Located between 4th and 5th Streets south of Arizona Avenue in the downtown area of the City of Santa Monica, the property consists of a little over 2.5 acres and is a "Resident-owned" property.
The City of Santa Monica is currently proposing to build a massive mixed-use commercial development project on this "Resident-owned" property.
The proposed project consists of the following:
12-story (148-ft tall) high-rise
420,000 sq. ft. of total building (nearly the same size as the Santa Monica Place Mall)
225 room hotel
200,000 sq. ft. of commercial work-space
40,000 square feet of retail
48 affordable housing residential apartment units
Impacts to Residents:
A commercial development located on this "Resident-owned" property would eliminate the potential for a grand 2.5-acre downtown green-space park for generations to come.
Severely alter the Santa Monica skyline.
Creating shadows from the 12 story (148-foot) tall structure.
Last Tuesday developer NMS Properties and Neil Shekhter, its founder and CEO, were found by the Los Angeles Superior Court to have committed “massive, intentional, coordinated efforts to destroy evidence,” “fraud,” and “perjury.
Santa Monica tops statewide list for a variety of jobs:
Police Chief: $478,000, highest statewide.
Police Sergeant: $475,546 highest statewide.
At $393,603, $385,000 and $380,000, Santa Monica police sergeants also occupied the 4th, 6th and 7th highest spots on the statewide list.
Deputy Police Chief: $455,914, highest statewide.
Assistant City Attorney: $442,414, highest statewide.
Assistant City Manager: $440,661, highest statewide.
City Attorney: $439,969, 2nd highest statewide.
Farmers’ Market Supervisor: $142,903.
Assistant City Librarian:$220,558.
This excess is pervasive throughout the City, with Santa Monica outspending its peers in total department wide spending as well: (more)
It’s called “the list,” a compilation of proposed building projects being tracked by City planners, or all plans in Santa Monica's development pipeline. (more)
Every neighborhood group in the city consistently and strongly demanded a central park at 4th-5th/AZ. Santa Monica’s Recreation and Parks, the SMart Architects, Santa Monica for a Livable City - we all clearly wanted a park.
But council didn’t care what residents wanted. They voted NO on our central park.
After years of publicly saying he was against tall hotels along the Ocean, Kevin voted YES on the the Opportunity Sites. Sue and Tony voted NO, but that didn't matter because the whole gang unanimously voted YES on the draft DCP that included those 130’ monstrosities.
Council also decided that housing projects of up to 75,000 sq ft require only administrative (staff) approval. That means no Planning Commission expertise and certainly no public input when a building this size is constructed anywhere downtown.
For illustration, below is a 29,000 sq. ft Santa Monica building near the Promenade - tiny compared to a 75,000 Sq ft building in Anaheim. While the height would be lower than this building on transition boulevards, the mass would be the same.
Picture this mass 50’ tall next to 23’ tall apartments…
Council, including the “supermajority," just decided that residents can’t say ANYTHING when developers decide to build this next door.
But there’s more. Council asked staff to explore:
Equalizing density requirements between areas of downtown (adding more density to boulevards that transition to neighborhoods)
Streamlining all 100 percent affordable housing projects (raising that inconvenient 49-unit limit so bigger Step Ups can be constructed with zero public input)
Eliminating parking minimums (so neighborhoods can be flooded with more cars, Amazon, Fed Ex, PO carriers, gardeners can block more driveways and more local businesses will go dark)
Mandating affordable housing on a project by project basis ( so developers have to maintain “cosy" relationships with council and staff. Just like the Parking Overlays that can be waived by our Planning Director, negotiable mandates encourage hard-to-track political juice, campaign contributions, future employment, etc.)
The draft DCP is a disaster for residents and it looks like it will get worse.
Taffy Patton
No major Public Park in Final Draft of Downtown SM Plan
Wilmont is working to promote the interests of our residents, such as speaking on behalf of our neighborhood at City Council and Planning Commission meetings and creating new committees to keep you updated on the big issues facing our city. Please take a look at the committees list below and consider spending a few hours a month and taking a more active role in our city’s future.
-DEVELOPMENT-Big Projects like the Miramar, etc.
-TRANSPORTATION-Traffic, Parking, Big Blue Bus, etc.
