A U.S. District Court judge ruled in the city of Santa Monica’s favor this week, writing websites HomeAway and Airbnb did not demonstrate they are likely to prevail on claims Santa Monica’s short-term rental ordinance violates the Coastal Act, the Communications Decency Act or the First Amendment.

“In the midst of a statewide housing crisis, (the) decision affirms that the City of Santa Monica can take reasonable steps to protect residential units from conversion into de facto hotels, while also allowing individuals to share their homes with guests for compensation in authorized circumstances,” said City Attorney Lane Dilg. “We applaud this important ruling.”

Read More: https://www.actiontakesaction.com/admin/website/system-pages/?pageId=1837908

A Santa Monica City Councilmember and the leader of Santa Monica’s Transparency project are circulating a petition to put the brakes on perennial City Council members. The initiative proposed by Sue Himmelrich and Mary Marlow holds the ability to be transformative in a city that rarely sees new faces on its City Council. The Santa Monica City Council has refused to limit how long a council member can hold office, and it often appears that members of that august body are “homesteading” their city council seats.

Read More: https://smmirror.com/2018/03/sma-r-t-term-limits-heart-democracy/

March 14, 2018 -- Santa Monica can continue enforcing its "home-sharing" law after a U.S. District Court last week denied a motion by AirBnB and HomeAway for a preliminary injunction.

The Court's ruling Friday in the the Central District of California held that the platforms are "not likely to prevail on their claims that the City’s ordinance is unlawful" under the federal Communications Decency Act (“CDA”), the First Amendment and the California Coastal Act, City officials said.

“In the midst of a statewide housing crisis, (the) decision affirms that the City of Santa Monica can take reasonable steps to protect residential units from conversion into de facto hotels," City Attorney Lane Dilg said in a statement.

The decision still allows individuals to "share their homes with guests for compensation in authorized circumstances,” Dilg said. “We applaud this important ruling.”

Read More: http://www.surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/news/News-2018/March-2018/03_14_2018_Efforts_to_Temporarily_Halt_Santa_Monicas_Home_Sharing_Law_Fails.html

The Rent Control Board wants to hear from you.

Attend the public hearing March 22nd at 7:00pm at City Hall

Read More on page 7: http://backissues.smdp.com/031418.pdf

March 13, 2018 -- Folsom Police Chief Cynthia Renaud -- who is credited with helping lower property and violent crime in the Sacramento County city -- has been tapped to head the Santa Monica Police Department, City officials announced Tuesday.

Renaud will go from a department of 105 workers and a $22 million budget she led for seven years to one in Santa Monica that is four times as large, with 460 employees and an operating budget of $86.6 million.

She will start the job at the end of April with an annual salary of $265,440, officials said.

Read More: http://surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/news/News-2018/March-2018/03_13_2018_Santa_Monica_Taps_Highly_Touted_Folsom_Police_Chief_for_Top_Post.html

AND

http://smdp.com/santa-monica-names-new-police-chief/164888

Hundreds of people – including Mayor Eric Garcetti, Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, L.A. Rams Hall-of-Famer Eric Dickerson, NBC’s Jon Huertas and United Way’s Elise Buik – joined together at Echo Park Lake to announce the launch of Everyone In, a powerful and diverse coalition of people fighting for the common goal of ending homelessness across Los Angeles County.

Powered by United Way of Greater Los Angeles, Everyone In will bring together leaders and voices within Los Angeles County philanthropy, business, labor, and community organizations to keep the permanent solutions to homelessness moving forward.

Read More on page 3: http://backissues.smdp.com/031318.pdf

March 12, 2018 -- New homeowners in Santa Monica are estimated to be among the hardest hit in California by a reduction in mortgage deductions in the new federal tax code, according to an organization tracking the ups and downs of the law.

In Santa Monica, homeowners subject to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, signed into law by President Trump in December, will lose between $4,300 for the least expensive homes to $16,200 for the costliest homes.

Read More: http://surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/news/News-2018/March-2018/03_12_2018_New_Santa_Monica_Homeowners_Among_Hardest_Hit_By_Federal_Tax_Code.html

The Rent Control Board wants to hear from you.

Attend the public hearing March 22nd at 7:00pm at City Hall. Share your thoughts by email to rentcontrol@smgov.net.

Explore the issuesonline at www.smgov.net/rentcontrol.

Call Rent Control for more information:  (310) 458-8751.

Read the notice on page 7: http://backissues.smdp.com/030918.pdf

And at: https://www.smgov.net/rentcontrol/

A play-by-play recap of why neighbors are appealing the approval of a block-long building on Lincoln Boulevard

By Tim Tunks. Santa Monica resident Tim Tunks is a designer and retired educator.

A few doors down from my small Ocean Park duplex, a new development planned for 2903 Lincoln Blvd. would stretch an entire city block. Where there’s now an auto shop and a plumbing store, picture 47 apartments above ground-floor restaurant and retail spanning the east side of Lincoln between Ashland Avenue and Wilson Place — four stories tall on the north end and, at 308 feet, stretching far enough to overlap the goal lines on both ends of the Rose Bowl. Drive down Lincoln from Montana Avenue to LAX, and you won’t see a building with as much potential impact on north-south traffic flow.

The Santa Monica Planning Commission approved this project during a public hearing on Jan. 10.

Read More: https://argonautnews.com/the-development-game-santa-monica-edition/

Santa Monica City’s Architectural Review Board (ARB), established in 1974, acts “to preserve existing areas of natural beauty, cultural importance and assure that buildings, structures, signs or other developments are in good taste, good design, harmonious with surrounding developments, and in general contribute to the preservation of Santa Monica’s reputation as a place of beauty, spaciousness and quality.”

The ARB is basically there to assure the taxpaying residents that the project will “preserve existing areas of natural beauty” be “harmonious” with “surrounding developments”, and “preserve Santa Monica’s reputation as a place of beauty and spaciousness”. One might wonder if replacement of an existing two story building and an open parking lot, adjacent to two single family historic houses, with a complex of five multi-story structures, up to 150 ft. tall, fulfills that criteria. Apparently the members of the ARB thought so, as they unanimously supported the hotel project.

Read More: https://smmirror.com/2018/03/sma-r-t-arb-ready-build/