What
Say You? RESIDENTS and THE ZONING
ORDINANCE
SUSAN CLOKE
Columnist
The Planning Commission, concerned about resident
opposition to the current red-line version of the proposed new zoning code,
called a Town Hall Meeting at Lincoln Middle School for the evening of November
19.
It was open mike, no time limit, no bells going
off, no speakers being cut off.
Intermixed with specific comments regarding the proposed code, people
spoke of their frustration with the process. Amy Aukstikainis, of Northeast Neighbors spoke to great
applause when she said; “We’ve been submitting comments for over two years to
the City without reply.”
Major themes were water, traffic, re-adaptive
use of existing buildings, parking, housing, historic preservation and
protection of neighborhoods and residences.
Over-development of the City was a repeated
concern raised by speakers saying over-development will devalue the quality of
life for residents, harm the character of the city and derail Santa Monica’s
long-term fiscal health.
Using the ‘fiscal health’ term has become
something of an insider’s ironic joke as some of the speakers saw the term as a
stealth entry into the statement of purpose - with an undefined meaning and as
not appropriate to a zoning code.
The proposed zoning code is a lengthy and
technical document but the audience showed it had done its homework. The three most common requests were the
removal of Activity Centers, continuing the requirements for “A” lots, and the
elimination of Tier 3 zoning.
Commissioners were asked to remove Activity
Center concepts from the document saying neighborhood-serving businesses were
already thriving in Santa Monica and Activity Centers were a concept that
didn’t ‘fit’ Santa Monica. They
argued that existing businesses were in the neighborhood to serve a need and
were successful, in part, because they were woven into
the fabric of the neighborhood.
Commissioners were asked to keep the “A” lots
(think of surface parking lots next to residences) at the current standard, thus
providing a buffer between commercial and residential, and to continue to be
required to provide a landscape edge.
Commissioners were asked to ban Tier 3
development because of the concern that residential neighborhoods would be
overly impacted by the height and density of the Tier 3 developments,
especially as proposed on Wilshire Blvd.
In the surprise move of the evening, Armen
Melkonians of Residocracy announced, “The LUCE was faulty from day 1. We need to revisit the LUCE EIR. Residocracy will be putting an
e-petition on the Residocracy web site for people to sign. The e-petition will request a revisit
of the LUCE EIR.” He received a
standing ovation from the audience.
There were only a handful of supporting speakers
in the room. One was Hank Koning,
a well-known and award-winning local architect and a former Planning
Commissioner. He spoke of
paradoxes in the discussion. Challenging the assumptions of many of the
speakers he stated, “We need to
build more housing in order to have less traffic. Wilshire Blvd Tier 3 housing would do just that.”
The Town Hall meeting started at 7:00 pm and
ended just before 1:00 am.
Commission Chair Jason Parry, Commission Vice-Chair Richard McKinnon and
Commission Members Amy Anderson, Sue Himmelrich (Council Member-Elect),
Jennifer Kennedy and Gerda Newbold listened carefully to testimony and did not
speak themselves.
The audience of about 200 to 300 people thanked
them for holding the meeting and for allowing people to applaud and to show
audience support for other speakers.
Was this audience a self-selected group of
oppositionists or do they reflect general and widely held sentiment in the
City? When asked that question,
Sue Himmelrich, a current Planning Commissioner and Council Member-Elect said,
“After walking the neighborhoods for 3 months I believe this is a more vocal
but accurate expression of the sentiment in the City. We have had a Council majority that didn’t represent the
people. I hope I’m part of the
beginning of building a coalition that changes the Council.”
Planning
Commissioner Richard McKinnon said, “From knocking on thousands of doors during
my campaign for Council, I learned there’s a generalized discontent about
development and a sense the City is going the wrong direction. They are less vocal but not so different
in their opinions from the 2 or 3 hundred people who came to the Town Hall
meeting and who have been participating in the discussion on the proposed
zoning code for 2 years. They all feel they’ve been blown off.”
OPA Board Member Mary Marlow was asked if she
was hopeful that the meeting would bring results. She responded, “The majority of the Planning Commission is out of sync with
residents of the city. The 4-person majority of Jason Parry, Gerda
Newbold, Jim Reis and Amy Anderson have resisted many thoughtful, resident
initiated changes to the draft zoning code. Residents mistrust the City and
made their mistrust clear at the Town Hall Zoning Meeting.”
Danilo Bach of
NOMA summed up the tenor of the meeting saying, “What happened here tonight
reflects the depth of anger and mistrust of the present City government.”
David Martin,
Director of Planning and Community Development for the City, was at the Town
Hall Meeting. He invited
residents’ ongoing participation, saying,
“The comments we received at the Town Hall Zoning Meeting were valuable
and will be important to the process as we begin the Planning Commission's
official review of the red line draft.
The next meeting will be held on December 3. It will be the first in a series of 7 Planning Commission
meetings to review the redline, with the last meeting scheduled for January 28,
2015.”
Now it’s up to
the Planning Commission. Will they
provide a point-by-point response to the issues raised? Will they explain how they will handle
public comments on the proposed zoning code? The Town Hall meeting, difficult as it was, could be the start
of a dialogue that replaces mistrust with trust. A trust that will be realized only if the process becomes
more reciprocal and the proposed document reflects the discussion.
What Say You?
