

by Jing Yeo

Swing by the City Planning offices or the City Hall permit center on any given day and chances are that you will witness a constant buzz of permit-related interactions between planners and customers. Santa Monica’s planners field an average of 100 calls per day and serve thousands of customers a year at the public counter. If you have opened a business, proposed an addition to your home, or attended a community meeting, chances are that you have interacted with a planner.

The City Planning Division has three major functions: 1) strategic planning, 2) design and historic preservation, and 3) development review. As professional planners, much of the policy and land use decisions that we shape impact the daily lives of those who live, work, or visit Santa Monica. The nature of our work means that land use and development decisions tend to garner a significant amount of public interest. The competing demands of managing day-to-day development activity against the time necessary for research, public engagement, and preparation of long-term policy documents, such as the recently adopted Downtown Community Plan, means that we have to make choices about how we prioritize resources.

On January 9, Council discussed the City Planning Division’s upcoming priorities. This meeting was intended to be a public discussion of the major projects that City Planning will prioritize in 2018 and beyond. After lengthy public deliberations, the Council voted to direct the following priorities with an emphasis on the protection of the diversity and uniqueness of the city’s residential neighborhoods:

1. Pico Neighborhood Plan

The Council urged planners to begin work immediately on a neighborhood level planning effort, and gave direction to quickly complete a zoning analysis that would retain existing housing while concurrently creating a holistic approach that would look at preserving the character, feel, and culture of the Pico neighborhood. Council also directed staff to create an inclusive process that would seek input from as many Pico residents and business owners as possible.

The Pico Neighborhood Plan seeks to address neighborhood concerns over an array of issues that touch the lives of many residents.

2. Update the R1 (single-family housing) Standards

Council gave direction to bring back an interim ordinance that would reduce the size of new home construction by 20%, reduce building height below 28 feet, and exempt accessory dwelling units from parcel coverage calculations. Council is responding to resident concerns over “mansionization” of neighborhoods. A recent report from the Planning Division showed new homes are on average twice as big as the ones they replace.

Photo: John Mozzer

Council’s request for revised R1 standards have invited a great deal of public comment. These standards are in place to ensure that the scale, mass and design of new single-family homes are compatible with the existing neighborhood.

3. SB 743 CEQA Implementation

Recent state legislation requires the City to utilize new transportation analysis thresholds. SB 743 changes how California analyzes transportation impacts and looks at ways to “promote the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, the development of multimodal transportation networks, and a diversity of land uses.” The Council asked staff to proceed with this project as soon as possible, and included direction to limit outreach to an educational meeting.

New thresholds to measure the impact of vehicle traffic have been adopted by the State of California. The City’s SB743 project will work to incorporate these new measures into the analysis that planners conduct on new projects.

4. Landmarks Ordinance

Council asked for a comprehensive update to the existing Landmarks Ordinance, which has guided the process for protecting the city’s historic resources since it was first established in 1978. An update to the Landmarks Ordinance will refresh the regulations that protect older buildings.

Santa Monicans have consistently expressed an appreciation for retaining character-defining older structures.

5. Housing Production

Given the statewide housing crisis and the desirability of Santa Monica as a place to live, Council expressed interest in exploring options to encourage housing on the commercial boulevards and in the Bergamot area including identifying impediments to housing production.

6. Local Coastal Program Update – Implementation Plan (Coastal Zoning Ordinance)

The Land Use Plan process has been underway for the past two years with a draft expected to be released by the end of January. With a certified Local Coastal Program that reflects sustainable City policies and practices and protects the coast in accordance with the State Coastal Act, great strides can be made toward securing Santa Monica’s future as one of California’s most enjoyable and popular beach destinations.

7. Gateway Master Plan and Memorial Park Neighborhood Plan

Acknowledging the volume of planning efforts currently underway, Council deferred these two plans to future years.

The Council also separately directed the City Attorney’s office to bring back an ordinance that would prohibit the issuance of City permits if a property has outstanding code complaints. Here’s a snapshot of the timeline for completion of these priorities:

The R1 interim standards are the first of these priorities to come forward and will be reviewed by Council on January 23.

It promises to be a busy 2018 so stay tuned to the Planning and Community Development website (www.smgov.net/pcd) for updates on each of the above priorities and make sure to sign up for email updates from Planning and Community Development.

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