ACTION Apartment Association

Santa Monica Hires 'Performance Officer,' Spending Critics Remain Skeptical

02/14/2017 12:48 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

February 14, 2017 -- The City of Santa Monica has created a new position of "chief performance officer" to analyze data that will help determine what is and is not working effectively, City officials announced last week, but critics are skeptical that municipal spending will be reined in.

Timothy Dodd assumed the $123,672 post last Thursday after filling the same position in Baltimore, officials said.

Lincoln Boulevard center of discussion at Planning Commission

02/14/2017 8:06 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

The Planning Commission will review big changes coming to Lincoln Boulevard Wednesday.

The commission will examine the permit for a massive new apartment complex that will replace the JoAnn Fabrics and the old Wertz Brothers furniture store (1613-1637 Lincoln Boulevard). Together, the two lots are bigger than your average football field at 69,096 square feet. The project is being developed by a subsidiary of USAA Real Estate Company, a national developer based in San Antonio, Texas.

The five-story apartment complex will provide 191 apartments and 388 parking spaces in three levels of underground parking. The project reserves fifteen of those apartments for onsite affordable housing.

Santa Monica Rent Board Commissioner Takes on ‘Ideologues’

02/13/2017 2:47 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

February 13, 2017 -- During a Santa Monica Rent Control Board meeting on Thursday that Chair Steve Duron described as adversarial, landlords accused the board of making regulations for the sake of doing something and a commissioner responded that the accusers were threatening democracy.

Santa Monica Council to Consider Barring Requests for Religious Affiliation

02/13/2017 2:30 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

February 13, 2017 -- The Santa Monica City Council on Tuesday will consider a proposal to draft an ordinance prohibiting employers and landlords from gathering information on the “religious affiliation” of various people connected to them.

Called for by Council members Kevin McKeown and Sue Himmelrich, the prohibition would also apply to “housing agencies and other parties involved in seeking or providing jobs, housing, or other benefits, goods, or services.”

Tenant protections added into Seismic Retrofit plan

02/13/2017 7:30 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

With the City anticipating a whirlwind of construction as apartment complexes and building owners get their properties up to code, the City is hoping to increase tenant protections.

The new rules would allow owners to relocate tenants to a hotel instead of paying a daily per diem or provide comparable housing if the relocation is less than six days. A 1999 seismic retrofit ordinance did not allow relocation benefits to tenants displaced by the retrofitting. Staff is asking the City Council to repeal that stipulation.

Locals can provide free money [Measure H]

02/13/2017 7:24 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Measure H may present the best of both worlds to Santa Monica voters: a sales tax to support homelessness that they don’t have to pay for (at least, not for now and not in their own city.)

Los Angeles County will ask voters to approve a quarter percent sales tax in the March 7 election. The tax would be in place for 10 years and the money will be used to prevent and fight homelessness within county borders.

As county residents, Santa Monicans can vote for or against the measure but because voters already approved a pair of sales tax measures last year, the new increase would not be collected inside city limits.

Santa Monica to discuss creating clean energy non-profit

02/13/2017 7:19 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

The City Council will consider Tuesday which direction to go when pursuing a new plan to buy and sell electricity in Santa Monica.

A year ago, the Council decided to move forward to establish a local, not-for-profit, public agency to make decisions on sources of energy. The pursuit is part of an overall strategy in Santa Monica to become Carbon Neutral by 2050.

Santa Monica paves way for more Granny Units

02/10/2017 9:26 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

The City Council will review new rules to streamline the building of accessory units and bring local ordinances into line with a new state law Tuesday.

The law, Assembly Bill 2299, aims to address the housing shortage in California cities by making it easier for homeowners to build additional units in their backyards and rent them out. The argument: as the children of boomers move out of the house and on with their lives, their parents may want to bring in extra income by becoming landlords to backyard tenants. Since the houses themselves are emptying of children, allowing renters in the backyard won’t increase overall neighborhood density.

Santa Monica Rent Board Recommends Landlords Install Water Meters for Each Unit

02/10/2017 9:19 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

February 10, 2017 -- The City Council could soon consider a measure that would require Santa Monica landlords to assess tenants’ water bills based on actual monthly use.

This would be a major change from the current method of Ratio Utility Billing Systems (RUBS) in which units are charged through a formula that takes the cost of the entire multifamily complex and spreads it among units based on size, number of bathrooms or other criteria.

Also, many landlords don’t charge their tenants for water use at all.

Rebuttal by Todd Flora at: http://smdp.com/letter-to-editor-32/159794

City failed to build enough affordable housing for third year in a row

02/09/2017 7:10 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

A new report shows the City of Santa Monica is struggling to meet its affordable housing quota, a ratio set by voters back in 1990 when they passed Proposition R, according to a new report released by the City.

During the 2016 fiscal year, developers built seven new apartment buildings in the City. Prop R requires thirty percent of all new multi-family housing go to middle or low-income households. With 175 brand new apartments open for rent in 2016, only 34 of them were below market-rate, or just 19 percent. This is the third year in a row the City has failed to meet the benchmark.