City thinks character of Promenade is threatened
By Daily Press Staff
The Third Street Promenade may be leaving visitors hungry, city officials believe.
Despite years of planning to make the Third Street Promenade everything to everyone, city officials now think there may be too much retail and not enough places to eat.
The Santa Monica City Council is expected tonight to adopt an emergency ordinance that will place a moratorium on all development, expansion, consolidation and changes in use of commercial properties on the Third Street Promenade.
The proposed ordinance would last 45 days, which would give city officials time to “study ways to ensure the character of the outside mall remains intact and has the best possible mix of retail, restaurants and entertainment.”
That would most likely happen through the regulation of certain types of uses on the mall. To discourage more retailers from coming in, the city could limit the number of square feet in an area devoted to a particular use. Or it could control the amount of street frontage devoted to particular uses.
However, several people blame landlords on the Third Street Promenade as responsible for the mall’s woes. As property owners continue to jack up the rents, more and more local businesses — including restaurants — are forced out. The result is that the mall is losing its character because the only businesses that can afford to pay higher rents are the corporate chain retail stores. Planning Commission Chairman Kelly Olsen told the city council two weeks ago that the real problem on the Promenade is the landlords and that they must address their role in keeping it a vital place for the community.
In 1996, the city established a 10-year plan to control growth of retail outlets on the Promenade. However, the actual growth of retail has outstripped the planned growth and the 10-year projection has already been met. The boom in retail growth, ironically, has threatened what officials have worked so hard to protect, city staff say.
Five restaurants have closed up in the past two years and several more are nearing the end of their leases while at the same time, retail outlets are growing and displacing them. What’s more, sidewalk dining is declining as more retailers consume more street frontage. The Third Street Promenade has about 530,000 square feet of retail and more is on the way.
“The Promenade becomes less and less the unique, outdoor community entertainment center and more and more like a standard outdoor mall,” city staff wrote to the council.
The city council meets at 6:45 p.m. in council chambers at city hall. The meeting is aired live on City TV and simulcast on KCRW (89.9 FM) beginning at 8 p.m.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 27, 2001. Read the original PDF.