By Jonathan Friedman
Lookout Staff

February 3, 2010 -- The plan for a nearly 1 million-square-foot development at the Papermate site on Olympic Boulevard at the eastern end of Santa Monica received a mix of favorable comments and criticisms at a Planning Commission meeting last week.

Called the Bergamot Transit Village Center, developer Hines is proposing the project as a small, sustainable community. The concept 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.

Hines says the project will reduce traffic because many people will be working and living in the development and because the project site is located across the street from the future light rail station.

Still in a concept stage, the project was being presented to the commission for an initial review, what the City called a “float up.” The commissioners were only asked to make comments, and no vote was taken. The City Council will also have a “float up” session soon.

A criticism from some commissioners and public speakers was that the project calls for too much office space and not enough residential development. Several people spoke about the imbalance in Santa Monica between the amount of housing and jobs, which they blamed for the traffic problems in this city.

“That’s one of the biggest issues in our city, and specifically in this area,” Commissioner Jim Ries said. “I want to see more housing on the site.”

Another issue raised was the height of the development. The structures will average 71 feet and reach 81 feet at their highest points. This does not follow the regulations in the City’s draft Land Use Circulation Element (LUCE), a document currently under review that will set the standards for the next two decades of City planning.

The LUCE calls for height averages of 65 feet or under and that structures not go higher than 75 feet at any point.

Colin Shepherd, a senior vice president at Hines, told the commissioners that reducing the height was possible, but it would negatively affect the quality of the interior and base of the buildings. His comments received support from Commissioner Gwynne Pugh.

“I think you definitely will notice it if everything gets squashed and [you create] an unuseful and unusable space,” Pugh said.

The project is being proposed as a development agreement with the City. Hines must offer public benefits in exchange for zoning variances. Benefits being proposed include affordable housing, open space and usage opportunities for the creative arts. Some commissioners were not convinced the supposed public benefits currently on the table are good enough.

Without a development agreement, Hines could build a 300,000 square-foot project with no residential buildings. Hines officials say this would create more traffic than the current proposal.

This proposal is one of seven projects in the area working its way through the development pipeline. Diana Gordon, a member of the slow growth activist group Santa Monica Coalition for a Livable Community, said how the City treats this proposal will affect future local development.

“Every developer is looking to see what you do with this site,” Gordon said. “And if you exceed in any way the draft LUCE or if you allow more latitude here, you are just encouraging what happened in 1984, and you will get 5 million square feet of office development.”

Most of the public speakers did not favor the project, with many of the criticisms involving the belief this project will greatly increase traffic. But there were several proponents in attendance.

Brent Edgecumbe, who lives near the site, praised the proposal for creating a situation where people could go to work without driving.

“Planning to live here another 40, 50 years, I was excited to see a good project going in that will incorporate a lot of green space,” he said.