Local News in Brief : Drive Seeks to Ban Beach Construction

A group of Santa Monica slow-growth activists launched an initiative drive Thursday to ban the construction of hotels, motels and large restaurants on Santa Monica Beach.

Representatives of the newly formed “Save Our Beach Committee” said they hope to gather 10,000 signatures to put the initiative on the ballot in a special election later this year.

Sharon Gilpin, a veteran of previous slow-growth campaigns, said she and a handful of activists began the drive because of a “flood” of hotel and motel construction in her beach neighborhood in the last two years.

The proposed initiative would target a zone from Santa Monica’s northern border along Ocean Avenue and Nielson Way to the city’s southern border, with the exception of Santa Monica Pier.