Car Dealers Get Some Relief

By Gene Williams
Staff Writer

March 31 -- The City Council Tuesday night gave Santa Monica’s auto dealers some help, passing an interim ordinance that gives them the kind of looser code and building regulations they have long been asking for.

Described as a “balancing act” between the businesses and neighbors -- who have complained about the dealerships for decades -- the ordinance is the result of numerous hearings at City Hall over the past two years.

“We have for years been asked by residents to do something to protect their quality of life,” Council member Kevin McKeown said.

“We’ve been asked for years by the dealers to do something to give them clarity and flexibility for current and future development,” he said. “So I’m hoping we will do something tonight.”

The ordinance -- an extensive reworking of the rules governing auto dealerships -- passed overwhelming with a series of motions after a four-hour discussion and some tweaks by the council, most of which the dealers should like.

Local car dealers -- who contribute $6 million a year in sales taxes to the City -- have long been saying they need more inventory space to stay competitive. The new rules open more areas to store cars and streamline building permit processes in some cases when dealers want to expand or remodel.

Perhaps the most dramatic policy shift is one that allows dealer storage in some residentially zoned areas.

Under this provision, dealers already operating in R2 and R3 multi-family zones will be allowed to build parking structures, in some cases as high as 32 feet, with three levels that include roof top parking.

Also in the new rules, height limits for dealer structures in the LMSD will be raised to 35 feet, the same limit set for other commercial buildings there. In addition, the M1 manufacturing district is now open to dealers.

The council also reduced the required number of on-site employee and customer parking spaces a dealer must plan for in some cases when building or adding on to their facilities and granted more flexibility in how dealers use their space.

How the dealers unload shipments of new cars, something that neighbors have long complained about, will continue to be looked into by City staff.

Neighbors say the dealers are noisy and inconsiderate, and wake them up late at night by illegally unloading large car carriers on the residential streets.

“The auto dealers are bad neighbors and they have been for a long time,” said Chuck Allard, a neighborhood group representative.

“There has been no code enforcement. Bottom line,” he said.

City rules only allow dealers to unload cars during the day. Also, cars are supposed to be unloaded on-site, but few, if any, local dealers say they can handle the big car carrier trailers.

Currently, dealers with this problem are supposed to apply an exemption to the rule from the Transportation Management Division, but the division has no record of issuing any permits.

Under the new rules, a dealer wanting to develop could get an exemption to the on-site provision by demonstrating hardship when applying for building permits, seemingly putting more of the burden of regulating on the planning department.

Attorney Chris Harding, whose family has been in the car business in Santa Monica for decades, said that on-site unloading was an unreasonable standard to keep.

“We think you are setting the dealers up and setting yourselves up to send the wrong message,” Harding said. “It won’t work.

“It gives the expectation to neighbors that this will happen,” he said. “We think standard conditions should reflect standard circumstances.”

In the end, the dealers didn’t get everything they wanted, and neither did the neighbors. Most of the dealers, however, seemed to think it was a step in the right direction.

“If we’re not both entirely happy, it must be balanced,” said Harding’s brother, Mark Harding.