An underutilized parking lot located on Seventh Street could soon be turned into a multi-unit residential development.
The parking lot located at 1140 7th Street previously served as an overflow parking for Saint Monica’s but following the completion of its Community Center and 154 subterranean spaces in 2013, the parking demands for the local church were sufficiently provided on the campus, so the overflow parking is no longer needed.
In 2010, City Council approved the Saint Monica’s Catholic Community Development Agreement, which governs Saint Monica’s Campus and the parking lot on 7th Street. The DA allowed Saint Monica’s to guarantee its development rights with an extended time frame as long as the applicant agreed to provide community benefits like a Transportation Demand Management Program and allowed neighborhood use of 15 parking spaces in the off-site lot.
Saint Monica’s Catholic Community submitted an application on Nov. 8, 2018, to amend and restate the DA in order to remove the shared use of 15 parking spaces at 1140 7th Street so officials could gain the ability to sell the underutilized site.
However, a staff report for Tuesday’s council meeting states, “In exchange for the requested flexibility and deviation from the original agreement, Staff has negotiated that the applicant restrict the future use of the 1140 7th Street property to a multi-unit residential development to ensure that much needed housing units be constructed in the future.”
The state of California previously mandated Santa Monica to build 9,000 new units between 2021 and 2029, which is almost double what the city would have been required to accommodate prior to last year’s Regional Housing Needs Assessment.
“Additionally, the applicant proposes to strengthen other components of the Development Agreement public benefits by enhancing public meeting space options and new shared parking opportunities for City-sponsored events at Christine Emerson Reed Park and the Miles Playhouse,” the staff report reads, mentioning the proposed amendments will not result in any additional construction or development on the Saint Monica Campus.
“Staff believes that the above enhanced community benefits are an appropriate replacement for the requested flexibility pertaining to the future sale and residential development at 1140 7th Street,” the report concludes. “In particular, the applicant would continue to provide the shared use of 15 parking spaces until multi-unit residential housing Planning approvals are obtained. Until such time, Saint Monica’s would continue to provide the shared parking benefit for the remainder of the DA which would sunset in 2030.”
