S A N TA M O N I C A
REFLECTING THE CONCERNS OF THE COMMUNITY smmirror.com
March 4 – March 10, 2022 Volume CXXX, Issue 134
INSIDE
SANTA MONICA’S MONTANA BRANCH LIBRARY SET TO REOPEN
PAGE 6
Santa Monica Deems Main Street Traffic Closures a Success Pilot program from over the summer “considered a success” by City staff By Dolores Quintana A pilot program put forth by the City of Santa Monica in conjunction with the Ocean Park Association (OPA) and the Main St Business Improvement Association last summer has been declared a success by the City. The pilot took place over four weekends this past summer. initiated by the Main Street Business Improvement Association (MSBIA) and Ocean Park Association (OPA), the program was approved by Santa Monica City Council in June and debuted July 24-25. Known as “Sharing an Open Main Street”, the program applied to the two blocks between Hill and Kinney streets. The idea was to create a pedestrian gathering area to help revitalize the businesses in the area and bring back the feeling of community among area residents by giving them a safe place to gather and have fun after living in pandemic isolation for over a year.
Sharing An Open Main Street took place during four weekends in the months of July, August, September and October. The portion of Main Street between Hill and Kinney was closed off and traffic was detoured to Neilson Way and Second, Third and Fourth Streets. The section of Main that was made available for pedestrian use had a “Pop Up Park” that had a Kids Korner with arts and crafts, movie screenings and fitness classes. Opponents of the program feared that the closures would cause parking issues, noise pollution and traffic congestion as well as drawing business away from any establishments that were not close to the program area. An evaluation of Sharing An Open Main Street conducted by the City found that though there was some minor traffic congestion, these problems that local residents feared never came to pass. “Overall, the pilot is considered a success by City staff in that it did not create any unforeseen traffic issues or have a significant negative impact on the character of the neighborhood. Survey responses were overwhelmingly positive, with respondents living within two blocks of the closure providing most of the negative responses,” a City report on the program reads.
The first weekend of Sharing an Open Main Street in Santa Monica.
This mostly successful response has encouraged the program’s organizers to consider a continuation of the program. As quoted by The Santa Monica Daily Press, Hunter Hall, MSBIA Executive Director said, “We were pleased to see that the data backs up what we knew all along: Our innovative and forward-thinking pilot program in partnership with the Ocean Park Association was a resounding success. In order to tackle our biggest challenges successfully, Santa Monica needs to encourage flexibility and collaboration between businesses and residents. We proved that could be done well here, which is what this pilot was really about all along.” OPA was in charge of collecting responses to the event from community members and they took surveys from people who attended
Photo: Juliet Lemar
the events, local business owners and nearby residents each weekend and the feedback rated in the 90th percentile on most of the weekends. It was observed that residents who lived close by had the largest incidence of negative responses but even then the highest negative numbers were only in the 21st percentile after the second weekend. Business owners’ reactions was mixed with only 3% of those businesses that were not part of the event and 1.9% of the businesses within the closed area stating that they “hated it”. The balance of businesses in the area said that they thought the event was “okay” or said that they “loved it”. 50 percent of the businesses inside the event area said they “loved it” versus saying it was “okay” and outside the event
Pilot Program, see page 6
Real Estate Firm Plans to Redevelop Three Wilshire Properties Into Hundreds Housing Units Cypress Equity Investments buys four Santa Monica properties By Dolores Quintana
A real estate firm has bought three Wilshire Boulevard properties, planning to bring several multi-story, mixed-use developments to the street, as part of projects that would bring over 300 units of housing to Santa Monica. There are four new projects that Cypress Equity Investments (CEI), a development firm from Brentwood, is developing in Santa Monica as reported by Urbanize Los Angeles and the Santa Monica Daily Press. All but one of these projects are on Wilshire Boulevard. The first project that CEI is conducting community meetings and applying for City entitlements for is at 2025 and 2501 Wilshire. Both buildings would be a mixeduse combination of residences and ground floor commercial space. 2025 Wilshire’s proposal calls for a four story building to replace the current one story commercial building that contains Chipotle and Veggie
Grill restaurants. The new building would be 42 feet tall and be composed of a ground floor commercial space below 46 apartment units with a two level underground parking garage that would hold 101 stalls for parking. The exterior would be made of white stucco with perforated metal screens and wood paneling in the contemporary low rise style. A proposal for 2501 Wilshire is another four story building with three floors of sublevel parking with 198 parking spaces, ground floor commercial space, and 70 residential units. Ottinger Architects is the designer listed for 2501 Wilshire which is described as a white complex in the contemporary low rise style with a small courtyard. Both of these projects have proposed to fulfill their obligation to provide deed restricted affordable housing, 7 units for 2025 Wilshire and 11 for 2501 Wilshire, by developing those apartment units at an “offsite location”. The third project, which has not been formally announced by CEI, is proposed for 1902 Wilshire. It is another four story mixeduse building with two levels of underground parking that contains 143 parking spaces for cars, 91 bicycle parking spaces and then a ground floor “neighborhood serving” retail
A rendering of a development planned for 2025 Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica.
space, and 71 apartment units that are contained within a 50 foot high edifice. The designer of record is Patrick Tighe Architecture who envisions two interconnected buildings built around a central courtyard that are made of metal, wood and stone. Again, the developer claims that the 11 mandatory deed-restricted units that they would have to deliver according to entitlement rules would be developed at an “offsite location.” The fourth proposed building is the only one not on Wilshire Boulevard and the potential
Credit: CEI
site is located at 1537 Lincoln Boulevard which is quite close to the final Santa Monica stop of the Metro E Line. CEI’s plans call for a five story building that is again mixed use with underground parking for 98 vehicles, ground floor commercial space and 114 residential units designed by Ottinger Architects. The building itself would be the site for eight of the required affordable housing units and the balance of 21 deed restricted units required for zoning entitlements would be built “offsite” according to CEI’s claims.