Bloom said.
Designed in conjunction by Moore Ruble Yudell Architects & Planners and Koning Eizenberg Architecture, The Village will house 324 residences and 20,000 square feet of commercial retail space, featuring a publicly-accessible pedestrian street and plaza and a protected children’s playground. The project will be located behind the Rand Corp. site between Main Street and Ocean Avenue.
The project will include 160 affordable and 164 market-rate condominiums, including several affordable artist live/work spaces.
The development agreement outlines several conditions that must be met by the developer — Related California — including a $500,000 contribution toward the future Civic Center child care facility and a transportation plan that would institute shared parking and pay $700,000 for transit enhancements. The buildings will also be LEED certified, a designation used for green-friendly projects by the U.S. Green Building Council.
“This creates needed new housing without displacing any existing residents in our existing neighborhoods,” Councilmember Kevin McKeown said.
The proposal has undergone a number of changes since it was presented to the council in December, including an increase in open space, a redistribution of massing and greater pedestrian orientation, according to Sarah Lejeune, the senior planner with City Hall.
The project received support from several residents who attended the council meeting, including Housing Commission member Jason Parry who said the designs for The Village improve with each look by the developer.
“The thing that I’m a little torn about is (whether) we should move forward because every time it’s been presented, I’ve seen it get better and better,” Parry said.
But the project wasn’t without its opponents. Art Harris, who called himself the “designated dissenter,” said the project is too big and dense for the area.
“Someone should at least indicate that silence is not assent,” Harris said.“This project is too big and a lot of people feel it is too big.”
Mayor Herb Katz, who voted for the project, agreed that the development is too large in concept.
“I wish it weren’t so dense,” he said.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 15, 2008. Read the original PDF.