Roberts Business Park “Floats" Up to City Council

By Ann K. Williams
Lookout Staff

July 14, 2011 – Over the next five years, a series of large-scale building projects will go up across the Santa Monica, including the transformation of an industrial “superblock” near the future Expo Light Rail stop at Bergamot Station.

Tuesday night, the City Council discussed plans for Roberts Business Park – one of three projects making up the Mixed Use Creative District that will replace the aging buildings.

“It's not something that we're used to here...having literally vast areas that are under discussion for development,” said Mayor Richard Bloom. “It's an opportunity for us to some interesting planning.”

Tuesday's “float-up” discussion was designed to give City planners the advantage of Council input before they negotiate a Development Agreement (DA) with EDDG, Inc., the business park developer.

If approved, the Roberts Business Park will occupy the middle third of the block immediately south of Colorado Boulevard and east of Stewart Street. It will be sandwiched between the proposed executive headquarters for Lionsgate films and the Village Trailer Park.

After review by city planners and the Planning Commission, the project's architects have broken what were criticized as “boxy-bulky mass(es)” into smaller buildings surrounding a central plaza and walkways.

Current plans for the business park call for four structures ranging from four to five stories high on 2.8 acres of land.

The planned buildings house 250,000 square feet of floor space, including 120,000 square feet of creative, office and retail spaces and up to 170 residential units atop subterranean parking and a 10,000-square-foot gym.

After hearing from a handful of residents, including former Mayor Paul Rosenstein, it became clear that density and traffic are likely to be sticking points among the project's neighbors.

Public speakers also expressed concern that the three projects making up the mixed use district are at different stages of development and ought to be evaluated as a unit.

“We definitely need the area plan so that we can see how these projects all fit together,” said Rosenstein.

“The key tool is the creation of the Bergamot Area Plan,” said the Planning Department's Special Projects Manager Jing Neo.

The Bergamot Area Plan will provide guidelines City planners can use as they review projects in the area around the future Light Rail Station, but it isn't finished yet, Neo said. More community workshops have to be held and digested before it's done.

“As we hear feedback from the community...we take that forward as sort of draft direction and it helps to inform the evaluation of these projects as they're brought forward,” said Neo.

“What we hope to come out of this is community building for this next generation,” said Councilmember Pam O'Connor, after ruminating on the history of development failures and successes in Santa Monica.

For now, the Council shared their opinions and concerns about the Roberts Center.

Like her colleagues O'Connor said she was open to a certain amount of architectural experimentation.

She compared Chicago's symphony hall – exemplifying “continuity and rhythm, [it] fits into a pattern – with Los Angeles' Disney Hall – “it's a building set aside” – and said both approaches are valid.

But, like her fellow councilmembers, she wants to see the developers “knit [their plans] and weave [them] together with the existing neighborhood.” Architects might have more freedom on the inside of the site, away from its edges across the street from neighboring homes, she said.

Bloom agreed.

“There's this very large and long-standing residential community adjacent to a community to be,” he said.

The new development should be inviting to residents, said Bloom.

“People should feel a comfort level of just walking across the street and sitting down and enjoying the amenities,” he said.

On a somewhat more prosaic level, the Council warned planners to heed the project's neighbor's fears that two new streets cutting through the district may become commuter short-cuts, adding to an already heavy traffic load in the area.

And they urged a strong Transportation Demand Management (TDM) plan be part of the DA, including limiting the amount of on-site parking. Along with several members of the public, Councilmember Terry O'Day urged planners to make the two new streets more pedestrian and bicycle friendly.

O'Day also spoke up for sustainability, asking planners to consider requiring the project to achieve Silver LEED status, use gray water and design streets that allow for the absorption and recycling of stormwater.

He also recommended building circuitry in the parking garage that will allow electric vehicle charging stations to be installed in the future.

All four councilmembers present – Bloom, O'Connor, O'Day and Councilmember Bob Holbrook – voted to direct the planning staff to initiate the review process that will lead to a DA, bearing in mind their comments and those of the community and the Planning Commission.