Now that the Affordable Housing Development of 3 City owned lands are moving forward at 4th/ 5th Streets & Arizona downtown & Bergamot Station Arts Station, according to the Housing Element, the City Staff will next present a plan to build massive, multiple, 7-8 story tall buildings, with 577 affordable rental units in Parking Lots 9, 10 & 11, directly behind Main Street (from Hollister to Kinney Street) in Ocean Park. If the Santa Monica City Council gives direction to City Staff to proceed, it will forever change & destroy Main Street & Ocean Park. It will destroy local businesses that rely on the parking for patronage, it will destroy the historic character of this low rise, beach side community, & it will destroy the quality of life for residents in Ocean Park in so many unintended ways. Here are a few reasons NOT to build housing in the parking lots directly behind Main Street:
Destroying the Character & Identity of the Main Street:
Imagine multiple 7-8 story buildings, 77-88 feet tall, directly behind & towering over the 32 foot tall businesses on Main Street. There would be a permanent eclipse on Main Street - the sun would disappear behind these massive concrete walls every day after 1 o’clock. These buildings would block the immediate neighborhood from the breeze, view & sounds of the beach. That open feel that defines Ocean Park would forever be gone – that is precisely what draws people here from all over the region, the country & the world. Nobody came to Ocean Park either 125 years ago or today, to live, work & play in the shadows of 7-8 story high buildings.
Main Street is the Main Commercial Corridor in Ocean Park:
These parking lots are crucial to the survival of Businesses on Main Street. Without them, Main Street businesses will suffer badly. How would they even survive the 2+ years of construction required to build on these lots without parking? Where will their patrons park? Does the City Staff think people can park in the already overcrowded residential neighborhoods of 2nd, 3rd & 4th Streets?
The existing metered parking spots generate millions of dollars in revenue for the City every year – that would be gone. No more Farmer’s market on Sunday. Who would even want to come to shop or spend time on Main Street in the shadows of these monstrosities? Lost revenue, lost charm and no parking means less sales tax for an already bankrupt city.
Visitor also park in these lots to access the beach for 1- 3 hours rather than pay $15 for a full day pass in the big lots by the sand. Will more & more Beach goers just keep circling 2nd, 3rd, 4th & 5th Streets for day parking like they already do all summer long?
Current residents who live on the nearby beach blocks (Fraser, Hart, Wadsworth, Hollister, etc.) are also afforded parking in these lots with their residential permits. That parking would no longer be available to them. Their homes are now that much less valuable without the additional parking.
Traffic:
This is heavily trafficked, densely populated area that cannot handle 577 more housing units directly behind the main corridor of Ocean Park that is Main Street. There already is an enormous volume of daily traffic on Main Street & Neilson Way. These are commuting corridors; people exit the 405 freeway to the 10 freeway, then they exit at 4th St & continue on to either 4th Street, Main Street or Neilson way to access Ocean Park, Venice & Marina Del Rey. Stand on the corner of Hill & Main from 3:30 pm to 7:30 on any week day, it’s stop & go traffic for 4 hours. Adding 577 more units along this route will only make it worse.
The CA State Housing Element law is NOT even mandating this amount of Affordable Housing:
In order to be in compliance with the Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA), the City is required to identify 8,895 new housing units, 6,168 of them categorized as affordable. First, it is an entirely made up number to state Santa Monica needs 8,995 more housing units. This is a city that has roughly the same population today than it had in 1980. Second, according to the Housing report, the city is currently experiencing “zero population growth.” Third, the Housing Element even declares “Santa Monica is one of the most densely populated cities in California.” Nevertheless, the City Staff’s plan is to rezone much of Santa Monica & it identified 13,600 housing unit to builds, 9,944 of which are categorized as affordable. That’s a 53% buffer ABOVE what the State is requiring and 3,776 more affordable units than is required. The State is not mandating this amount of development, period.
Ocean Park already is a model community for meeting Affirmatively Furthering Housing Mandate objectives:
This Housing cycle puts an emphasis on expanding housing choice in areas that have historically excluded diverse populations - Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Mandate (AFFH). But Ocean Park already is an economically diverse community, with low, moderate & high income people living side by side by side. Don’t take my word for it: the City Council stated this in a letter to the CA Dept of Housing & Community Development 2 years ago, when it asked to amend Santa Monica requirements & exclude Neighborhood Commercial Districts like Main Street from Upzoning. (Upzoning would have allowed developers to build housing above the local businesses on historic Main Street buildings. Local residents were outraged & after much debate, the City Council gave in).
City Council stated: “Ocean Park has always provided a variety of housing types & range of affordability levels…Ocean Park is a diverse community from the standpoint of income levels and demographics…the city believes upzoning in the NC District of Main Street is unnecessary because Ocean Park is already a model community for meeting Affirmatively Furthering Housing Mandate objectives.”
