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By Anita Varghese
Staff Writer
August 16 -- The City
Council agreed to move ahead
Tuesday with a plan to build
a “Civic Center Village”
that features 325 residential
units on City-owned land, despite
opposition from two council
members and residents who worry
one of the buildings is far
too tall.
The council agreed to the revised
plan that could increase the
height of a proposed condominium
building next to the Viceroy
Hotel to 96 feet -- some 30
feet above the recommended height
-- in order to scale down the
five apartment complexes clustered
near Olympic Boulevard.
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| Proposed
condo building next to the
Viceroy could be 96 feet.
(Renderings courtesy of
Related Companies of California). |
While Council members Bob Holbrook
and Bobby Shriver objected to
the tallest building and voted
against moving ahead, the other
five council members agreed
to give conceptual approval
to the plan, which includes
public open space and stores
on land the City purchased from
RAND nearly a decade ago.
“Anything we do tonight
will start the process with
the idea that plans will evolve,
change and be certainly refined,”
said Mayor pro tem Herb Katz,
who voted to direct staff to
begin negotiating a development
agreement with Related Companies
of California.
“There still remains
a range of issues that, based
on council’s direction,
we will work on with the applicant
and with Housing and Economic
Development,” said Eileen
Fogarty, the City’s planning
director.
The project will include 160
affordable residences developed
by Community Corporation, and
a nearly equal number of market
rate condominiums, according
to staff. It also features a
plaza connecting to a planned
Palisades Garden Walk park and
a pedestrian-only walk street
through the site.
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| Site
plan shows building next
to Viceroy circled. (Red=
retail, Blue=amenity, Green=live
work, Brown=market-rate
housing and Yellow=affordable
housing. |
The project, which will extend
Olympic Drive from Main Street
to Ocean Avenue and includes
sustainable design elements,
abides by a City Council-approved
plan that allows more density
in the Civic Center, which includes
City Hall, The Civic Auditorium
and the Santa Monica Courthouse,
staff said.
“The development intensities
that are discussed in the Civic
Center Specific Plan are not
meant to create a precedent
for other parts of Santa Monica
but are to be considered uniquely
appropriate for this location,”
said Andy Agle, the City’s
director of Housing and Economic
Development.
A Civic Center Specific Plan,
originally adopted in 1993,
established the creation of
a Village Special Use District
in the concept of a mixed-use,
urban neighborhood, staff said.
In 2002, the City Council recommended
a general height limit of 56
feet, and then upped the limit
to 65 feet in 2006. Although
the 65-foot recommendation remains
in the design concept plan,
an alternative plan featuring
one 96-foot residential building
was brought before the council
on Tuesday.
“Council directed the
development design team to consider
modest additional height near
the Viceroy Hotel in order to
provide greater variety of massing
along Ocean Avenue and Olympic
Drive,” Agle said.
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| Building
next to Viceroy features
roof-top open space. |
The proposed project, however,
has mobilized the slow growth
activists, who have denounced
its height and density.
“This site will now hide
the Viceroy Hotel from the north,”
remarked resident Art Harris.
“Perhaps if the City Council
builds another site to the south
and the other sides, it can
hide the high buildings the
city already has with even higher
ones.”
But advocates of the plan contend
the project helps address Santa
Monica’s affordable housing
needs and transforms the Civic
Center from a single-purpose
district into a vibrant area
with daytime and evening activity.
“The planning process
has been in the works for 14
years,” said Patricia
Hoffman, a Santa Monica resident
who chairs the board of Community
Corporation. “Those years
represent lost affordable housing
for hundreds of people, especially
families with children.
“Now is the time to move
forward,” Hoffman said.
“It takes a village to
raise a child in Santa Monica,
and it takes a city to raise
a Village.”
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