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Lookout Staff

October 15 -- Homelessness, parking, traffic and development are among the hot-button issues Downtown, and government officials last month grappled with all of them – from giving the go-ahead to remodel Santa Monica Place to greenlighting funds for light rail to opening a new homeless drop-in center.

There were two major developments in the push to help tackle homelessness in the beachside City last month.

On September 6 OPCC opened its new Annenberg Access Center behind the bus yards, a facility City officials hope will help transition the homeless off of Santa Monica’s streets, many of them Downtown.

Larger than the shabby quarters by the bus yards where for years the homeless gathered to take care of basic needs – clean up, grab a bite, pick up mail – the gleaming new building is efficiently divided into spaces that offer everything from a medical check-up to employment counseling.

Recommended by a homeless task force in 1991, the new 8,100-square-foot center is the second of two facilities built through the $19.5 million OPCC capital campaign, “From Homelessness to Hope,” which will conclude in December.

The same evening Santa Monica was celebrating the center’s opening, an ongoing effort to ban commercial development at the West LA Veterans Administration campus – a part of which could be set aside for homeless veterans – won the unanimous support of the advisory panel helping plot the site’s future.

The CARES Local Advisory Panel backed a motion that bars all commercial use or development on the sprawling VA property the federal government has been eyeing as a potential source of revenue.

The move came two weeks after Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson designated three vacant buildings – which private developers were hoping to tear down – for homeless veterans programs, capping a nearly three-year effort spearheaded by Santa Monica Council member Bobby Shriver.

Nicholson’s decision paves the way for the buildings to be used to treat and house some of the estimated 17,000 veterans who sleep on the streets of Los Angeles County, a seemingly growing number of them in Santa Monica.

ON THE DEVELOPMENT FRONT, City officials greenlighted a remodel of Santa Monica Place that could capitalize on a plan to bring light rail to Downtown Santa Monica.

On September 11, the City Council unanimously gave City staff and Macerich the go-ahead to amend existing agreements for the construction, operation and maintenance of a redesigned mall and adjacent parking facilities.

Key components of the redesign include removing large portions of the roof and connecting the mall to the Third Street Promenade; demolishing a portion of Parking Structure 7; creating a stronger pedestrian orientation at Second Street, Fourth Street and Colorado Avenue, and creating an open-air dining area on the third floor.

The proposed project will retain the two anchor department store buildings – one of which has yet to be leased – and maintain the existing building height of 56 feet, while reducing leasable square footage by 10,234 square feet, according to the proposal.

The proposal is central to the vitality of Downtown, is well-integrated with the existing urban fabric and increases available open space and pedestrian walkways, Planning Director Eileen Fogarty told the council.

“The mall, which has been an asset and the city’s living room, can now be integrated into a project that looks outward with improved pedestrian orientation and streetscape,” Fogarty said.

Although staff said the project does not alter traffic and circulation in the Downtown area, Council member Kevin McKeown and the Santa Monica Coalition for a Livable City (SMCLC) foresee more traffic, because the main goal of redesigning the mall is to increase the number of shoppers and visitors.

The project – which could be completed by the fall of 2009 if it receives the necessary go-ahead from the Arts Commission, Architectural Review Board (ARB) and the California Coastal Commission – could capitalize on a proposal to bring light rail to Downtown Santa Monica.

THE STALLED EXPO line project received a major boost last month when the California Transportation Commission greenlighted $315 million to help bring the rail line being built to Culver City all the way to Santa Monica.

The funding, which was approved unanimously without debate on September 5, comes after a budget deadlock in Sacramento threatened to delay the project, which is expected to alleviate congestion on the traffic-snarled Westside.

The commission’s move provides nearly half of the $640 million needed to complete the first phase of the Exposition Line – an 8.5 mile stretch of rail from Downtown Los Angeles to Culver City – which began construction last year.

The first phase is slated to be finished in 2010, paving the way for the next phase that will connect Culver City to Santa Monica, which is still in the planning stages. Currently the line would end at a station across from Santa Monica Place, where the City recently purchased a building from Sears for $35 million.

Also last month, an idea by Planning Commissioner Terry O’Day to reduce parking requirements and decouple parking from rental rates in Santa Monica’s transit districts, particularly Downtown, drew the ire of other commissioners and residents.

O’Day wanted the commission to send a possible recommendation to the City Council, but commissioners instead asked staff to examine how parking is used Downtown – its availability and distribution – when Land Use and Circulation Element (LUCE) discussions are held.

Decoupling allows housing developers to build fewer parking spaces than required by ordinance in exchange for lowering the rent of residents who forego a parking space.
The idea also includes allowing businesses and retailers to operate with fewer parking spaces than required for customers and employees.