By Dan Hall
On April 24 & 26, the Daily Press published two op-eds by Ms. Ashley Oelsen criticizing my support for AB 1740. Readers deserve to know what that op-ed left out and got factually incorrect.
Ms. Oelsen is an unannounced 2026 candidate for Santa Monica City Council. She has previously been identified as a leader of Santa Monicans United, an organization that endorsed the slate that ran against me and my colleagues in 2024, and she is featured in social media advertising by a new 501(c)(4) called “Santa Monica Neighbors” led by Greg Morena according to Secretary of State filings. None of that disqualifies her from writing an op-ed. It does mean readers should understand they are reading a calculated campaign launch, not neutral commentary.
Now to the substance.
The bill did not arrive in secret. AB 1740 originated when Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur’s office reached out to the City to identify legislation that could remove operational obstacles to local economic recovery. City staff in Transportation and Planning, working from priorities the Council adopted in open meetings, identified specific bottlenecks we have seen: affordable housing projects, ADUs, and protected bike lanes held up by the Coastal Commission; preferential parking districts for residents in the Coastal Zone still awaiting approval; commercial renovations like proposed rooftop bars on our Promenade, outdoor dining parklets, change-of-use approvals for new businesses, and temporary events. All are daily mechanics of a city fighting to come back, and all trigger duplicative state review adding cost and uncertainty for investors, property owners, and businesses. These concepts informed the bill.
The decision to co-sponsor was made under the City’s State Legislative Platform publicly adopted by Council in March 2025 and our Realignment Plan, a framework for restoring fiscal stability and economic recovery that Council adopted in October 2025. The process used to co-sponsor, support, or oppose legislation this session was the same one used every year.
Showing up in Sacramento is the job. When the Legislature considers bills that affect our city, our coast, our streets, our housing, and our local economy, Santa Monica needs a voice in the room. Going to Sacramento to advocate for the City’s adopted positions is how we deliver the economic recovery, housing, and multimodal infrastructure our community needs and wants. When staff asked me to go to testify because the Mayor could not, and the Mayor Pro Tempore cannot, I said yes, because I am next in the order of precedence and I believe in what this bill does. I am fulfilling the duties the voters asked me to do.
I did not collaborate with Streets for All or Abundant Housing LA in drafting this bill. Even if I did, collaboration is not corruption. Ms. Oelsen’s central allegation, that political support for my 2024 campaign produced a piece of legislation, has no factual basis. Advocacy organizations endorse candidates whose stated priorities align with theirs, and push for those same priorities at City Hall and in Sacramento. Streets for All and Abundant Housing LA endorsed me because housing, multimodal transit, and economic recovery were campaign priorities of mine. They are now fighting in Sacramento for policies that advance the same goals I have, the same goals I voted to approve in our City’s legislative platform, and the same goals of AB 1740. That is how policy advocacy and elections work. It is not evidence of corruption, despite what Ms. Oelsen claims.
The bill does not strip protections from environmentally sensitive areas. It does not touch the Coastal Act’s core protections: public beach access or our beach parking lots, any environmentally sensitive habitat, or sea level rise planning responsibilities, nor the public’s right to enjoy our shoreline. What it does is allow cities to locally approve a narrow set of low-impact projects, already permitted under existing local and state law without the duplicative review.
AB 1740 also does not eliminate the need for a Local Coastal Program. Santa Monica still needs an LCP, and we should have one. But after a decade of effort to certify, the City and the Coastal Commission have disagreed over bike lanes, parking for residents and rate changes, urban infill construction away from sensitive habitat, ability to do temporary events, and the predictability businesses and investors need to revitalize our downtown. AB 1740 alleviates pressure on these activities, without weakening protection of any environmentally sensitive area. Read. The. Bill. Assemblymember Zbur is a longtime climate advocate and environmental attorney who led California Environmental Voters (formerly the California League of Conservation Voters) and spent decades practicing environmental law before the California Coastal Commission itself. Per his testimony, cities up and down the California coast expressed interest in this legislation before it was narrowed to Santa Monica. The underlying problem is real and statewide.
On the environmental argument. Blocking infill housing near transit in urban cities is not an environmental position. It is the opposite. Every unit of housing we refuse to build near our downtown Metro stop is a unit built on a hillside in the wildfire interface, or a commute pushed deeper into the inland sprawl that increases emissions. Shade studies on 4th and Arizona are not the climate fight. Housing people in cities, near jobs, schools, and transit, is.
Reasonable people can disagree about coastal policy, and they should. These are hard tradeoffs and they deserve real debate. What does not serve Santa Monica is framing every disagreement as corruption, every advocate as an outsider, and every effort to fix something as a betrayal of what we love about this city. We are better than that. Local economic recovery, housing, and coastal protection and access are not opposing teams – it’s what will get us out of this mess. Absent approval of our seemingly stuck LCP, AB 1740 is one tool – one of many we will need – to move forward together. I'm proud to support it.
Dan Hall is a Santa Monica City Councilmember.