By Jorge Casuso
August 25, 2025 -- In an email sent to supporters Friday, the City's predominant slow-growth group said its "worst fears" about the four newly elected Councilmembers it opposed last year "are playing out."
The message from the Santa Monica Coalition for Livable Cities (SMCLC --- which for two decades has fought major developments in the city -- warned that the Council is "going headlong into a new uncharted world."
"This Council majority is now actively dismantling public participation so that residents (both property owners and renters), can have no input into major development decisions that will radically affect them," Coalition officials wrote.
The Council's actions, the letter said, should come as no surprise after the four new Councilmembers declined to agree during their campaign that local residents and elected representatives "should have a say in determining their own city’s zoning and development decisions."
"Indeed, the main objective of this City Council is to lead without opposition and try to silence groups or individuals who disagree with their unsustainable approach to development on public and private land."
The letter notes that the Councilmembers Dan Hall, Ellis Raskin, Barry Snell and Natalya Zernitskaya are part of a Council super-majority that has moved to defund the City's Neighborhood Associations and made “emergency” declarations allowing Council decisions to be made unilaterally.
They voted to replace the Council's six appointees to the Downtown Santa Monica Board and attacked Mayor Lana Negrete for using “racist” language because she spoke about the importance of “neighborhood character."
"These are the actions of an arrogant, ideological, and autocratic City Council -- one that fears dissent," Coalition officials wrote.
"This abuse of power will continue until residents begin to exercise their power -- to challenge actions that are not legal, and to remove Council members who are flagrantly anti-democratic."
Last October, the Coalition, which backed a rival slate of four candidates in the November Council race, noted how the State had wrested control of zoning from local jurisdictions.
“A myriad of bills passed in Sacramento disenfranchise Santa Monica residents by eliminating a city’s ability to influence local development decisions, replacing local zoning with a Statewide, one-size-fits-all approach," the group wrote.
Friday's letter does not specify what, if any, actions the Coalition plans to take or what residents can do to regain control over local development.
The letter mentions a 2026 ballot initiative that would "wrest neighborhood zoning away from Sacramento and return it to local communities where those decisions had always been made."
As of Sunday, there were no such measures among the three outstanding initiatives filed with the attorney general, the five cleared for signature gathering or the two that have qualified for the ballot, according to Ballotpedia.
