Airport Project Vote Postponed After 2 Hearings

After a long night of hearing dozens of residents boisterously oppose a sprawling commercial office and retail project next to Santa Monica Municipal Airport, and a second night of grilling city staff and the developer’s consultants, the Santa Monica Planning Commission last week postponed a decision on the proposed 1-million-square-foot project.

Planning Commission Chairman Donald L. Nelson said Thursday some commissioners wanted time to digest the information from the two-day hearing before making a decision. The commission is expected to decide this Thursday.

The project then goes before the City Council where a repeat performance of last week’s hearings is expected. The council will hear public comments on Oct. 3, and is expected to make its decision a week later.

The project developer, Reliance Development Group, had agreed before the hearings to accept a city staff recommendation that the project, to be known as Santa Monica Common, be reduced from its original proposal of 1.3 million square feet to 1 million.

Reliance was selected from among eight firms in October, 1987, to develop most of 37.56 acres of city-owned land at Bundy Drive and Airport Avenue, in the airport’s southeast corner.

Traffic Problems

Growing criticism of the project, most of it involving potential traffic problems in Santa Monica and nearby neighborhoods in Los Angeles, led the developer to agree to a city staff recommendation that the size of the project be reduced by about 21%.

Residents of Mar Vista and other nearby Los Angeles neighborhoods are especially opposed to Santa Monica Common. The main criticism is that, because of the project’s location, all financial benefits will go to Santa Monica, and nearly all the traffic will be dumped on Los Angeles.

The revised project calls for seven six-story buildings with 977,000 square feet of office space, 21,370 square feet of retail space, 7,250 square feet of restaurants, an 8,700-square-foot child-care center and four parking garages with a total of 3,743 spaces.

The project would be built in three phases, with completion expected in 1996.

The development would cover about 29 acres, with the remainder available for city facilities for cultural and recreational purposes.

The main entrance to the project would be on Bundy Drive, near the current intersection with Airport Avenue. The main road would accommodate two inbound and four outbound lanes.

An estimated 12,000 daily car trips would flow onto Bundy, according to an environmental impact report.

The project would generate one-time payments to the city of about $5.85 million in housing and parks fees, and $507,200 in fees for building and engineering permits. The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District would receive about $243,500 in development fees.

Once the project is completed, the city would receive about $1.25-million annually in taxes and fees.

But the city’s biggest source of revenue would be the rent it collects. The developer would make annual payments on a 55-year lease, and the city would also get a percentage of revenues received by the developer from project tenants.

Guarantee Sought

The city estimates that its rental income would total $28 million for the first 10 years after completion and $103 million for the first 20.

In an effort to protect itself from any mid-project rules changes, the developer is seeking an unusual guarantee from the city that the project can be built under current city building standards.

Although the project approved by the Planning Commission is smaller than originally proposed, the environmental report found it would still “significantly” affect three intersections--all in Los Angeles--during morning rush hour: Bundy Drive and Ocean Park Boulevard, Centinela and Rose avenues and Centinela Avenue and Palms Boulevard.

Peggy Curran, Santa Monica’s director of community and economic development, said that, despite those potential traffic problems, the project had been scaled back to a “prudent level to recommend approval of the project.”

Many of the 500 people at Wednesday’s hearing, however, challenged the adequacy of the environmental impact report. Most in the audience wore red paper badges with a circle and slash over the words “airport project.” A smattering of people wore blue badges supporting the project.

At the beginning of the meeting, 90 people indicated they wanted to speak. But as the meeting wore on, many decided to leave. By the time the meeting ended after midnight, about 35 people spoke, two-thirds opposing the project.

There is a dispute over whether the majority of residents in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Santa Monica, north and west of the airport, support or oppose the project.

Former Santa Monica Mayor James Conn, who heads a citizens group that backs the project, Santa Monicans for the Airport Endowment, presented a petition with 2,500 signatures urging approval.

Conn, a minister who left public office last year, called the project “the most important in the history of the city.” He said the city desperately needs the revenue from the project to maintain current levels of city services.

Petition Challenged

Many Sunset Park residents, however, challenged Conn’s petition Wednesday, saying that it was presented as a stand against the expansion of the airport. Several Sunset Park residents said they oppose the project.

Even more united in opposition were the Los Angeles residents in attendance.

“This project, if developed, will irreversibly damage limited resources such as air quality and open space,” said Salvatore Grammatico, president of the Coalition of Concerned Communities, an umbrella group of neighborhood organizations south of Santa Monica. “We must all protect the quality of life that exists in our community for future generations, even if it means that this city must reduce or restrict development within its jurisdiction.”

Greg Thomas, a Mar Vista resident, said that Los Angeles residents will continue to fight the project, and that, if the project is ultimately approved by the City Council, lawsuits will be filed challenging the adequacy of the environmental impact report and whether the land should be left for a park.

“Let there be no misunderstanding, that whether it’s through the help of our council offices, through legal challenges or civil demonstrations, 13,000 cars a day will not enter or exit this project through an L.A. street,” Thomas said.

Santa Monica Common Project

The city has chosen Relkiance Development Group to develop 30 acres of city-owned land at the edge of Santa Monica Airport. Plans call for construction of 1 million square feet of office and commerical space and parking structures to hold 3,700 cars.

All access to the developed area would be via Bundy Drive; the existing airport entrance at Walgrove Avenue would be closed.

The project has aroused resistance from residents in the adjoining neighborhoods of Mar Vista, part of Los Angeles. They note that although the project will provide a major source of new revenue for Santa Monica, it is Mar Vista that will bear the brunt of the new traffic that it generates.