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A single underground parking ramp opening to Lincoln Boulevard! What are they thinking? our public right of way. No more guaranteed 15-minute buses northbound at peak hours. The east sidewalk will be closed. The lot is too narrow to adequately and safely contain the large scale cranes, earth movers, etc. required to dig two-plus stories down and to lift steel beams four stories. They will have to work from the new bus lane and the sidewalk.” Why wasn’t interference with traffic on Lincoln Boulevard during construction considered by the Planning Commission? As the rules are written, those issues must be addressed later in the Construction Mitigation Plan that will be filed with the final building permit applications this fall. You’d think such a vital issue would be part of the early evaluation process when all the other issues of site appropriateness are considered.
MOBILITY ISSUES
How will this building function when it’s finished? Let’s look at the underground parking and service areas — which, according to the current plan, residents and restaurant/retail customers can only enter or leave through a two-lane ramp that crosses the public sidewalk as it opens not to Ashland or Wilson, but to cross traffic on Lincoln. Pretend you live at the new
building and park in one of its 151 subterranean parking spaces. Imagine threading through the garage as others head out to work in the morning and breakfast customers enter to jockey for available spaces. Oh look — two delivery trucks at the single loading dock. And here comes the trash truck. Hope an ambulance doesn’t have to get through! Earlier in the process, CIM presented three options for the parking ramp location. They settled on option No. 1, a ramp opening directly onto Lincoln near Wilson, after Options No. 2 and No. 3 — a Lincoln ramp near Ashland and (the one that made the most sense to me) an entrance from Ashland and exit onto Wilson — after initial resident feedback that it could seriously impinge on Ashland traffic flow. The law of unintended consequences solved that problem by creating a bigger one. The plans call for a median island to prevent left turns into the ramp from southbound Lincoln traffic. I see lots of U-turns in our future, and occasional stack-ups when vehicles entering the building have to wait for the garbage truck to turn around or the single loading dock is in heavy demand.
WINNERS & LOSERS
If the score stays put, the CIM Group are certainly winners because their investment in a problematic building site will be rewarded when the finished building generates income. The state gets 47 units of much needed housing, four of which would be set aside for lowincome tenants. We could say the city of Santa Monica is also a winner of much needed residential and commercial development to meet its expanding needs, in addition to more than $1.3 million in various fees, not counting final permit costs. Residents and local business, however, face more than a year of construction dust and diesel exhaust, plus disruption to local bus lines. During construction and after completion, we expect increased demand for limited parking on our already crowded residential streets. Property owners may see an uptick in value and an increase in rental rates if this building delivers the benefits it promises. My takeaway from all this: Early participation in the process is Santa Monica residents’ best hope for steering development thoughtfully into a rosy future for our city by the sea. City council, it’s your move.
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MArch 8, 2018 THE ARGONAUT PAGE 13