By Mitchell Block
I am writing about the proposed Lantana development and the developer’s agreement.
I live on 28th Street near Pearl. Our street, and nearby intersections, according to the Environmental Impact Reports, has unmitigatable traffic, in part generated by the Lantana and other projects. These mean that at peak times more traffic is trying to get through intersections than the traffic lights will allow. So traffic backs up. Some days traffic around 28th and Pearl and other nearby East-West streets is backed up for blocks. A short trip from 28th to Centinella, via Pearl or Pico or Ocean Park, can take 15 minutes.
I am unclear why the City Council feels that building a park, adding curb extensions and fixing traffic lights is a reasonable mitigation for a problem that, according to the city’s own EIR, can’t be fixed. If I had cancer, building a clinic in Washington is a nice idea, but it does not help cure my cancer. Traffic is a cancer that is making our city unlivable.
I am puzzled as to why we would want to add more traffic at the expense of public safety. How will emergency police, fire and ambulances get through jammed “F” intersections at peak traffic hours? Why should the response time of emergency traffic be placed behind building another few large office structures?
City Council, by allowing Hines Corporation — the Lantana developer — to “pay” for community services at the risk of our fire, health and other safety response times seems pretty irresponsible. Until city streets are unclogged it does not make sense to take developer’s funding to support community “needs” at the expense of public safety. Response times to emergencies is critical. A few seconds can save a life. Why are our lives put at risk?
This development agreement does not make sense since the major problem of traffic can’t be solved.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 20, 2004. Read the original PDF.