In the last month your City was forced by the State of California to approve the construction of about 16 projects totaling over 4,562 new units (941 are affordable). These are a wide variety of projects: apparently the smallest is 34 units (6 stories) and the largest is 2,000 units (15 stories). These projects all have in common that 20% of their units must be affordable and that they are entirely exempt from all local zoning codes for height, density, floor area ratios, etc. They are given this carte blanche because of a 30-year-old law (SB 2011) that says that any 20% affordable project of any size gets automatic approval if it is applied for during a time window that a city does not have a compliant Housing Element on file with the State. 

Finally, and this is where you come in, my patient reader, vote for two candidates we believe will try to limit the damage of this draconian “builder’s remedy”: Armen Melkonians a long term smart growth advocate and Lana Negrete an independent incumbent who runs a beloved small business in your City.

Read More: https://smmirror.com/2022/10/sma-r-t-column-4500-units-permitted/

In addition, the union has spent $61,033 targeting Negrete in what is the hardest hitting campaign since the police union helped oust Tony Vazquez from the Council in 1994 ("Councilmember Negrete Target of First Election Hit Piece," September 23, 2022).

The union has also spent $7,881 targeting slow-growth activist Armen Melkonians.

The owners of Casa and Shutters have fought back, spending $55,615 on each of the two candidates, with $33,725 of that spent over the past two weeks.

Some of the divisions and alliances that have surfaced during the Council race are reshuffling Santa Monica's political power structure.

SMRR -- which has traditionally counted on a hefty war chest that averaged more than $130,000 in each of the five elections before the coronavirus shutdown -- has little money to spend and is relying on the hotel union's cash and canvassing efforts to push their common slate.

Read More: https://www.surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/news/News-2022/October-2022/10_20_2022_Council_Race_Realigning_Santa_Monicas_Political_Forces.html

The final count is in: 16 new medium- and high-density residential projects — most of them between nine and 15 stories  high — slipped through the door held open by a non-compliant Housing Element, allowing them to bypass local oversight and head straight into permitting under state rules.

Read More: https://smdp.com/2022/10/19/four-more-12-story-projects-en-route-due-to-housing-element-snafu/

Santa Monica's leading slow-growth group advised the City on Monday to immediately address the "developer ambush" mounted shortly before its housing plan was approved by the State on Friday.

Read More: https://www.surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/news/News-2022/October-2022/10_17_2022_Slow_Growth_Group_Advises_City_to_Fight_Developer_Ambush.html

Because the Santa Monica City Council has not approved a Housing Element for the city that is compliant with state laws, a number of projects could be automatically approved as reported by The Santa Monica Daily Press. 

Read More: https://smmirror.com/2022/10/nearly-4000-units-coming-to-santa-monica-as-citys-housing-element-falls-out-of-compliance/

 After nearly three years in the works, State officials on Friday certified Santa Monica's Housing Element -- but not before 14 projects were rushed into the planning pipeline.

Read More: https://www.surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/news/News-2022/October-2022/10_14_2022_Housing_Plan_Delays_Led_to_Loss_of_Control.html

Santa Monica's biggest housing provider has rushed plans into the City's development pipeline to build nearly 5,000 units that require little public input, dealing a massive blow to local slow-growth activists who were caught off guard by the move.

Read More: https://www.surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/news/News-2022/October-2022/10_13_2022_City_Officials_Caught_Off_Guard_by_Flurry_of_Development_Submissions.html

Get ready for Santa Monica’s next development boom. Nearly 4,000 new housing units, including a 15-story residential building at Nebraska and Stanford, could be rubber stamped in Santa Monica after the City failed to produce a compliant Housing Element in 2021.

Read More: https://smdp.com/2022/10/12/new-15-story-project-automatically-approved-due-to-late-housing-element/

Following a months-long saga, Santa Monica City Council is on track to approve and adopt a revised version of the city’s 6th Cycle Housing Element at the upcoming Oct. 11 meeting. 

Read More: https://smdp.com/2022/10/10/revised-plan-for-13000-new-housing-units-heads-to-council/

UPDATE: The Nomination Filing Period to run as a Write-In Candidate is from September 12 - October 25 and candidates will be added as they qualify. Contact the City Clerk's Office at clerk@santamonica.gov or (310) 458-8211 to make an appointment to pickup a Nomination Packet. 

Measure SMC (SMC Bond Measure): Impartial Analysis, Arguments For/Against and Rebuttals to Arguments For/Against this measure are now available (see below). For more information on this measure, please contact the College District's Office at (310) 434-4200.

Spanish Translations: Candidate statement and most ballot measure information now available in Spanish! 

Read More: https://santamonica.gov/elections/2022-11-08