Accepting the daunting task of building 9,000 new housing units over the next decade -- more than two-thirds of them affordable -- the City Council this week began exploring removing caps on development.

The State-mandated target -- which Councilmembers said they would not contend -- cannot be met by continuing to rely on developers to include affordable units in market-rate projects, the Council agreed.

Instead, massive new funding must be found to develop the projects on public land -- including in the Bergamot area in the city's old industrial zone -- and along major boulevards, such as Wilshire.

Read More: http://www.surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/news/News-2019/December-2019/12_13_2019_Santa_Monica_Takes_Initial_Step_to_Dramatically_Boost_Housing%20Production.html

At its meeting last night, December 10, 2019, the Santa Monica City Council and City Clerk Denise Anderson-Warren swore in new Mayor Kevin McKeown, replacing Gleam Davis who served in the role for the last year. Mayor McKeown will serve a one-year term. This is his second stint as mayor, first serving a one-year term in 2015. 

Read More: https://www.santamonica.gov/press/2019/12/11/kevin-mckeown-installed-as-santa-monica-s-next-mayor

The City of Santa Monica and vacation rental platform Airbnb have come to an agreement intended to ensure all of the company’s listings comply with the City’s short-term rental laws, which are some of the strictest in the country.

“After years of uncertainty for our host community in Santa Monica, the new settlement agreement provides our hosts the clarity they need to continue sharing their homes,” said Matt Middlebrook, Airbnb’s Head of Public Policy in California.

Under the agreement, announced Tuesday, Airbnb will remove illegal short-term rental listings upon City notice, monitor and remove multiple listings that exceed the City’s home-sharing limit and collect and pay a $2 per night to help support affordable housing in Santa Monica.

Read More: https://smmirror.com/2019/12/airbnb-must-remove-illegal-santa-monica-listings/

And: http://www.surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/news/News-2019/December-2019/12_10_2019_Santa_Monica_Airbnb_Settle_Home_Sharing_Battle.html

The City Council will discuss Tuesday how to accommodate the 9,000 housing units the state could require Santa Monica to build by 2029.

The Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) voted last month to recommend that the state require Southern California cities with abundant jobs and transit to build more housing than ever before. Under SCAG’s Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) calculation, Santa Monica would have to zone for 9,000 units between 2021 and 2029.

Read More: https://www.smdp.com/city-council-to-discuss-mandate-to-build-9000-units-by-2029/183710

Almost 500 apartments — 100 of them affordable — are planned downtown, in the Pico neighborhood and near Bergamot Station.

Four hundred and seventy five units in five buildings moved through the Architectural Review Board and the Planning Commission this week, including two WS Communities micro-apartment projects and a 100% affordable project from Community Corporation of Santa Monica.

Read More: https://www.smdp.com/almost-500-apartments-go-through-design-review/183706

The group behind a failed 2018 rent control measure is trying again for a ballot initiative next year, even after California lawmakers limited rent increases as one attempt to blunt the state’s housing affordability crisis. The housing advocacy division of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, called Housing Is A Human Right, said Thursday it submitted nearly 1 million signatures to put an initiative on the November 2020 ballot that would expand rent control statewide. The measure needs more than 600,000 valid signatures to qualify.

Read More on page 4: https://s3.amazonaws.com/smdp_backissues/120719.pdf

Santa Monica renters could gain the right to legal representation against attempted evictions under a new proposal from two City Council members.

Councilmembers Sue Himmelrich and Kevin McKeown have asked the City Council to vote Tuesday to develop an ordinance that would guarantee tenants the right to legal counsel if they face eviction. McKeown said a right to counsel law will help protect renters from losing their homes as property owners try to capitalize on Santa Monica’s overheated real estate market by evicting tenants in order to raise rents.

Read More: https://www.smdp.com/santa-monica-could-guarantee-legal-representation-to-renters-threatened-with-eviction/183650

Rent control advocates on Thursday submitted signatures to get the issue back on the ballot — tweaking the soundly defeated Proposition 10 from 2018 and hoping to return it to California voters next year.

Read More: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/realestate/rent-control-could-be-headed-back-to-california-voters/ar-BBXP7cQ

A love letter to the Council. Not.

Last week we wrote about what we at SMa.r.t., individually, were thankful for in our beachfront town. This week we thought the Council might take a moment to review some comments from their constituents taken from the local Santa Monica social media pages. They are in the public domain but without the writers express permission, so are shown as anonymous. They touch on life style, over-development, crime, the airport, the proposed large private hotel development on city land downtown called The Plaza instead of a real public plaza, crime, the Council itself, and other issues of concern to many Santa Monica residents.

Read More: https://smmirror.com/2019/12/sma-r-t-column-the-grumble-in-the-jungle/

The first two market-rate SRO projects resubmitted under a settlement agreement between the developer and City got their first public hearing Monday.

The Santa Monica Architectural Review Board (ARB) took up the two Downtown projects resubmitted by WS Communities after they were enlarged to accommodate more affordable and larger units.

The two projects at 1415 and and 1437 5th Street are among six proposed SRO developments totaling 361 "micro-units" the City Council blocked with an emergency interim ordinance in March of last year.

Read More: http://www.surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/news/News-2019/December-2019/12_05_2019_First_Two_Revised_SRO_Developments_Get_Hearing.html