At a time when city officials are fretting over looming budget deficits, the City Council has decided to waste another $30,000 on a survey to see how residents feel about development in Downtown. Say what?
Has the council not been paying attention? What about all of those years of community meetings to develop the Land Use & Circulation Element, a planning document that is intended to dictate how land is used in the city by the sea for the next 20 years or more? What about meetings that have been held to develop a specific land use plan for Downtown? Are those not sufficient to gauge public opinion?
Apparently the powers that be aren’t reading the Daily Press regularly. If they did they would know how residents feel about development. Many are in favor of slow-growth that keeps Santa Monica economically viable and liveable. They want to preserve views and ocean breezes. They do not want massive, dense development that brings in more traffic and sucks up more resources. They don’t want project after project being approved without first giving thought to how they will impact a resident’s ability to drive to the market or pick up their kids from school. They want construction to be better managed and they feel City Hall has let them down.
To call for a survey seems to be a slap in the face to all those residents who take time away from their families and their careers to participate in community and council meetings to express their views. It’s as if the council is saying that the opinions of those who actually give a damn don’t matter, while those who sit back and bury their heads in the sand are somehow more informed and educated and therefore should be given ample opportunities to express themselves. We can’t got for that!
We agree that many of the same voices are heard at community meetings, but that’s because these are the people who actually care and have taken the time to research and develop informed opinions. They understand the repercussions of poor planning and are mad as hell that City Hall has failed to properly move forward with the implementation of their own land use document. That failure has let LUCE linger, so long in fact that now the council feels as if it needs to go back out to the community to learn what it already knows. Why? Aren’t the opinions given during the LUCE process just as valid as they were three years ago? What’s changed, aside from the increased pressure from developers to capitalize on their properties?
Skeptics who have lost faith in City Hall and members of the council will undoubtedly view this as an attempt to change the narrative, to produce manipulated results that favor larger, denser buildings. While the Daily Press isn’t jumping to that conclusion — yet — we are watching closely. Surveys aren’t always reliable and there are plenty of variables at play that can skew results in one way or another.
It would have been better if the council voted last week to instead support a freeze on processing development applications until proper area plans are fully developed and approved (Councilmembers Kevin McKeown, Ted Winterer and Tony Vazquez supported the freeze but couldn’t gain support from their colleagues). Even if the move would have been mostly symbolic, it at least would have sent a message to residents that their concerns are being heard, that the council can sympathize with beliefs that Santa Monica is losing its character. Instead, those on the dais said to all those who have sacrificed their time by attending community meetings that their opinions have fallen on deaf ears.
What a waste.
They are looking for and will find a way to cut off the north side of the city from the south side with traffic bottle necks that cant be penetrated. We will be imprisoned, just like Malibu residents are when traffic shuts down pch. They will set up as many town meetings and surveys as it takes until they can piece together the results that show what they want.
We need a moratorium on all new potential building projects until we have lived with the new lite rail system for a few years. On a nice day, this system could easily put an extra 10,000 people in our streets than anticipated. HELP
I really believe that KEN ROBIN (comment below) has hit the nail on the roaring head. A very dear friend, long time Santa Monica resident posted this article yesterday and I agreed to Ken’s comment:
I so agree with you — this means on A-L-L new projects and all N-E-W projects TO BE approved. There is absolutely NO immediate need/rush for another restaurant, corner block length condominium units with 1-2 low (?) rental/cost units with street level businesses and not enough (never enough) parking (i.e., 23rd Street & Wilshire) impacting TAX PAYING residents and forcing priority parking, businesses leaving due to high costs of leases (look at all the empty sites on just Wilshire), family businesses packing up and leaving due to the high costs forced upon them, so more chain stores can move in – YUCK, my personal opinion, i.e., Starbucks on every other corner, etc. etc. etc. We have been at GRID LOCK traffic level for too long due to lack of real planning. Bikers and skateboarders (rude & inconsiderate) are taking over sidewalks and streets “allowing” THEM rights before 4,000 pound vehicles and/or pedestrians!
TIME FOR A BIG FAT BREAK. TIME FOR THE CITY OFFICIALS TO GET THEIR DERRIÈRES TO THE OUTSIDE, DRIVE AROUND AT PEAK TRAFFIC TIMES, OBSERVE ALL THE VACANT BUILDING SITES (RESIDENTIAL & BUSINESS) REALLY “L-O-O-K” AT WHAT IS HAPPENING TO SANTA MONICA, TO THE NORTH, SOUTH, EAST & WEST, REMEMBERING THE LITE RAIL SYSTEM WILL VERY SOON BE IN ACTION.
This council majority are a joke owned by developers and need to go- simple- they are fretting over the budget? are they kidding? cut the staff in half and come in line with other high end cities that seem to do very well with 1-60 staff instead of our 1-30 – and then on top of that the Mayor with her associations with Luskin/Lewis funnels money to outside consultants – this Mayor and the worst of the rest of the developer supporting council , city manager and head planner plus many other departments overloaded at the top and bottom ends- need to go- most are rude and treat the residents in a very nasty manner- try dealing with them- it’s nepotism city- enough of these incompetent, lacking in creativity or vision people who were place there without any merit to be heading a city much less one facing what we are- get them out.