ACTION Apartment Association

Councilmembers request outside lawyers to block new developments

10/25/2022 11:14 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

When Santa Monica City Council meets on Tuesday evening, perhaps the most anticipated agenda item will have to wait until last: councilmembers’ request to find a way to block the storm of new development now in the pipeline due to the Housing Element fiasco (though technically members could rearrange the agenda to get to that earlier if they wanted).

2 MORE CENTS WORTH? Charles Andrews

10/24/2022 11:52 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

CONSERVATIVES! REPUBLICANS!!

That’s how The Slate and their allies in the coming election — incumbent Lana Negrete, Armen Melkonians and Albin Gielicz — are being attacked on social media. Of course, that is ridiculous, and in my reading, shows how desperate SMRR and their developer-backed ally Forward are to not see their power completely crushed by a second straight election embarrassment.

Your Santa Monica Common Sense (Local) Voting Guide

10/24/2022 11:51 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

How to do the least damage in Soviet Monica

Council Candidate: Armen Melkonians

10/24/2022 9:54 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

All candidates were given an opportunity to provide written answers to a set of questions provided by SMDP and two sets of answers will be printed each day. Answers are also available online alongside additional information from each candidate. To hear interviews with the candidates, visit www.smdp.com/pod.

16 projects, 4,562 housing units: How did we get here?

10/24/2022 9:43 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

The builder’s remedy window may now be closed, but with 16 new housing projects gaining state-issued permission to be built larger and denser than Santa Monica zoning rules would have allowed, the finger-pointing has just begun.

These projects all came in during a window of opportunity that opened because Santa Monica was unable to update its housing plans to meet state regulations amid the current housing crisis. The punishment for failing in the process was a loss of local control over zoning rules like height and density restrictions for residential projects that meet criteria for moderate or affordable housing.

City Council race is a toss-up

10/24/2022 9:41 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

The following is an analysis of the race from the SMDP Editorial Board.

The forecast of how this year’s council race will turn out hinges on whether you base your prediction on the city’s established history as a progressive bastion (and, further, if those progressive voters make it to the ballot box) or you focus more on the strength of a lone candidate.

Singular importance

If you vote for Armen Melkonians, it doesn’t matter who else you vote for.

SMa.r.t. Column: 4500+ Units Permitted!

10/24/2022 9:20 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

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.

Council Race Realigning Santa Monica's Political Forces

10/24/2022 9:08 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

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.

Four more 12-story projects en route due to Housing Element snafu

10/19/2022 10:44 AM | Victoria Palomino

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.

Slow-Growth Group Advises City to Fight 'Developer Ambush'

10/18/2022 11:02 AM | Victoria Palomino

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.