1/21/10

Massive Development Proposed in Heart of Santa Monica.

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On the abandoned PaperMate factory site, in the heart of Santa Monica, (26th and Olympic) an out-of-town developer wants to build a project MORE THAN TRIPLE the size of what current zoning allows.

Will the City let him? Believe it or not, it very well might.

A mammoth new development is in the works for the corner of Olympic and 26th Street. Current zoning allows for a 300,000 square-foot project. But the developer wants to build 969,000 square feet – almost twice the size of the Santa Monica Place mall.

The project would be three-quarters the size of the Water Garden, which is right across the street. The Water Garden is now acknowledged by city planners as a planning disaster, tying up traffic mornings and evenings for miles around it.

Now this out-of-town developer wants to increase the gridlock with a massive new project that could bring 15,000 additional car trips per day to this already impenetrable area.

When the owners of Santa Monica Place proposed a huge, new development on that site, Santa Monica residents like you came together to say “no.” Residents knew that the larger the project, the more traffic it would bring. Today, thanks to you, SM Place is being redesigned with no increase in square footage.

We won that fight and we can win this one. It’s all up to us – the people who live here and care about this city.

Send a message to out-of-town developers who think our zoning laws shouldn’t apply to them. Come to the Planning Commission meeting about this issue, Wednesday, January 27, 7:00PM at Santa Monica City Hall in Council Chambers.

The name of this project is Bergamot Transit Village Center. Let the City and developer know how “the villagers” who actually live here feel about their proposal.

Email your thoughts to the Planning Commission as well. Or go to our epost office and email the planning commission and other city officials. If you leave us your contact info, we can keep you updated on this project, as well as others throughout our city.

There’s currently almost 5,000,000 square feet of new development planned for Santa Monica! (Not including hospital or SM College growth!) That’s almost the equivalent of ten new Santa Monica Place malls being squeezed into our town. We can scale that back, IF we get involved.

We’re the Santa Monica Coalition for a Livable City and we don’t intend to let out-of-town developers decide the future of this beach town we love. Join us and we can win this fight!