CITY HALL — City Council will consider approving a MINI dealership on the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard at 14th Street.
The 33,400-square-foot, 35-foot-tall building would replace a vacant lot that was once a gas station.
The dealership would also include a 500-square-foot café, 21 services bays, 6,000 square feet of sales floor and offices, and 135 parking spaces in an encloses surface lot and a two-level subterranean parking garage.
The dealership would generate about half a million dollars in sales tax annually for City Hall.
"The proposed automotive dealership use would result in substantial positive fiscal impact to the City from annual tax revenues and opportunities for local employment," city officials said in their report on the project.
The façade of the proposed building would be made primarily of black metal panels with a few bright accent colors: yellow, green, and red.
An upside-down yellow MINI would hang on the ceiling of the café. A cream-colored MINI would face downward on the outside of the building, mounted on an image of the flag of the United Kingdom. City planners call these features "the uniqueness of the building."
The café, which would be open from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday, is considered one of the community benefits. Another is a local hiring provision proposed to facilitate the employment of local workers.
Developers would give City Hall $189,425 for "transportation infrastructure improvements" and another $20,000 to the Historic Preservation Fund.
An environmental impact report found that construction-related groundborne vibration would be "significant and unavoidable" for nearby residents.
"The primary means to reduce construction vibration is to increase the distance between the equipment that generates the vibration and the sensitive receptor," the report said. "This measure was deemed infeasible as construction activity (e.g., excavation) must occur up to the property line. Another potential mitigation measure is the use of trenching; however, this option is infeasible because the project's building envelopes extend to the property line."
dave@www.smdp.com
