Dear Editor,
The one hundred ninety-two acres at Santa Monica Airport, “SMACP,” offers an excellent opportunity to provide visionary approaches to municipal investments in Santa Monica’s future.
A major portion of the land should be dedicated to affordable housing, especially urgently needed housing for families with children who can benefit from Santa Monica’s excellent public schools. A smaller portion of the project could explore possible housing for moderate-income families who cannot afford to own a home in Santa Monica. Perhaps an attractive common-interest project with modest houses could be built for Santa Monica moderate-income families and be structured to keep the units affordable using equity-sharing.
This land can also serve and inspire the community with a moderate, perhaps twelve-acre Santa Monica Botanical Garden Park, similar to the outstanding Mathias Botanical Garden at UCLA. The Santa Monica Botanical Garden Park could have walking trails where visitors could see a variety of trees and various plants that bloom. The Mathias Garden has over 3,000 species. Information on that park is here. Also, like Mathias Park, which honors the native inhabitants, the Santa Monica Botanical Park should honor the first people on the Santa Monica land, the Southern California Native American Indians.
At Mathias Park, you can also enjoy hearing bells ring the hours from a nearby church bell tower. A great addition to the Santa Monica Botanical Garden would be an attractive compact bell tower with musical quality bells or chimes at the Park’s entrance or a central courtyard.
We can learn from the plans and operations at the successful UCLA Mathias Botanical Gardens. I would appreciate hearing the Council candidates’ ideas on the SMACP.
Thank you for reading my comments. (These are my recommendations. I am not speaking on behalf of any client or organization I may be a member of.)
Paul DeSantis, Santa Monica
