S A N TA M O N I C A
REFLECTING THE CONCERNS OF THE COMMUNITY smmirror.com
February 18 – February 24, 2022 Volume CXXVIII, Issue 132
INSIDE
OPINION: “A DECISION FORGED FROM SPITE” PAGE 4
Court of Appeals Blocks Demolition of Parking Structure Three Until Feb. 25 City of Santa Monica has nine days to file opposition By Dolores Quintana In the ongoing fight over the future of Parking Structure Three, The Santa Monica Bayside Owners Association (SMBOA) has been granted a longer stay of the judgment issued by the Superior Court to prevent the demolition of Parking Structure Three. However, the matter is far from being settled. In addition, the Appeals Court has ordered that Parking Structure Three will be closed as of Feb. 10. The structure will be fenced to prevent any further usage until the appeal has been resolved. The Santa Monica City Attorney’s Office has said in a statement that the Court gave the City until February 25 to file a preliminary opposition to the stay and left open the possibility of issuing an order to lift the stay after that date. Parking Structure Three has been a bone of contention since 2018 when the Santa Monica City Council first planned to demolish the structure to make way for an affordable housing project for lower income residents.
Property and business owners in the Third Street Promenade area nearby have been vocal about their opposition to the City’s plan. David Houston, Owner of Barney’s Beanery, said “Unfortunately, we have now been dealt another business threatening blow by the city. We’ve been notified that the city intends to demo Parking Lot Three and rebuild it as a homeless structure. This will be devastating to our business as well as every other business on 3rd Street Promenade. First of all, this takes away the primary parking location for most of our customers and staff. Secondly, Parking Structure Three houses all our trash bins. The city is telling us to cart our trash several blocks, across main streets, and through crowds of people to a trash site on 2nd Street. Obviously, this is unworkable. Finally, the biggest complaint we receive from our customers and staff is the overabundance of homeless people in the area. Free housing will only attract more homeless as it has done throughout the city wherever this has been tried. Our business is currently off by over 50%. I can’t imagine how much this will hurt us going forward.” The lawsuit filed by SMBOA against the City of Santa Monica was thrown out on Feb.4 by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff which prompted the SMBOA to appeal the decision as the structure was scheduled to be demolished on Feb. 14.
Photo: Sam Catanzaro
Ocean Park Neighborhood Could Be The Site of Massive Mixed Use Apartment Complex Lincoln Center project would have 521 apartments available By Dolores Quintana
SanMon Inc. is eyeing the Gelson’s Shopping Center at 2627 Lincoln Blvd in the Ocean Park neighborhood for a massive mixed use development that would boast a development with 521 apartments, 53 of which would be designated as very low income housing, distributed among different buildings with various heights up to 5 stories or 65 feet tall as reported by Urbanize Los Angeles. The complex will come with 36,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space that would face the street that would include a grocery store and 880 parking spaces for vehicles and 816 spaces for bicycles. SanMon partnered with Cypress Equity
Investments, a local development company, on the project. The apartments would be a mix of studio, one, two and three bedroom units. The developers have applied for density bonus incentives in order to be able to build a complex this large that is not allowed by zoning laws. Those incentives which would allow the entitlements require 53 apartments that are priced at very low income levels. According to the project website, the affordable apartments would be priced at $700 for a studio apartment, $800 for a one bedroom apartment and $900 a month for a two bedroom apartment. The project has been met with some opposition from the community, who argue that the development would reduce neighborhood-serving retail and strain water usage in the city. In addition, opponents argue that the project poses a traffic concern. “The City’s 2nd most dangerous intersection in terms of traffic deaths and
Photo: Rendering courtesy of Lincoln Center project website
serious injuries is at Lincoln & Ocean Park Blvd. And yet, there has been no traffic study, and none is planned,” reads a flyer from Friends of Sunset Park neighborhood group. Gelson’s has not signed on as the grocery store for the complex as yet, so which grocery
store will be on property is not known at this time. Architect Koning Eizenberg is designing the project. The current shopping center would be demolished to make way for the new development if it is approved.