Neighborhood Council - Notes from November 2010 meeting

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Santa Monica Neighborhood Council
November 20, 2010 -- 10 AM
Ken Edwards Center


1. NOMA – Discussion included the AT&T power lines on 25th St., a
neighborhood dispute regarding a fence, 301 Ocean Avenue, and a rehab
facility on 19th & San Vicente.

2. Wilmont – Discussion included their “Can We Talk?” meeting, which
was reported on surfsantamonica.com and tended to focus on City
Manager comments rather than resident comments, and their holiday
potluck dinner.

3. FOSP – Discussion included the proposed Walgreens on Lincoln &
Pico, SM Airport, the upcoming “Can We Talk?” meeting, and residents’
concerns regarding land use and transportation, the airport, crime,
SMC, and the homeless, as expressed on their FOSP membership forms.

4. PNA – Discussion included their “Can We Talk?” meeting (staff
outnumbered residents), the city reconsidering the Resource Recovery
project due to cost, and the city’s commitment to the Expo buffer zone
($1 million has been set aside).

It was announced that the city has assigned an alley clean-up crew to
work 5 days a week.

5. OPA – Discussion included their “Can We Talk?” meeting. OPA serves
dinner to increase attendance, so they had about 30 city staff and
50-60 residents. The City Manager stated that the Ocean Park Blvd.
“greening” project is still funded for 2011. Concerns included alley,
street, and sewer work done without prior notification of residents.
Other news is that the city has hired a consultant to come up with an
alternate flight path to the 250 heading, and that OPA has elected 2
new Board members.

6. Mid-City Neighbors – Discussion included their “Can We Talk?”
meeting has been scheduled for December, that their bylaws have been
completed, and that their new borders will be Wilshire, Centinela,
Santa Monica Blvd. (Lincoln to 20th) and Colorado (20th to Centinela)
and Lincoln. (They’ve deleted the area west of Lincoln.)

7. Santa Monica Patch – Kurt Orzeck, the editor of the new
santamonica.patch.com, which is about to launch, spoke about his
background and about the goals for the new online newspaper. He plans
to post 5 stories each weekday and 4 stories on the weekend.

8. California Office of Traffic Safety – An attendee called our
attention to this office, which also tracks pedestrian and bike
accidents.

9. AMC Theaters – An attendee stated that the city seems to have
wasted two years of negotiation. The assumption was that the Promenade
would go from 2,100 to 1,400 movie theater seats, including closing
the Broadway 4 for 12 months so it couldn’t be grandfathered in. But
the owner of the Broadway 4 property has a contract that AMC can’t
close, and he’s threatened to sue the city.

10. City Council agenda – A resident has requested a 12-item: “In the
future, all Council members should announce donations/contributions
before voting on issues involving those donors.” Discussion included
mention of AB 123 (which requires ethics training), the Oaks
Initiative, and donations that benefit candidates’ bank accounts vs.
donations that pay for mailers.

11. Bundy Village and Medical Park – The developer has filed for
bankruptcy.

12. 2300 Wilshire – This is a mixed-use project to replace a car wash.
It will include ground floor retail and a restaurant, but will have 7
tenants (families) facing a very busy 15-foot alley, with delivery
trucks, trash trucks, and late-night noise from the restaurant. An
attendee asked for advice on what type of questions/comments to raise
regarding the Draft EIR.

13. Housing enforcement – An attendee questioned whether deed-
restricted buildings are maintaining 30% of their units as affordable,
and whether the people occupying the inclusionary units are actually
eligible. At the Arboretum, 33 units were occupied by ineligible
tenants, and they have been replaced by Section 8 tenants. The city’s
Housing Division is now enforcing Housing Quality Standards and doing
annual inspections. Santa Monica gets $18 million per year from HUD
for “Shelter Plus” vouchers and for case management from a social
service agency. Discussion included prior homelessness and dual
diagnoses.

14. SMRR using SMC students during the campaign -- An attendee stated
that he asked SMRR co-chair Richard Tahvildaran-Jesswien whether his
political science students at SMC were asked to hand out SMRR
literature, including candidate information. He indicated to Jeff
Shimizu, SMC VP for Academic Affairs, that he wanted to file a formal
complaint. SMC Counsel Bob Myers (husband of a SMRR Steering Committee
member) told him that the matter would be handled internally. The
attendee said that he is still trying to obtain a copy of the SMRR
bylaws.

15. Civic Center Parks – One attendee stated that she attended the
third workshop. Another attendee predicted that the parks will be
quite amazing, and felt that the public engagement has had an effect
on the design. A third attendee stated that the Pier, which is
adjacent to the planned parks, will lose use of the old RAND parking
lot, and that the city will be using the 1550 lot for Cirque du Soleil
and other events. She suggested adding parking under the new park that
could be used for park events, the Pier, Santa Monica Place, etc.

16. Roberts Business Center float-up – This went before the Planning
Commission. As there is not yet an area specific plan or new zoning,
and because the three adjacent projects were supposed to be considered
together, Commissioners asked the developer to come back. However, the
attorney representing the developer said that they prefer to go
forward to the City Council.

17. Papermate/Bergamot – The scoping meeting is scheduled for December
8, and the deadline for submitting comments is December 15.

18. Neighborhood Conservation – Frances and Hal Phipps met with
neighborhood reps to develop Neighborhood Conservation Overlay
District (NCOD) language for the interim zoning ordinance. The Pico
neighborhood was initially represented only by two non-PNA Board
members. Two PNA Board members eventually got an appointment and took
along the filmmaker who produced the documentary film “90404” about
the history of the Pico neighborhood. The NOMA chair was not invited.
A Mid-City resident told the Phipps couple that Mid-City has a lot of
condos, so it would be very difficult talk to enough people to get the
25% minimum needed to initiate the NCOD process. A Wilmont resident
suggested “default” conservation, rather than requiring her to get
5,000 residents to agree to something.