One of the most important decisions our City Council will make this year could be approval of our new Downtown Community Plan (DCP). What is the DCP? It is the master plan that will define our public realm and quality of our environment for the next 13 years. It will address such issues as land use, open space, infrastructure and mobility. Its policies will have a major impact on the future development of downtown and hence its ultimate success or failure. As goes the downtown, so goes the City.

Unfortunately, the plan before Council is primarily a 300-page marketing document putting interests of developers above those of residents. 

Read More: http://smmirror.com/2017/07/sma-r-t-our-downtown-community-plan-quantity-or-quality/

Santa Monica’s Downtown Community Plan is beginning its final trip through the halls of local government with a first stop at a special City Council meeting on July 10.

The Monday meeting will be focused on public comment and City Hall wants residents to attend with feedback on the document. Council will reconvene on Tuesday for a regular meeting that will include Council’s deliberations on the plan. The first vote by the council is scheduled for July 25.

...staff have highlighted several specific issues for council consideration including housing production, building height for three specific projects and commercial office restrictions.

Read More: http://smdp.com/city-council-doubles-down-on-downtown-community-plan-meetings/161593

July 6, 2017 -- Santa Monica’s biggest business group says a plan guiding development downtown through 2030 fails to provide enough housing and is too harsh on a trio of big hotel-mixed use projects, including possible requirements for public approval.

After six years of often acrimonious debate, the Downtown Community Plan (DCP) heads to the City Council on Monday for a final public hearing. The special session starts at 5:30 p.m. in the council chambers at City Hall, 1641 Main Street.

The Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce is rallying its members to make a showing at the hearing, as are its rivals in the development battle -- the slow-growth movement.

The final draft of the DCP does not “responsibly address our regional housing supply crisis,” Carl Hansen, the chamber’s director of government affairs, said in an email to members this week.

Read More:  https://www.surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/news/News-2017/July-2017/07_06_2017_Santa_Monica_Chamber_Opposes_Proposal_for_Voter_Approval_of_Large_Developments_Downtown.html

Read More on page 6: http://backissues.smdp.com/070417.pdf

AND on the City's website: https://www.smgov.net/portals/accessiblesm/

As part of its continued commitment to preserve and increase housing in Santa Monica, the City Council voted at its June 27, 2017 meeting to ban the use of newly constructed accessory dwelling units (commonly referred to as guesthouses) from being used exclusively as short-term rentals. 

Read More on page 3: http://backissues.smdp.com/070417.pdf

AND on the City's website: https://www.smgov.net/Departments/PCD/Permits/Short-Term-Rental-Home-Share-Ordinance/

Whether you want to live next door to the wealthy or just to see where housing calls for some big bucks every month, here are California’s Most Expensive ZIP Codes, a research done by RENTCafé based on data from Yardi Matrix.

Read More: http://smmirror.com/2017/07/santa-monica-earns-la-county-a-reputable-8th-spot-among-the-50-priciest-zip-codes-in-california/

July 5, 2017 -- Santa Monica apartment rental rates -- already among Southern California's highest -- inched up 1.1 percent in June, marking the fifth consecutive month rents have increased, a new survey has found.

The city’s rents were up moderately -- or 4 percent -- compared to the same time last year, according to the report by Apartment List, a heavily used site for people hunting for dwelling units throughout the country.

Currently, median rents in Santa Monica are $1,650 for a one-bedroom apartment and $2,120 for a two-bedroom.

Read More: https://www.surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/news/News-2017/July-2017/07_05_2017_Santa_Monica_Rents_Continue_to_Rise_New_Survey_Finds.html

July 5, 2017 -- A proposal by slow-growth advocates for a major public park in the heart of downtown has been rejected in the final draft of a City plan guiding the future development of Santa Monica's central business district.

After six contentious years, the City’s last draft of the Downtown Community Plan (DCP) heads to its final public hearing during a special meeting of the City Council at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.

The City also is requiring developers to set aside some of the units for “affordable housing,” which can range from units for those who are extremely low income to moderate earners.

Still, almost 40 percent of the total square footage proposed so far in the DCP belongs to three projects which are primarily luxury hotels, with affordable housing (12 percent or less of each) and some “community” and “cultural” uses added.

Parking spots for residences are cut as well.

Older buildings of one or two stories, which are still prevalent downtown, would be replaced under the DCP by buildings of five to seven stories.

Here's why they've failed

Despite soaring demand for housing in the Bay Area, the city hasn’t approved any new development projects in more than five years.

Foster City’s experience is shared by governments across California: The law requires cities and counties to produce prodigious reports to plan for housing — but it doesn’t hold them accountable for any resulting home building.

The law, passed in 1967, is the state’s primary tool to encourage housing development and address a statewide shortage of homes that drives California’s affordability problems.

Now, a bill from Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) would, for the first time, force cities and counties that have fallen behind on their housing goals to take steps to eliminate some of the hurdles they put in front of development, such as multiple planning reviews for individual projects. Wiener’s legislation passed the state Senate this month and is awaiting a vote in the Assembly as part of a package of bills aimed at addressing the state’s housing problems.

Read More: http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-pol-ca-housing-supply/

Why I never/seldom go downtown and never really want to go there.

What is downtown for me, a resident of Ocean Park? The Apple store. Maybe. What else is there? Barnes & Noble is said to be leaving, though a new/used bookstore has just opened near 2nd Street. Otherwise, just the same national chains rattling their goods.

There is a push by the city to advocate and develop more housing downtown, but one should ask the question of “why?” 

Read More: http://smmirror.com/2017/06/sma-r-t-where-is-the-there-there/