Protect Neighborhoods and Neighbors Preserve the character of our city Make development pay its fair share Support affordable, locally owned small businesses Continue and enhance our sustainability and reduce our environmental footprint Adding new parks, open space and playing fields Rein in the growth of government and restore accountability to residents
Protect Neighborhoods and Neighbors Keep Santa Monicans in Santa Monica: Preserve diversity through rent control, tenant protections, neighborhood conservation policies and new housing for all incomes. Now that we’ve adopted our new Land Use and Circulation Element (LUCE), our first priority should be implementation of neighborhood conservation policies to protect our housing and neighborhood character. Preserve the character of our city Our new LUCE, the blueprint for growth in the next 20 years, calls for protecting our existing residential neighborhoods and focusing new development on our commercial boulevards and in the industrial lands on the east side of town. Make development pay its fair share For too long in Santa Monica developers have not contributed enough public benefits in exchange for the privilege of building here. Given the extraordinary demand to build here even in the worst economy in 80 years, we have to stop selling ourselves short and be willing to say “No” to lesser projects. We simply must obtain substantive community benefits such as affordable housing, historic preservation, traffic reduction measures and infrastructure improvements from all new projects. Likewise, we need to reexamine the fees paid by projects. In 1991 our City Council passed a law to impose a fee on new commercial development to fund improvements to offset the traffic increases associated with growth. Over $100 million of improvements were identified, including traffic signal synchronization. However, City Hall goofed and never collected the fee. Now our LUCE calls for a new fee to be imposed on development to fund mobility enhancements: our City Council must in short order impose and collect this fee. Likewise, the fees we collect to pay for new parks and open space haven’t been adjusted to account for inflation in many years. And it’s time for a study to assure affordable housing production surcharges are adequate. Much of our traffic congestion comes from poor land use decisions and indiscriminate commercial development, which generates many more car trips than housing. Fortunately our new LUCE will manage growth more intelligently by making housing development a priority and focusing it near transit. Once we start collecting the impact fee mentioned above we can implement various congestion management strategies including smarter traffic lights and employee trip reduction plans. Better local mass transit and safer routes for bicycles will also take cars off our streets. In particular, the Big Blue Bus needs to work better for getting residents around town instead of just to Culver City or Westwood: bus passes must be easily purchased around town at local markets and other retail outlets; bus stops should offer seating, shade and real-time route info; and local shuttles should be small, quiet and clean. Most importantly, future development should not add more cars to our streets: “No Net New Trips” must be a hard and fast rule rather than a feel good policy goal. We also need to manage and price our existing parking resources more intelligently so spaces in one location don’t go unused while drivers seek to park where spaces are scarce. We must encourage more shared parking, so that for instance residents can park at night in unused commercial spaces. In neighborhoods where streets are wide enough angled parking will add more spaces. And if we must build more parking structures they should be modest in size and spread around town so entering and exiting doesn’t create more congestion. My daughter Eleanor is a third-grader at SMASH and my son Steele will start kindergarten there next year, so I’m personally and acutely aware of the funding challenges faced by our school district. Our state government has, quite simply, reneged on its responsibility to adequately fund our public schools at a time when a well-educated workforce is our best hope for remaining economically competitive in the years to come. Fortunately, in Santa Monica we have the resources to provide discretionary funding to offset cuts by Sacramento. As a City Councilmember I will work to ensure continued and enhanced municipal funding for the district; advocate for a greater commitment of redevelopment dollars to the joint Samohi-Civic Center project; and seek contributions to the Education Foundation from development agreements and other projects where appropriate. I believe our city can support our local schools without sacrificing the quality of other municipal services. In recent years we’ve pursued a new strategy in Santa Monica to reduce homelessness and it’s proven effective: we’re now targeting for services the chronically homeless, those who are the most vulnerable on our streets and create the greatest challenge. However, we have much more to do to create supportive housing for those in need: it costs taxpayers more to provide services to people on the streets than it does to house them and to provide them a new direction in life. Support affordable, locally owned small businesses We need to do much more to support the locally owned small businesses that are essential to our economy, are involved in our community and spend income within our borders. And we should discourage the displacement of these businesses by large chains which export profits and aren’t as likely to support our schools and charities. To that end our land use policies should promote shallower and smaller retail frontages with more affordable rents and create incubator spaces within our industrial zones. And City Hall’s burdensome regulations and red tape should be streamlined so that, for instance, a simple application for tenant improvements isn’t a lengthy and costly process. The Chamber of Commerce does a fine job of helping potential businesses: City Hall should be enabling these efforts and seeking feedback on how to further assist them. Finally, we must promote affordable retail: it does no good to have a diverse resident population if many can’t afford to shop locally. Continue and enhance our sustainability and reduce our environmental footprint
I've been an environmental advocate since I worked at the Chewonki Foundation (www.chewonki.org) in the late 1970s, teaching natural history and low-impact camping. In recent years as OPA president I have initiated our hugely successful bike valet program at the Ocean Park farmers market and shepherded through the city bureaucracy our green streets plan for Ocean Park Boulevard, The main environmental challenges facing Santa Monica are these:
If elected, I would seek to implement the following:
