Developers Can Expect Tougher Santa Monica Council, New Members Say

December 19, 2012 -- Santa Monica's two newest Council members say that developers will face a City Council that is more demanding when it comes to affordable housing and other community benefits.

It became clear that the winds had changed direction on December 11 when, at the first session of the new Council, a development agreement (DA) that had been approved just weeks earlier was overturned with the support of veteran Council member Kevin McKeown and the two newest members on the dais: Ted Winterer and Tony Vazquez.

Council member Gleam Davis cast the fourth vote in support of reconsidering the DA.

“I think it's quite likely that the new council will have higher expectations when it comes to affordable housing,” said Winterer, a former planning commissioner known for pressing developers to provide more community benefits.

Vazquez agreed that the new council would demand more from developers.

“We can do a lot better,” he said.

If Tuesday's vote to reconsider the DA approved in November is any indication, a voting bloc of Council members with high standards for community benefits could be emerging.

Sll four who voted to reopen discussion on an already approved DA cited concerns about what they considered to be a low number of affordable units in the 377 unit development.

“I think Kevin (McKeown) and I are like-minded on the need for responsible growth,” said Winterer.

He added that they both prioritize building more housing, especially low-income housing as well as working for a more sustainable city.

Vazquez said he voted to reconsider the East Village project because he believes that there's not enough affordable housing included in the 377 unit project.

The DA stipulated that the developer would build seven extremely low-income units and nine very-low-income units, as well as donate a piece of the 3.8-acre parcel to the City or a nonprofit in order to keep 10 spaces for trailers where residents who didn't want to move off the property could live.

During his campaign for Council, Vazquez said that he thought there were too many large developments in the City.

"We need to scale back some of the development and make it more reasonable," he told The Lookout in July. He also said that he would press local works, especially minority youth.

Winterer said that it was premature to talk about a voting bloc, pointing out that everyone on the dais shares these concerns.

On January 8, the new Council will look at staff's recommendation on how best to deal with an abundance of DAs and Vazquez is ready for that discussion.

“I think we need one,” Vazquez said, referring to a possible temporary moratorium on DAs.

Winterer believes that the bigger projects shouldn't be approved until the City finalizes the specific plans - - like the Downtown Specific Plan and the Bergamot Area Plan -- for the neighborhoods where these developments will be built.

Among those projects are the Bergamot Transit Village, which has been on hold after the developers were asked to shrink the overall scope of the project.

The developer reduced the project from nearly one million square feet to 767,000 in response to widespread criticism.

The East Village Project sits on the northern edge of the jurisdiction that would be governed by the Bergamot Area Plan, which the Planning Commission looked at last Wednesday.

Winterer called the City's current DA process “piecemeal” and “ad hoc,” adding that the “evolving and shifting standards are very difficult for everyone involved.”

He added that the City needed to at least slow down the number of DAs coming in.

Winterer was a leading proponent of Prop T, an unsuccessful measure placed on the ballot in 2008 which would have capped commercial development in Santa Monica at 75,000 square feet a year over 15 years.

The number of DAs in the City has skyrocketed from 12 between 1981 and 2007 to 25 currently being negotiated.

“I'm not sure what the best approach is, but clearly something has to be done,” he said. The current process “takes away from the limited time and resources” available to City staff and the Council.

“Everything is on the table,” said Winterer of the options for dealing with DAs. “We have to explore all the options.”

McKeown said that the East Village project vote showed something about the new Council members.

“The Village Trailer Park vote showed that our new Councilmembers understand that housing development must retain significant affordability to keep Santa Monica livable for workers and working families," McKeown said.

“No one on the Council opposes all growth or development, nor should they, but one of our tasks is to weigh projects in terms of impacts and benefits,” he said.