Low-Income Housing Project Appealed

By Oliver Lukacs
Staff Writer

July 3 -- Making good on his promise, a leading opponent of a low-income housing project on Main Street has appealed the Architectural Review Board’s approval of the 44-unit building, saying it is too tall, too dense, lacks adequate parking and retail, and is incompatible with the neighborhood.

The appellant, Jeffrey Weinstein, has led a vocal group of neighbors who oppose the three-and-four story Community Corporation project that took three rounds to get past the ARB and has pitted residents against affordable housing advocates, some of whom also live nearby.

Citing roughly the same objections he and fellow opponents had three months ago when the project first went before the board, Weinstein contends in his June 25th appeal that the building -- which includes 113 bedrooms -- “overwhelms the neighborhood.”

Although the building at the corner of Main and Pacific streets is exempt from Planning Commission and City Council reviews by an ordinance to encourage affordable housing, it will be heard by the Planning Commission acting as the ARB, giving the seven-member planning board only limited powers.

The staff report for the last ARB meeting warned that “the Board cannot require modifications to the building design that will negate the fundamental development criteria established by the Administrative Approval (e.g. overall height, number of stories, density).”

Weinstein and others have continually criticized the 27,046-square-foot project as too massive, arguing that it tries to cram too many people into too small a place, will decrease property values and is of substandard design.

Opponents contend that Community Corporation, which effectively serves as the City’s affordable housing provider, has made no effort to make the requested changes because by law it doesn’t have to.

“Since becoming ‘a leading opponent of the project,’ some have questioned my motives,” Weinstein wrote in a letter to the Lookout last month. “As a long-time resident raising a family in Santa Monica, I am concerned with the quality of the neighborhood, just as I am concerned with the quality of our school system.

“Should the Planning Commission (on appeal from the ARB) fail to reduce the height and density of the Pacific & Main project, to make the building more compatible with the surrounding neighborhood, I will have no other alternative than to test it in a court of law.”

Proponents of the building -- which includes two and three-bedroom units -- say it gives low-income families a chance to live in a safe, decent neighborhood near the beach.

Joan Ling, executive director of the housing agency, which runs 2,000 units in 80 buildings in the city, said concerns that the project is overly dense is a misperception. The opposition, Ling said, is rooted in a fear of change.

Ling said Weinstein’s right to appeal “is what makes our country great.

“His appeal reflects the greatness and limits of our country’s democracy,” Ling said. “It’s great because any one person has the right to do and say what they want.

“The limit is that this (project) has popular support from the Ocean Park Community Organization, and it has ARB approval, and one person can stand in the way of a publicly supported project,” Ling said.