Apple on Monday said it will put up $2.5 billion toward easing California’s housing crisis. The sum from Apple eclipses pledges by fellow Silicon Valley giants Google and Facebook for addressing the lack of affordable housing in a region where affluent tech workers have helped drive up the cost of homes.

Read More on pg. 4: https://s3.amazonaws.com/smdp_backissues/110519.pdf

Los Angeles County is hoping to eliminate long lines at the polls and boost voter turnout in time for the most contentious Democratic primary in recent memory. In the upcoming primary, Los

Angeles County residents will be able to register to vote and cast their ballots at any vote center for 11 days, including election day. The vote centers will be equipped with machines that voters can use to vote electronically and print their paper ballots. 

Read More: https://s3.amazonaws.com/smdp_backissues/110119.pdf

Eight community members. Seven city of Santa Monica staffers. $4 million in budget cuts.

From November to February, a task force will convene to discuss how to trim $1.5 million from the city’s $756 million 2020-2021 fiscal budget.

Read More: https://s3.amazonaws.com/smdp_backissues/103119.pdf

The Santa Monica City Council adopted regulations Tuesday that aim to limit the “mansionization” of the city’s single-family neighborhoods,

but some residents say the new rules will prevent them from renovating their homes to accommodate their growing families.

Read More: https://s3.amazonaws.com/smdp_backissues/102419.pdf

Do you know that California state law (AB 1796) requires landlords to approve tenant requests to install EV charging stations in their dedicated parking spaces if they are willing to pay for them? Previously, this law required tenants to obtain a $1 million insurance policy, which often prevented tenants from being able to take advantage of this legislation. A recently passed bill (SB 638) removes this insurance requirement, making it one step easier for renters to install charging stations at their homes. 

Read More: https://www.santamonica.gov/blog/installing-a-home-ev-charging-station-just-got-easier

Fearing landlords would kick out tenants in advance of AB-1482, LA City Council acts.

Fearing that mass evictions could follow after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed rent cap and stronger tenant protections into law, the Los Angeles City Council has approved an emergency moratorium on no-fault evictions.

Read More: https://www.smobserved.com/story/2019/11/01/news/los-angeles-enacts-emergency-moratorium-on-no-fault-evictions-of-tenants/4276.html

The Dept of Justice ranks Santa Monica has the 3d Highest Crime City in Calif. in 2018.

Read More: https://www.smobserved.com/story/2019/11/01/news/a-2018-doj-report-says-that-violent-crime-was-up-in-santa-monica-2018-over-2017/4277.html

Last week our colleague Thane Roberts, in a reprise of an article from four years ago, said: “Insanity was once defined as doing the same thing over again and expecting a different result. Once again, our City Council has embarked on a misadventure that will likely end the same way as before with the Hines Project- a major waste of funds and time for all parties concerned, especially the developers.” This week he continues the discussion about the proposed Plaza at Santa Monica, a massive project in the very heart of downtown Santa Monica.

Read More: https://smmirror.com/2019/10/plaza-at-santa-monicas-groundhog-day-part-2/

Every so often SMart invites a guest columnist to write an article about local planning issues. This week and next we have invited Dick Platkin, a former planner for the City of Los Angeles, who is writing about the lies that the building and financial industries perpetuate in their quest for profits using the wedge of new State of California laws gutting local development controls. Since this year the State has been feverishly passing laws unleashing over development, (the City of Santa Monica is now supposed to build 5000 new units in the next 10 years) we felt this article was relevant to expose the lies used to sell this overdevelopment. While Dick’s article was written about Los Angeles identical issues apply in Santa Monica. Just substitute Santa Monica every time he mentions Los Angeles. This article first appeared in City Watch LA a few weeks ago. 

Read More: https://smmirror.com/2019/11/six-big-lies-keeping-the-real-estate-bubble-inflated-part-1/

Construction is set to start next spring for a mixed-use development in Downtown Santa Monica that will bring 100 apartments and nearly 6,000 square feet of retail space to Lincoln Boulevard just blocks from the Expo Line.

Project developer, NMS Properties-affiliated firm WS Communities, plans on replacing a surface parking lot at 1430 Lincoln Boulevard with a five-story building containing 100 apartments, 5,878 square feet of ground-floor retail and a four-level subterranean parking garage with 296 parking spaces.

Read More: https://smmirror.com/2019/11/lincoln-boulevard-mixed-use/