Planning Commission Ties Hefty Benefits Package to Studio Expansion

By Susan Reines

July 22 – The Planning Commission gave a unanimous nod Wednesday to the proposed expansion of a studio complex in the city’s industrial corridor, but only if a hefty package of community benefits is attached to the final approval by the City Council.

While the developer had offered a package that included pumping $400,000 into the City’s childcare fund and providing additional money for community services, the commission decided it wasn’t enough to offset the traffic the project would generate on nearby residential areas.

The commission not only asked the developer to boost the childcare funds to $925,000, but also requested that the Lantana Media Complex host annual job fairs and internship programs to help Santa Monica’s at-risk youth gain employment in the entertainment industry.

Representatives for Hines, the company that owns and manages Lantana, said they would have to determine if the added costs would still make the studio’s expansion between Olympic and Exposition boulevards feasible.

But board members made it clear their recommendation that the council approve the necessary “statement of overriding considerations” was contingent on the long list of benefits.

“What has particularly tipped me over to the positive side is -- it may sound small, but -- this business about the job symposium,” said Chair Barbara Brown, who said she had been “very iffy” about the project because of its traffic impacts.

Job fairs and internship programs, Brown said, would serve real needs in the community and truly compensate, at least in part, for the traffic increase.

Brown, however, added that the City’s upcoming overhaul of its zoning code would have to address traffic in gridlocked neighborhoods such as Sunset Park, whose residents protested the Lantana expansion at last week’s public hearing.

“I think we are very close to being maxed out, that our infrastructure is not going to support a whole lot more,” Brown said. But she added that that point of saturation had not yet been reached, “not now, not with this project.”

Lantana paid for residents of “Lantana South,” the area of the Pico Neighborhood just south of the studios, to hire a traffic consultant and devise mitigation measures. The company will also pay for the measures, which will likely include medians on Exposition Boulevard to discourage drivers from turning left to cut through residential streets.

Unlike Lantana South, Sunset Park will not receive money for traffic mitigation, because the City determined that Lantana’s expansion would not significantly impact intersections in the neighborhood, which is more than half a dozen blocks away.

By Wednesday’s meeting, the “community benefits package” the Planning Commission finally agreed to attach to its recommendation for approval had swelled into a lengthy list that also included annual funding for arts programs, construction of new sidewalks along Olympic Boulevard and donations to Edison School.

Doug Holte, senior vice president of Hines, said Lantana does not have a specific ceiling for benefits funding. He noted, however, that everyone would benefit from “the package not being so burdensome that the buildings would not be feasible.”

If there were so many benefits attached that the developers had to call off the expansion for lack of funding, Holte said, then the community would not receive any benefits at all.

Asked whether Lantana would agree to donate more than double what it had offered to the City’s child care fund, Holte said, “I think there is still discussion that would be productive between council members and Hines Lantana to see how that fits in with a total package and see if the project would still be feasible.”

At last week’s public hearing, residents of the Pico Neighborhood -- which is Santa Monica’s poorest and most racially diverse neighborhood -- requested that they be given priority when it comes to childcare funds, since the expansion would directly impact traffic on their streets.

The commissioners recommended that the City Council grant the request, both because the Pico Neighborhood is adjacent to Lantana and because the residents of that area tend to need the most financial support.

“The reality is that it’s also a project in their neighborhood, and most of the impacts are going to be on childcare services in their neighborhood,” said Commissioner Terry O’Day.

The Planning Commission’s recommendation for approval sends the project to its final hurdle, the City Council. In September, the council will examine the Lantana proposal and determine what, if any, community benefits would compensate for the expansion’s traffic impacts.

Wednesday’s approval came two years after the commission turned down Lantana’s expansion plan, because the traffic impacts would be too severe.

Since then, the developers have downsized one of the two proposed buildings by 15 percent. But the City still projects that the development -- which consists of a 64,105-square-foot building and a 130,000-square-foot structure -- would create about 1,800 new car trips each day.