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THURSDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2009
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3w10.442.1651 ww.andrewthurm.com Volume 9 Issue 30
Santa Monica Daily Press IN THE STARS SEE PAGE 12
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THE BETTER SAFE ISSUE
Schools receive masks to fight flu BY NICK TABOREK Daily Press Staff Writer
use after the project’s completion would be 12 percent less than what is allowed under the site’s current zoning. He noted the site’s proximity to the future Bergamot Station light rail stop and the project’s mixed-use design would limit car trips. Any development project at the site, though, would increase traffic because the existing building is vacant. The project concept envisions about 579,000 square feet of creative office space, 330,000 square feet of residential space and 60,000 square feet of retail. Neighborhood residents who spoke at the meeting said traffic congestion is already severe during peak driving hours and could be further impacted by other
SMMUSD HDQTRS Local schools will soon be getting thousands of surgical masks as a precaution against a flu outbreak, courtesy of the federal government. The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District is slated to receive 22,000 of the masks — about two for each student — along with rubber gloves and some heavierduty “respirator masks” for adults who care for sick kids. So far this school year, though, the effects of the flu — whether a seasonal strain or the H1N1 swine flu virus — have been mild in public schools, said Jane Jeffries, the district’s coordinating nurse. Though more kids got sick in October than is typical, flu cases dropped off in December, she said, and there have been no hospitalizations because of the flu in the district. “Do I see us using 22,000 masks? No,” Jeffries said, adding that the gift is “very, very nice.” Some of the supplies will be added to the district’s natural disaster preparedness stash, she said. While surgical masks were widely used in some areas where the swine flu virus was first detected this spring, the Center for Disease Control’s guidelines for curbing the spread of the virus in schools underline the importance of normal flu season precautions. Students and staff should stay home when sick, wash hands frequently with soap and water and cover their noses and mouths with a tissue when coughing or sneezing. The guidelines also say those who have flulike symptoms while at school should be separated from others until they can be sent home and should wear a surgical mask if possible. Jeffries said, so far, masks haven’t been an important part of the district’s flu fighting procedures. “At this point we haven’t used any of the masks. We haven’t had a need to,” she said. Kids who have flu symptoms at school, instead, are kept in isolation until they can be taken home, she said. Jeffries, though, said the masks could be useful to prevent the spread of the flu among kids who show up at the nurse’s office, where some kids may have flu symptoms and oth-
SEE DEVELOPMENT PAGE 9
SEE FLU PAGE 10
LONG WAIT
Brandon Wise brandonw@smdp.com People wait in line with their packages at the Santa Monica Post Office on Arizona Avenue on Wednesday afternoon. The United States Postal Service expects to handle 826 million pieces of mail during the holidays.
Concerns raised over massive development BY NICK TABOREK Daily Press Staff Writer
PICO NEIGHBORHOOD Residents got their first look at a plan to build a large commercial and residential building on a site near a future light rail stop Tuesday night, some of them expressing doubts about the developer’s claim that the nearly 1-million-square-foot complex would have a moderate traffic impact. The meeting was the first public hearing on a development concept for a 7-acre site located north of Olympic Boulevard between 26th and Stewart streets, across the street from the future Bergamot Station rail stop for the Exposition Light Rail Line. The developer is proposing to knock down an existing 200,000-square-foot light manufac-
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turing facility to erect 969,000 square feet of commercial, residential, office space with an average height of 71 feet in its place. The project concept envisions a complex larger than allowed under the city’s draft Land Use Circulation Element (LUCE) and so will require approval from the Planning Commission and City Council before a deal can be struck. In order to win size exemptions from City Hall, the developer is proposing to offer “community benefits” such as affordable housing, public open spaces and cultural and arts uses. Colin Shepherd, a senior vice president with Hines, the project developer, acknowledged that traffic is the main concern surrounding the proposed project. He said his company’s traffic analysis showed vehicle
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