Council Delays Go-ahead for Civic Center Development

By Jorge Casuso

June 20 -- After hearing from a dozen residents “stunned” that the proposed Civic Center Village was too tall, closely packed and flew in the face of Santa Monica’s planning goals, the City Council Tuesday delayed moving forward with a development agreement that would bring some 325 residential units across from City Hall.

The council voted 6 to 0 (Council member Bobby Shriver was absent) to view in one month a revised concept that will address the massing and scale of the project, which includes 160 affordable units, as well as ground-floor retail and open spaces. (see staff report)

Proposed project from corner of extended Olympic Boulevard and Main Street. (Rendering courtesy of Related Companies of California)

“I think it’s appropriate to keep this number of units. . . but I’m very concerned about the massing,” said Council member Ken Genser. “This living street might be born needing life support. We need to enliven the street a little bit more.”

“This needs to feel like a residential facility,” said Council member Herb Katz, an architect. “It needs to be broken up. . . It needs to have a lot of landscaping.”

The council asked the developer, Related Companies of California, to explore increasing the height of a proposed residential building next to the Viceroy Hotel on the corner of Pico Boulevard and Main Street from 65 feet to nearly 100 feet.

The option, which would allow the developer to spread out the buildings clustered near an extended Olympic Boulevard and Main Street, worried Council member Kevin McKeown.

“One hundred feet, that’s nose-bleed altitude for Santa Monica,” McKeown said. “I’m not comfortable with that. You would have to prove that there was no other way” to allow for more open space.

The council’s vote came after deeply divided testimony that saw City officials -- including the Planning and Housing commissions and the Architectural Review Board -- enthusiastically endorse the proposed project.

“We urge you to move forward,” said Jason Perry, a member of the City’s Housing Commission, in what was typical of the brief comment made by supporters.

But the proposed development seemed to outrage most residents who testified.

“I am really appalled at the massing and height,” said Lorraine Sanchez. “The buildings look like office buildings. The massing is not seen in any other part of the city.”

“It looks like a shopping mall,” said Jacob Samuel. “It’s very, very corporate. This is responding to RAND and the hotels and not to the neighborhoods.”

“There is an enormous wealth of civic discontent here,” said Arthur Harris. “The enormous density is like Hong Kong. It boggles the mind. Six stories ain’t no village.”

Harris held up a piece of Styrofoam and compared the project to the packaging around a stereo component he likened to the new RAND building.

“This is not placemaking,” he said, referring to the term used by City officials. “This is place breaking.”

Several opponents noted the project did not abide by the principles approved by the council just minutes earlier. Approved unanimously, the principles will guide the update to the City’s Land Use and Circulation Element (LUCE) of the General Plan, which will be the new blueprint for how Santa Monica will develop over the next two decades. (see story)

“I’m finding myself really stunned by the disconnect between what’s being proposed in LUCE and what’s being proposed here,” said Ellen Brennan. “Ocean Avenue is becoming a creeping parking lot. . . You’re going to kill this street.”

Council members recapped the history that led to the current project, noting that the original concept included as many as 600 residential units and that the approval of a soccer field forced the the City to cram more housing into less space.

“When we agreed to put in a soccer field we had to suck it (the housing) up, and we sucked it up on a smaller site,” McKeown said.

Bill Witte, president of Related Companies, said he and his team welcomed the input.

“Sessions like this are actually helpful to us,” Witte said.

But he urged the council to move quickly if the project is to have a chance of receiving State funds for affordable housing approved by voters last November.

“We believe there is a very strong opportunity to get funding for housing and improvements,” Witte said. “We know there are things we still need to do. We don’t mind coming back more often.”

The council tapped Related Companies in January 2006, after the developer, which has projects in ten cities and counties across the state, was the only company with plans that delivered the 325 units the council had asked for. (see story)

Related’s bid was approved six months after the council gave the green light to a Civic Center Specific Plan that set height limits at 56-feet and reserved the ground floors for retail and other uses. (see story)