Off Target

By Dennis Zane

The proposed development of a 160,000 square foot Target Store is a horrible idea for our downtown. The Santa Monica City Council should reaffirm the decision of the Planning Commission, adopt the recommendation of their staff and reject this regional automobile magnet proposed for 5th and Santa Monica Blvd.

The reason is straightforward and elemental: overwhelming traffic!!

In addition, this project will exacerbate an already stressed parking environment in the downtown area and undermine the downtown's future viability.

The traffic this development will generate will be devastating to the life of our downtown area or nearby neighborhoods. The traffic the proposed Target Store will generate is equal to or greater than the traffic generated by the Water Gardens - even after the project is granted an unheard of and preposterous 40 percent discount for transit, bicycle and pedestrian access.

The traffic will ripple throughout the city on arterials that are already overburdened. This added traffic will contribute to a growing sense of malaise in our community about the traffic burdens we must bear. Imagine somebody suggesting plopping a million square-foot office project in our downtown! They'd be laughed to the other end of Route 66.

Target's answer to this problem is to propose high tech traffic signalization, so that the cars can keep moving. Such an idea is the vary antithesis of a pedestrian-oriented downtown where the movement of pedestrians not the movement of cars is the priority.

Many community members are legitimately concerned about the availability of affordable retail services in our community, particularly in the downtown. However, the proposed Target store is a cure far worse than the malady. It is far larger than necessary or appropriate to meet the shopping objectives of the Santa Monica community.

It is designed, as all Target Stores are, to attract a large regional market, nearly all of whom will arrive in cars. The burden of excessive traffic that this entails simply overwhelms any benefit that might be imagined. There is no contribution to our commercial or civic life that merits absorbing the scale of new traffic that Target will generate.

Yes, there are real needs about affordable shopping to meet in Santa Monica. The City should seek far less burdensome ways to meet these needs and it should make meeting this objective a priority for its Economic Development Department. Creative planners can address this concern in ways that are far less burdensome on the community. A 40,000 square foot general merchandise store in a mixed-use setting, perhaps even at the same site, would be a far better option that the very big big-box proposed now.

There has been a small fortune spent to "sell" this overwhelming project to our community. Let's not buy it. There are better futures available. This one is way off Target.