August 11, 2016 -- A divided City Council on Tuesday appointed Santa Monica political veteran Leslie Lambert to a four-year term on the Planning Commission.

Lambert, who sits on the steering committee of Santa Monica Forward, one of two groups that opposes the slow-growth Land Use Voter Empowerment (LUVE) initiative on the November ballot, served on the Planning Commission from 1987 to 1990.

Read More:  http://www.surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/news/News-2016/August-2016/08_11_2016_Former_Santa_Monica_Planning_Commissioner_Returns_to_Post_After_16_Years.html

August 11, 2016 -- Santa Monica slow-growth activist Phil Brock shocked many political observers last month when he announced he would run for a school board seat rather than make another City Council bid, but now he might do neither.

Brock told The Lookout on Wednesday that he would soon determine what to do after City Council members appointed him to the Arts Commission the previous day.

Read More:  http://www.surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/news/News-2016/August-2016/08_11_2016_Brock_Appointed_to_Santa_Monica_Arts_Commission_Evaluating_School_Board_Bid.html

With the start of election season, the Daily Press has made some changes to its Op-Ed page. The policy in place for the last two years has been if a column’s authors move from independent analysis to an active participation in local politics, the column will be suspended for the duration of the campaign. This year, members Santa Monica Forward and SMa.r.t. Thinking entered local politics in one way or another. Both columns were put on hiatus for the duration of the election and SMa.r.t. has decided to discontinue writing for the Daily Press.

Read More on page 3: http://backissues.smdp.com/081116.pdf

BY MATTHEW HALL

Daily Press Editor

Individuals paid to influence decisions at City Hall will be required to publicly disclose their activities as of Sept. 19.

A unanimous City Council passed new rules regulating lobbying at their Aug. 9 meeting with little discussion and a few very minor modifications.

Read More: http://smdp.com/santa-monica-lobbyists-required-to-register-with-city-hall/156630

Aug. 11, 2016

The Center for Sustainable Energy’s pilot project in Santa Monica is specifically aimed at overcoming market and policy barriers in order to promote a larger uptake of VNEM and solar adoption within the multifamily building sector. In Santa Monica, there are more than 3,000 rent controlled buildings. Adoption of solar energy in a portion of Santa Monica’s rent controlled properties would help the City achieve the goal to become a carbon neutral community by 2050.

While Virtual Net Metering offers an opportunity for landlords and tenants to enjoy clean electricity and reduced utility bills, and therefore overall reduced living expenses, current rent control restrictions may limit the property owner’s ability for cost recovery of the initial investment. 

Read More: Solar_for_Renters_and_Owners.pdf

August 10, 2016 -- Ocean Park, one of Santa Monica’s oldest neighborhoods, is in danger of losing its charm as new condominium units start replacing “eclectic” single-family homes and duplexes, City planners are warning.

Read More:  http://www.surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/news/News-2016/August-2016/08_10_2016_Ocean_Park_Trend_of_Turning_Eclectic_Homes_into_Condos_Prompts_Call_for_Restrictions.html

I DECIDED TO RUN FOR CITY COUNCIL. It lasted about five minutes. It was an emotional five minutes. An angry, exhilarating, then ultimately very sad five minutes. I’ve been sick of this for years. The politics that leaves the real people of Santa Monica up on a shelf, watching helplessly as the power players reshape their precious, historic, world-beloved little beach town into something very tall and dense and very, very profitable for developers, choked with traffic, depleted of resources, never to recover. 

Read More: http://smdp.com/charles-andrews-for-city-council-wait-free-tickets/156603

After hundreds of meetings spread across several years, Santa Monica updated its Zoning Ordinance in 2015. But apparently a planner’s work is never done, and officials are returning to the issue this year to refine, revise and correct a list of pending problems.

Commissioner Nina Fresco asked for additional information on what she said are inconsistencies and other policy issues.

“We’ve talked a lot about second units already today, just this imbalance between whether or not you can convert a garage but you can’t convert a rec room, and what that all means for allowing this kind of housing and protecting people’s privacy and quiet and preventing urbanization of neighborhoods, while so doing, so that seems like a big policy issues for you guys to prepare for us,” she said.

August 9, 2016 – The City of Santa Monica’s second attempt to reconcile with opponents of the proposed Downtown Community Plan gets underway Saturday with a workshop that focuses on preservation and change.

Read More:  http://www.surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/news/News-2016/August-2016/08_09_2016_Second_Santa_Monica_Downtown_Plan_Meeting_Tackles_Preservation_and_Change.html

August 9, 2016 -- From the Promenade’s Criterion Theatre and Apartments, built in 1924 with an opulence that rivaled the most famed Hollywood movie palaces, to a sprawling 1950s office complex on Arizona Avenue, Downtown sites offer a glimpse of Santa Monica through the decades.

But many don't have the protections of designated landmarks, and it is not clear how they will fare in the latest draft of the Downtown Community Plan (DCP), preservationists said.

Read More:  http://www.surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/news/News-2016/August-2016/08_09_2016_Santa_Monica_Preservationists_Look_to_Downtown_Plan_to_Protect_Historic_Buildings.html