Ocean Park is Getting Squeezed on both sides:
Last year there was no stopping a Builder’s Remedy development called the “Lincoln Center Project” at the Gelson’s site on the corner of Lincoln & Ocean Park Blvd. Residents were ignored in their attempts to modify that plan. This is a massive development project - 521 units, 12 buildings, each 6 stories tall on the east border of Ocean Park at Lincoln Blvd. Now we are facing another massive development project on the west border of Ocean Park behind Main Street. Ocean Park residents are literally getting squeezed on both sides. And after the developers are finished & gone, it will be up to the City to handle the additional load of providing services for 1000+ more units in the immediate area – increased need for water, electricity, sanitation, police, fire etc.
Destroying the Neighborhood character will lead to decreased property values & even more decreased revenue for the City:
Aside from the 71-ish% of renters in Ocean Park, there are other people living in Ocean Park who pay top dollar - either market rate rentals, or they pay handsomely to own mostly condos (& some single family homes - there are very few single family homes in Ocean Park). Yes, it costs more money to live in this highly desirable, walkable, low rise, beach community, with the breeze off the ocean & the sun flooding Main Street than it does to live in Van Nuys. It is fair to current residents, who have invested so greatly into the community, to build tax payer funded & subsidized affordable housing, ½ block from the beach, with Ocean Views, that destroys the quality of life here for current residents? Inevitably as the quality of life declines in Ocean Park, so will property values and so will the real estate transfer taxes that the City so desperately needs. Real Estate transfer tax is a major source of revenue for the city.
Is it “a Right” to Live in Santa Monica?:
Who are the recipients of these 577 Affordable housing units? There are approximately 40,000 names on the Affordable Housing Waiting List. (There are only 52,690 total housing units in the whole city). Many of these people do not live in Santa Monica, they commute here for work. The talking point is commuters having “a right” to live here because they contribute to the economy. Is it a right to live in Santa Monica just because you work here? And the idea that there are no available job/work centers other than Santa Monica, forcing people to commute 2-4 hours to Santa Monica is ridiculous. Even more absurd, advocates for this Affordable housing also believe that current tax payers should pay it. (Passed in 2022, Measure GS is an 833% increase on real estate transfer tax on residential & commercial sales, to fund the Housing Trust Fund. Through the Housing Trust Fund, the city gives “well below” market rate loans to initiate Affordable Housing Development to developers.
10. The City could actually help Current Renters:
Home ownership is the way to build wealth, but in Santa Monica is seems to be a crime to do so. Studios, 1 bedrooms & 2 bedrooms make up 79% of ALL housing in Santa Monica – much of the proposed units here are the same. No wonder families are leaving Santa Monica–you can’t raise a family in a Studio, 1 bedroom or 2 bedroom apartment. The City has a policy of giving below market rate loans to developers to initiate & subsidize construction, why not give below market rate loans to Santa Monica renters who can’t otherwise afford a down payment or a monthly mortgage payment? A TORCA 2.0 policy would give current renters the option to buy their units & share in the price appreciation our city has experienced.
12. Affordable housing behind Main Street was rejected in 1989 by Main Street Businesses & Residents & it will be rejected again:
In 1989 some of the same members of this Affordable Housing coalition tried to build 2 story parking structures with 2 stories of affordable housing on top of those parking structures. There was a tremendous backlash from both Main Street business owners & Residents. Organized opposition strung up a row of Helium Balloons 42 feet high for residents to visualize how tall this would be. They fought back and won. How disheartening for these long time business owners & residents to see this same handful of people coming around again & looking to develop affordable housing that would be twice as tall.
The solution is obvious. The Airport:
There’s an airport closing in 2028 with approximately 200-220 open acres of land. City Council should take 50-75 acres of that land, sell some of it & build some affordable housing, alongside this utopian idea of a great park that advocates envision. Put it on the ballot & let’s see how residents vote, after all a lot has changed in Santa Monica since Measure LC was passed in 2014. The city has declared a state of emergency with regards to homelessness, affordable housing & mental health, well then, the airport land is not off limits and it must be used for part of the solution. If this City Council does not show the vision or the courage to create affordable housing in an uninhabited, untouched area that disrupts no one, then they sure as heck better not attempt to build on the parking lots in the heart of the of Ocean Park. I notice there are no current City Council member living in Ocean Park. Does that not mean the interests of Ocean Park businesses & residents should not be represented?
Now is the time for Ocean Park residents & Main Street businesses to stand up & make your voices heard. And it is time for the City Council to serve the will of vast majorities of current residents & businesses, not future ones that claim they have rights to live here because they work here, not financially incentivized developers, and not the handful of affordable housing advocates that have been pushing unpopular housing policies since at least as far back as 1989.
I am sounding the alarm.
-Robert Maschio
Santa Monica Resident
