By Jorge Casuso

December 16, 2024 -- The new City Council on Tuesday is quickly moving to allow housing projects proposed in non-residential zones to once again be approved administratively on any size lot.

The discussion item placed by three members of the Council's new 6-1 super-majority would reverse a move by the previous slow-growth Council that requires lengthy hearings and a costly environmental review for projects on sites of more than an acre.

The proposed change would lift the site restrictions from projects in Santa Monica's office and industrial zones, mixed-used boulevards and the Downtown, but exempts housing developments under the Bergamot Area Plan.

"It's a process change," said Councilmember Jesse Zwick, who with Councilmembers Natalya Zernitskaya and Caroline Torosis placed the item on the agenda.

"It makes it faster and easier for projects to be approved," Zwick said. "It doesn't change the project."

The proposed change -- which largely restores an ordinance approved by the Council in March 2020 -- sends a strong signal to investors that Santa Monica is ready to build, housing advocates said.

The change "allows developers to go to the investor and say that so long as they follow the rules, it's a protected and certain outcome," said prominent land use attorney Dave Rand.

"It's a big deal," Rand said. "This group (on the Council) is unabashedly pro-housing. This is exactly what they were elected to do. I hope they follow through."

Rand said there are at least "two or three" projects on sites larger than an acre, and "a couple" in the Bergamot area, that are under discussion and expected to file proposals.

The streamlined approval process, which was adopted by a pro-housing Council on March 10, 2020, paved the way for nearly all housing projects to be approved by planning staff effective immediately ("City Council Begins Clearing Path for Nearly 9,000 New Housing Units," March 12. 2020).

The emergency action came after the State dramatically hiked Santa Monica's mandated housing target to more than 8,800 new housing units over the next eight years.

The City's pro-housing Council was ousted after three slow-growth advocates were swept into office during a voter revolt at the polls in November 2020.

Some two years later, a 521-unit project -- Santa Monica's largest housing development in 56 years -- was proposed at the Gelson's site under a new slow-growth Council that under State law was powerless to stop it .

"People really aren't understanding where we are in this process," Planning Director David Martin told The Lookout after 500 opponents took part in a Zoom community meeting. "There is nothing we can do to stop this ("News Analysis -- Gelson's Proposed Project Is a Done Deal Under State Law," February 23, 2022).

In an effort to curb the large-scale projects lining up to enter the City's development pipeline, the Council quickly voted to restore the discretionary review process, including an Environmental Impact Report (EIR), for projects on sites of more than an acre.

Unlike previous Council actions prompted by State mandates to build more housing, Rand believes Tuesday's agenda item is driven by the Council's "unabashedly" pro-housing agenda.

"Before, excuses were made for policy initiatives," Rand said. "This is a very intentional policy move. It's happening in a more direct way.

The new Council, Rand said, "should be the most cohesive, ideologically minded super majority going back 20 years."