By Lookout Staff

December 7, 2010 -- Developers say the nearly 1-million-square-foot mixed-use development proposed for the old Papermate site in Santa Monica's industrial corridor would create less traffic than a smaller project, but many neighbors remain skeptical.

On Wednesday night, City officials will hold a public meeting at Virginia Avenue Park to discuss the Bergamot Transit Village Center Project, as officials prepare an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the mixed-use village comprised of creative arts, residential and retail uses.

The project, which would be built through a development agreement that requires the developer to offer "public benefits" in exchange for zoning variances, would include affordable housing, open space and usage opportunities for the creative arts.

The developer, Hines, which owns the Lantana complex across Olympic Boulevard and 26th Street, is "looking at creating a complete neighborhood in this area with the potential to actually live and work in the same area and also have access to services,” City officials said.

“You can walk to the grocery store," Jing Yeo, the City's lead planner on the project, said at a meeting last December. "You can pick up a bagel or donut. You do not have to get in your car.”

But some nearby residents aren't buying the notion that drivers will ditch their cars and walk from neighboring new homes or take the proposed Light Rail trains to the new development located across Olympic Boulevard from the existing Bergamot Station gallery complex and the future Expo Light-Rail station.

"Traffic will be impacted on Olympic, Cloverfield, 26th, 28th/Stewart, 10 freeway entrances and exits, as well as other streets," Friends of Sunset Park wrote in an email encouraging residents to attend Wednesday's meeting.

The neighborhood group noted that the Planning Department estimated the proposed 1.3-million-square-foot Bundy Village and Medical Park in LA near Santa Monica's eastern border could generate 20,000 additional daily car trips and significantly impact 15 intersections in Santa Monica.

"If a project at Olympic & Bundy could impact traffic in our neighborhood in that way,

you can imagine what a similarly sized project at Olympic & 26th could do!" Friends of Sunset Park officials wrote.

The plan includes demolishing the current 200,000 square-foot Papermate building and constructing five buildings totaling nearly 1 million square feet. The buildings would range in height from 55 feet to a maximum of up to 86 feet, City officials said.

"While the proposed buildings currently programmed for the site are anticipated to be an average of six stories high, the shadows and aesthetics analysis will study a worst-case scenario height of 86 feet with a maximum of seven stories for the creative arts buildings and eight stories for the residential buildings," Planning Department officials said.

The concept by the developer calls for 579,000 square feet of “creative arts office space,” 330,000 square feet of residential space and 60,000 square feet for “community-serving retail.” It also would include open space, pedestrian paths, a parking area and possibly a community amphitheater.

"Parking for the proposed project would be provided within up to three levels of subterranean parking, including approximately 1,961 parking spaces," City officials said.

"Proposed vehicular access to the project site will be primarily from Olympic Boulevard with additional access points on both 26th Street and Stewart Street. As part of the proposed project, a 60-foot-wide north/south vehicular street would be constructed which would bisect the project, connecting Olympic Boulevard to the street at the back of the site," officials said.

A 15-foot-wide sidewalk would circumvent the project site, except along the north side of the project

site, as well as one east/west pedestrian pathway, according to officials.

The meeting will be held on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Virginia Avenue Park. Parking is available at the entrances on Pico at 23rd, and off of Virginia Avenue, one block north of Pico.