Planners Zero In On Future Development

By Ann K. Williams
Staff Writer

January 7 -- Three months after the City dropped its 416–page “Opportunities and Challenges” report in the community’s lap, the Planning Commission got a chance Wednesday night to streamline city staff’s list of future development alternatives.

The Commission winnowed five options down to four and asked staff to proceed with an analysis of the following possible scenarios:

• No net new growth,
• Status quo -- how the city would likely develop under existing regulations,
• “Downtown/uptown” -- concentrating development downtown and in the area around Bergamot Station, and
• “Neighborhood centers” which would offer amenities within walking and bicycling distance.

Commissioners unanimously nixed a “grand boulevard” alternative, called “an anathema” by Vice Chairperson Gwynne Pugh. It would have concentrated development along Wilshire, Santa Monica, Pico and Lincoln boulevards.

During public comment, several residents told the commission that the City staff is ignoring the expressed wishes of the community and wants to overdevelop the beachside town.

Commissioner Darrell Clarke expressed what seemed to be a related concern as he grilled Acting Principal Planner Jonathan Lait, who presented the City staff report.

Clarke said that before the commissioners could choose between the staff’s alternatives, they need to be given a sense of how much development the City is planning -- how dense and how high they contemplate going.

Lait countered that City planners would be able to plug in the numbers after the commissioners told them where to consider development, a process Clarke later likened to the computer game “Sim City.”

That analysis will be the basis of a workbook, which will be used at community meetings where the public will weigh in with its opinions.

All the options assume the need for increased public transportation.

“Short of some extreme scenario,” groundbreaking for the light rail will start in 2006, City Council Liaison Pam O’Connor assured the commissioners.

In addition to being a City Council member, O’Connor is 2nd vice chair of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Board.

Los Angeles City Councilman Bill Rosendahl has recently said he supports the light rail route through Santa Monica, O’Connor added.

Once City staff has completed its analysis, an “Alternatives Workbook” will be published in winter, followed by a series of public meetings.

For further detail, see the December 7 staff report which includes development scenarios, illustrative maps and lists of objectives and “performance measures.”