ACTION Apartment Association

Citizen’s Group Reviewing Santa Monica City Hall Compensation Holds First Session

08/29/2017 7:30 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

August 28, 2017 -- Members of a citizen’s panel formed to help review Santa Monica City Hall compensation met last week, providing the first glimpse of the role it will play in a heated debate over employee pay and pension costs.

The panel was convened Wednesday in the first of three joint meetings of the City Audit Subcommittee, the council-controlled panel with which the temporary compensation panel is to work ("Santa Monica Citizens’ Panel on City Hall Salaries Set to Get to Work," August 22, 2017 ).

List of Buildings...Earthquake strengthening...

08/28/2017 11:43 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

A list of buildings identified by building permit records and/or visual identification as buildings that may require strengthening to increase safety during an earthquake. Inclusion of a building on this list is not confirmation that the building is structurally deficient, hazardous or unsafe.

New City Attorney begins work

08/28/2017 8:23 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Lane Dilg has officially begun her tenure as City Attorney and the Santa Monica resident said she is ready for the challenges of working in a city like Santa Monica.

Dilg was hired in June following the retirement of longtime City Attorney Marsha Moutrie. She formerly served as Senior Counsel to UCLA, spent four years as an Assistant United States Attorney in the United States Attorney’s Central District Office in California and served as Counsel to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. Her experience also includes time as a civil litigator at the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation and Susman Godfrey, LLP.

SMA.R.T.-IN THE SPOT… LIGHT: CREATIVE ZONING IN SANTA MONICA

08/28/2017 8:20 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Santa Monica’s new DCP (Downtown Community Plan) identifies three sites as “Established Opportunity Sites,” although the addition of the word “established” seemed to have appeared from nowhere in the final version presented to the Council for approval. The phrase “Opportunity Site” only appears once in the Land Use Circulation Element (LUCE) of the General Plan – the supposed guide to how the city is to be planned and developed, and that referenced a location for a super market at Lincoln and Broadway.

There is a zoning issue commonly referred to as “spot zoning,” and Councilmember Tony Vazquez had expressed concern about spot zoning when these sites were before the council. It generally refers to a situation where a parcel of land is given special conditions, such as additional height, use, or floor area that is not given to other properties within the same zone. Spot zoning is not considered legal in California, though a recent court case described a new definition identified as “permissible” spot zoning.

Santa Monica Rent Control Housing Stock Likely to Show Tiny Increase this Year

08/25/2017 2:45 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

August 25, 2017 -- Santa Monica's struggling rent-controlled housing supply is likely to post a tiny gain this year as enough once-emptied units re-enter the market to offset the apartments dropping out, a rent board official said Thursday.

Dan Costello, a spokesperson for the City’s Rent Control Board, said the agency expects to finish the year with about 50 more units re-opened and added to the rent-controlled housing market, which now has 27,594 multifamily units.

It would mark the second consecutive year the rent-controlled market has expanded more than it contracted, Costello said. Last year, 52 units were added.

City wins extended restrictions on landlord in tenant harassment case

08/25/2017 9:00 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

City Hall has obtained an injunction against a local property manager accused of harassing a disabled tenant.

The City Attorney’s Office filed the tenant harassment suit in 2016 against the owners of a local property and their property manager Kathy Golshani.

The lawsuit alleges that landlords Cecil McNabb and Golshani tried to disrupt the already-challenging daily routine of a mother taking care of her severely developmentally disabled daughter.

Californians: Here’s why your housing costs are so high

08/24/2017 10:20 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

By Ben Christopher and Matt Levin August 21, 2017

Half the state's households struggle to afford a roof over their heads. Homeownership - once a staple of the California dream—is at its lowest rate since World War II. Nearly 70 percent of poor Californians see the majority of their paychecks go immediately to escalating rents.

Santa Monica Citizens’ Panel on City Hall Salaries Set to Get to Work

08/24/2017 8:49 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

August 22, 2017 -- An unusual citizens’ panel created to help review salary packages for Santa Monica city government employees -- among the highest of California municipalities -- is scheduled to formally take on its task Wednesday.

The seven-member Compensation Study Advisory Committee (CSAC) will meet with its bosses, the City’s Audit Subcommittee, at a special joint meeting on to discuss the parameters of an analysis of wages and benefits for City employees.

New Condo Construction Picking Up Pace in Santa Monica

08/24/2017 8:47 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

August 21, 2017 -- By twos and threes and, in a few cases, bundled in luxury mixed-use hotels proposed for downtown, the construction of new condominiums is picking up steam in Santa Monica for the first time in years.

As the City embarks on a future embracing a dramatic rise in mostly five- to -seven-story mixed-use apartment buildings, new condos are, or soon will be, springing up in prime locations along the beach, Ocean Park, downtown and elsewhere.

The City’s development pipeline includes 192 condos among the 3.2 million square feet of proposed new building, according to planning data.

FINANCING AND CONSTRUCTION GUARANTEED MAXIMUM PRICE FOR CITY HALL ADDITION APPROVED BY CITY COUNCIL

08/21/2017 8:30 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

At last night’s meeting, the Santa Monica City Council approved financing and a Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) for construction services for the City Services Building (CSB). This City Hall addition will bring City employees spread out in different leased locations onto one campus offering streamlined public services and long-term fiscal savings.

Council approved Lease Revenue Bonds totaling $76,760,000 million for the project. The bonds carry a “Green Bond” designation due to the strong environmental qualities of the CSB as a “Living Building”, the highest green building standard available.