ENTERTAINMENT
INSIDE SCOOP
COMMENTARY
VIKINGS IN PURSUIT OF PLAYOFF SPOT PAGE 3 WORKING UP A SWEAT OVER POLITICS PAGE 5
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2008
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Volume 7 Issue 306
Santa Monica Daily Press
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Senior housing project gets nod BY MELODY HANATANI Daily Press Staff Writer
NOMA A controversial senior housing project that has drawn the ire of neighbors upset about potential traffic impacts on heavily traveled Montana Avenue received the green light from the Planning Commission on Wednesday. The commission denied an appeal by Ron Goldman, who lives a few doors down from the project site, and a group of neighbors in the Montana Avenue area who all argue that the proposed development would negatively affect traffic on the already congested busy corridor and pose safety risks to pedestrians. The residents filed the appeal this summer in response to the Architectural Review Board’s approval of the project’s building design, colors, materials and landscaping plans. The commission heard the appeal in September but held off any action and instead asked the project’s applicant — Charles Rosenbleet — to act in good faith and return with designs that addressed the community’s concerns. The appellants do have the option of filing another appeal to the City Council. The project in question is located on the northeast corner of 17th Street and Montana Avenue and will include 17 studio-style units, a communal dining room and kitchen, and a subterranean garage. The development is being proposed by a local couple who saw the site as a perfect location to fill an affordable senior housing need in Santa Monica, situated on a street where the public library, stores and restaurants are all within walking distance. One of the biggest concerns that residents raised focused on the 12-foot-wide, singlelane sloped driveway, which they believed would force incoming cars to back out onto Montana Avenue if they happened to be SEE PROJECT PAGE 9
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TOOLS OF THE TRADE: Of the $1.5 million spent on local elections, some of it went to pay for advertisements that were sent to voters.
Nearly $1.5M spent on election BY MELODY HANATANI Daily Press Staff Writer
CITY HALL Campaigning doesn’t come cheap in Santa Monica. Candidates, plus supporters and opponennts of ballot measures cumulatively spent nearly $1.5 million in this year’s electoral contest, using money for mailers, newspaper advertisements and consultants, all with the hope that more money would translate into victory in a series of tightly contested races. Campaigns brought in more than $1.7 million in contributions and loans, with the bulk of that cash raised by Save Our City, which formed in opposition to slow growth initiative, Measure T, raising more than $843,000, much of which came from developers. It was one of the largest war chests in Santa Monica’s history. With final expenditure reports not
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expected until early next year, the total could grow even larger. The contribution and expenditure figures are based on the most recent campaign disclosure reports that were filed with the City Clerk. While the numbers seem high, campaigning has been somewhat of an expensive endeavor in Santa Monica where elections are much more competitive than in other cities, according to Bob Stern, the vice president of the Center for Governmental Studies. The most expensive candidates race was in the City Council where incumbent Bobby Shriver raised more than $164,000
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— much of which came from personal loans — and spent approximately $80,900. “It’s a huge amount for a City Council,” Stern said, adding that a campaign in the six figures is high for a city with about 88,000 residents. “Santa Monica is so much more competitive, it’s so much more aware.” He added that both Santa Monica and Berkeley — another politically active city — are the most interesting to watch for municipal elections. Susan Hartley, a council candidate who raised more than $6,600 as of the most
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