By Jason Islas
Staff Writer

December 19, 2013 -- The City Council approved minor tweaks to its development process Tuesday that would expedite plans to build a movie theater in Santa Monica Place.

The Council unanimously voted to let the project, which involves minor changes to the third floor of the mall, skip preliminary “float up” meetings during which developers present preliminary plans for projects to the Planning Commission and City Council for feedback.

The proposal by Santa Monica Place-owner Macerich is “our best and quickest option to get theaters Downtown,” Planning Director David Martin told the Council Tuesday.

Since the project would add less than one percent of the floor area of the current building and it is consistent with uses allowed by the current zoning, developers won’t have to take it before the Planning Commission or the City Council for informal feedback sessions before starting the community process.

The change was approved by the Council as part of a larger recap of the state of the City’s 33 pending development agreements, including three major hotel projects along Ocean Avenue.

Several council members reaffirmed to City staff that projects that help shore up affordable housing stock in Santa Monica should be prioritized.

“What we need to do is start building housing” in anticipation of the coming Expo Light Rail, said Councilmember Gleam Davis.

She referred to a recent study done by the University of Southern California that showed residents living near the first phase of the Expo Line, which connects Culver City to Downtown Los Angeles, had tripled their ridership in the two years that the line has been running.

Building housing near the light rail, she said, could help reduce traffic in the bayside city.

Councilmember Kevin McKeown wanted to make sure that housing be affordable to people making less than the median income in the area.

Councilmember Tony Vazquez said that he wasn’t too keen on seeing two projects in particular -- the proposed Miramar redevelopment project and the Papermate project -- move forward.

While both projects, as proposed, have residential components and would therefore be required to provide affordable housing, they have proven to be controversial.

The Miramar’s $255 million overhaul of its property at Wilshire Boulevard and Ocean Avenue would place a tower more than 300 feet tall with as many as 120 condos at the western edge of the Wilmont neighborhood.

Texas-based developer Hines has proposed a 760,000-square-foot mixed use development at the former site of a Papermate factory adjacent to the future Expo Light Rail stop at Bergamot Station.

Opponents of the project claim that the proposal would put too much office space and not enough housing on the site.