Let me be clear: I love parks! I’ve spent countless hours in my nearly 30 years in Santa Monica enjoying them alone and with friends and loved ones, playing volleyball on the beach, playing pickleball, tennis, and basketball in our existing parks, celebrating birthdays, engagements, graduations, and other life events in them, and finding peace in their open spaces. Hotchkiss Park was a lifeline for me during Covid as a place to socialize in a safe, outdoor, socially-distanced space. Parks are where community happens without a price tag—where kids play, neighbors talk, and the city breathes.
But loving parks also means understanding what makes them sustainable. A park built without the money or a plan for upkeep or integration risks becoming underused or underfunded. That’s why I believe in a living park—one supported by housing and small businesses that help bring it to life every day, not just weekends or special events.
Turning the Santa Monica Airport (SMO) into a park is a golden opportunity for our city—but to truly unlock its potential, the project must include thoughtfully designed housing and commercial spaces. Here's why I believe integrating these elements is essential:
1. Meeting Economic Needs and Enhancing City Revenue
Santa Monica’s economy thrives on diversity—from tourism to tech startups and small businesses. A park alone offers limited streams of revenue for city maintenance and programming. However, a mixed-use development on the current SMO site can help offset costs and strengthen municipal finances.
Imagine a public plaza and green spaces interwoven with ground-floor shops, cafés, and coworking spaces. These would generate year-round tax revenue (sales, property, parking) and create vibrant communal hubs. Including residential units in the mix could also add to property tax income while solving other city needs. The result? Self-sustaining upkeep for the park and amenities that wouldn’t continuously drain the city’s budget.
By including income-producing uses, Santa Monica can allocate funds toward public safety, schools, and greater park programming. In an uncertain economic climate, that stable revenue structure becomes a powerful tool for resilience.
2. Fulfilling Housing Mandates and Alleviating Local Shortages
California has strict housing mandates pushing coastal cities to find space for new units—especially affordable ones. Santa Monica has historically struggled to meet its quotas, leading to legal risk and lost funding from the state.
By allocating a portion of the SMO transformation to residential development—particularly including affordable and workforce housing—we can kill two birds with one stone. Not only do we comply with state requirements, but we also provide housing close to jobs and transit. This is
essential for tackling the affordability crisis, reducing commutes, and limiting expansion into neighborhoods concerned with upward rezoning and shifting from predominantly single-family housing to multi-unit housing.
Imagine mid-rise mixed-income housing hugging park edges—green-facing units, day-to-day convenience for families and workers, and a sense of attachment to nature. It's an opportunity to model sustainable, inclusive urban design on a site that’s ripe for transformation.
3. Catalyzing Community, Safety and Economic Vibrancy
A park with embedded housing and commercial zones becomes more than a destination—it becomes a living, breathing community. Early morning joggers grabbing coffee at a neighborhood café, families dining alfresco, local artists exhibiting in pop-up retail spaces, remote workers in coworking lounges gazing over green views… This blend of uses stimulates social cohesion and peer-to-peer economic exchange.
The presence of residents and businesses alongside open greenspace creates day-round activation—more eyes on the street, stronger safety and vitality, and real-life interaction between people and place. It also sends a powerful message: this isn’t just a park for weekend visits, it’s an integrated urban extension that is as much a fabric of our City as is the beach and the Pier.
4. Smart Phasing and Design Flexibility
Opponents worry that housing and commerce could eclipse the park. But there's no reason to choose one over the other. With smart phasing and master planning, we can front-load park construction, then roll in curated affordable housing and retail. Thoughtful height restrictions, open corridors, and design standards can ensure a seamless, people-first environment that prioritizes green public space.
5. A Legacy Project for Future Generations
Let’s not build a park in isolation. Let’s build a community. One that reflects Santa Monica’s values of equity, sustainability, and public life. By blending nature with housing and commerce, we aren’t compromising a park—we’re making it thrive.
Converting SMO into a park+community space is a generational vision. By blending nature, homes, and commerce, Santa Monica can illustrate how to honor civic values, meet state requirements, bolster the budget, and create a welcoming, dynamic place.
In short: This is our chance to plant the seeds for equity, beauty, and prosperity for generations by creating a space where everyone can live, work, play, and breathe. Let’s do it right.
Sean Besser
Santa Monica