ACTION Apartment Association

Expo-adjacent development continues near Bergamot

03/11/2019 3:09 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

A 47-foot high building with apartments, commercial space and creative offices will be built near Bergamot Station. The building will join several other mixed-use developments planned near the Expo Line station, replacing a small office building and parking lot at 1618 Stanford St. with 47 apartments, 4,004 square feet of ground floor commercial space, 11,733 square feet of subterranean office space and a parking garage with 102 parking spaces for cars and 75 for bicycles.

Four of the units will be available to households making 30 percent of the area’s median income.

Crisis Point?

03/11/2019 2:19 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

City Council addresses safety in public parks in Santa Monica

At Santa Monica City Council’s March 5 meeting the Council directed the City to study the costs and benefits of securing safety in the parks. Santa Monica City Staff presented its recommendations including encouraging community members to get out and use the parks, improvements to infrastructure including lighting and landscaping, ongoing maintenance and park ambassadors, monitoring, reporting and enforcement, stopping outdoor food distribution and education.

The Recreation and Parks Commission’s recommendations included a pilot program for sworn police officers at Reed Park, a beach curfew, lighting improvements in Tongva Park, park-based surveillance cameras, emergency phones, ongoing funding for hospitality services and bathroom attendants as well as ongoing local funding for the Homeless Multidisciplinary Street Team (HMST) and County-City-Community Partnership (C3) outreach and treatment programs for those experiencing homelessness.

City Asks Appeals Court to Allow Council Members to Serve After August 15 Prohibition

03/11/2019 2:14 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

The City on Friday asked a California Appeals Court to stay an order in the voting rights lawsuit that would prohibit sitting Council members from serving after August 15.

The appeal was filed one day after Superior Court Judge Yvette M. Palazuelos on Thursday denied the City's request to confirm that the prohibition was mandatory, which would have resulted in an automatic stay.

AND: https://smmirror.com/2019/03/city-crva-stay-denied/

Santa Monica Wins Three Homesharing Cases

03/11/2019 2:06 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Three defendants were convicted Tuesday of violating Santa Monica's homesharing ordinance, marking the third such court victory for the City in the past three weeks, resulting in a total of 29 rental units being returned to the market.

The defendants -- Globe Homes, Ari Can Eryorulmaz and Sebastian Pieter Dekleer -- were prosecuted under the City's 2015 homesharing ordinance, which bans leasing residential property for fewer than 31 days unless the owner is present.

AND: https://smmirror.com/2019/03/litigating-short-term-rental-abuse/

City Officials Won't Reveal Cost of Voting Rights Lawsuit Until Case is Closed

03/11/2019 1:49 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Santa Monica taxpayers will have to wait until the voting rights lawsuit ends to learn what the City has spent fighting the nearly three-year-old case.

Last week, City officials declined to provide The Lookout with the total fees paid to Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, the law firm hired to defend the City.

In response to the Lookout's request, City officials on Thursday cited attorney client privileges in the ongoing litigation.

Will Statewide Rent Control Catch On Beyond Oregon?

03/05/2019 8:11 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

SPEED READ:

Oregon is the first state to adopt statewide rent control for all rental properties.
Support for rent control is building in Colorado, Illinois and New York.
While the U.S. median household income has remained relatively flat since 2001, the median rent has shot up by more than 40 percent, according to a new report from PolicyLink.

Court battles could test constitutionality of California voting rights law

03/04/2019 12:02 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

When most people think of landmark voting rights cases, places like Alabama or North Carolina, not Santa Monica, usually come to mind.

But last month, a judge in the affluent, left-leaning coastal enclave ruled that Santa Monica’s system of at-large City Council representation “intentionally discriminated” against its growing Latino population.

More mixed-use buildings moving through development pipeline

03/02/2019 2:19 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

A three-story building will replace Coogie’s Cafe in Mid-City and a four-story building will rise near CVS downtown according to proposals before the Architectural Review Board Tuesday night.

The mixed-use building with 46 units and 12,080 square feet of ground floor commercial space will supplant Coogie’s, a squat diner that has occupied 2906 Santa Monica Blvd. since it was built in 1969. The owner of Coogie’s, Lawrence Rhee, died last week, the restaurant’s manager said, but the project has been in the works for some time. The corner site at Yale Street and Santa Monica Boulevard is owned by producer and director Marius Markevicius.

LETTERS -- It's Time to Break SMRR's Iron Grip

03/02/2019 2:13 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

by Robert Kronovet

What we're dealing with in the City's recent appeal in the voting rights lawsuit is quite a simple phenomenon ("Santa Monica Council Votes to Appeal Voting Rights Ruling," February 21, 2019).

What we're dealing with is called the tight control of power that the Santa Monica Renters' Rights (SMRR) City Council possesses.

Parks’ safety crisis reaches Council next week

03/01/2019 11:37 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

City Council will discuss ways to make Santa Monica’s parks and beach safer and cleaner at its meeting Tuesday in response to complaints from residents about crime and hazardous waste at several public parks.

Community members and the Parks and Recreation Commission told Council last November that there was a safety crisis in the parks and at the beach, testifying that children have been finding hypodermic needles, bags of meth and open latrines. Residents also said children frequently encounter people living or prostituting themselves in park bathrooms.