I believe when our 1984 agreement with the FAA for SMO operations expires in 2015 we should seek to close our airport: there’s simply too much pollution, noise and safety risks associated with a small airport that wasn’t built for modern air travel operating so close to homes. At the very least we should severely restrict flight operations after 2015. I support Santa Monica’s lawsuit against the FAA regarding our ban of Class C and D jets, which has already cost local taxpayers $1 million. Along with other activists and City staff, I met with Congressman Henry Waxman in August to express our concerns regarding the test of a “250 heading” for certain propeller planes which sent flights over Sunset Park, Ocean Park and even into the Wilshire-Montana and north of Montana neighborhoods. And I believe we should stop licensing flights schools, whose touch and go operations are inappropriate for our region, and seek to eliminate the existing schools. SMO recently closed for runway resurfacing, so the City collected baseline data on air quality and noise which will be very useful as the expiration of the 1984 agreement draws nearer. The City of Santa Monica is paying another $1 million for this resurfacing rather than using Federal funds so that we have options in 2015 – use of Federal funds would allow the FAA to argue for continued airport operations. It’s important to note closing the airport would not cause a direct loss in municipal revenue, as the airport operates as an enterprise fund separate from the City’s General Fund: airport revenues pay for the operation of the airport and nothing else. However, we should analyze the indirect contributions the presence of an airport has on our local economy and make sure any new uses of the land do not require budget-breaking subsidies. We might, for instance, create a new park, playing fields and community gardens supported by mix of housing and clean tech jobs with aggressive transportation demand management. I know from riding a bike around town we’ve suffered from a failure of vision in this area. For instance, I recently rode my bike to a meeting at the Public Safety Building and found no rack for bike parking outside – how is it our public buildings don’t accommodate cyclists better? And when I realized that there was inadequate parking for bicycles at our Sunday farmers market on Main Street, as president of the Ocean Park Association I persuaded city staff to implement the hugely successful bike valet program that has since spread to other venues in Santa Monica. Every time I meet with residents I hear they would like to bike more but are scared to do so. So to make our city more sustainable we need to compensate for years of neglect and make our streets safe and accessible to cyclists. First, we have to create a dedicated revenue stream for enhancing bicycle amenities. Then we need to leverage that revenue, just as LA Metro would like to do with its 30/10 initiative, and accelerate construction of cycling improvements in our city and implementation of our new Bike Master Plan. The result? More construction jobs, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, less traffic congestion and a fitter population. Who can argue with that? Finally, we need to change the zeitgeist at City Hall so that cycling is a priority: cycling improvements should be a public benefit from new development; when roads with bike lanes are resurfaced, the lanes should be painted green for greater visibility; create a citizen task force to advocate for cycling; etc. A street tree outside my home has been dead for all of 2010 and the City Forester still has not replaced it. It was the second non-native species planted there in recent years and both failed to thrive. So yes, our policies and our practices can be substantially improved! And while we now have an Urban Forest Master Plan Task Force in place, the proof will be in the pudding: too often in Santa Monica we create plans but don’t initiate them (such our as 1995 Bike Path Master Plan). What’s required is the political will to assure that a thriving urban forest is a municipal priority. Adding new parks, open space and playing fields It’s a challenge to add open space in a built-out city with high land values, but creative thinking can get us there. First of all, development agreements in the east end of town should pay into an acquisition fund to purchase land to provide parks in our former industrial area: as we add new housing here it makes sense to plan to provide open space as an amenity now. In addition, some of the single stall parking for employees in the City yards just north of Stewart Park could be relocated into a more compact and efficient use, thereby allowing expansion of this park and inclusion of a full-sized soccer pitch. Memorial Park will add the former Fisher Lumber site as capital funds become available. And closer to the beach our Civic Center Plan will add park space across Main Street from City Hall and on the Civic Center surface parking lot. Current plans call for a playing field on the Civic lot, but a joint use plan with Samohi may create a playing field at the high school which can be used by the public, freeing the Civic area for other park uses. Finally, we should add more “beach greens” to our beach parking lots and look to better use the beaches north of the Pier. Rein in the growth of government and restore accountability to residents Did you know the size of City staff has more than doubled in the last 15 years? We simply cannot continue to grow our government at this rate. And during this time, most residents to whom I’ve spoken have found that dealing with City Hall has become more complicated and challenging.. In particular, we need to reform our Building and Safety Division, as no resident or business has a pleasant experience dealing with that department. And while City Hall is adept at enforcing minor code violations such as residents putting dog poop bag dispensers in the public right of way or store owners advertising with sandwich boards, it’s been not so competent at minding its own store. Why weren’t development agreements audited for compliance for over a decade? How is it that deed-restricted housing was leased to non-qualified tenants? Why are large businesses allowed to violate our laws on short-term rentals and use valuable housing as de facto hotels without paying our bed tax? I say it’s time to revisit our priorities: we need a City Council which is proactive about these issues. And the Council needs to reform its own disclosure rules and in particular require that Councilmembers divulge from the dais any campaign contributions they may have received from applicants and appellants at hearings.
The new neighborhood conservation policies called for by the LUCE will go a long way towards preserving our character-defining older buildings. It is also important to continue to develop our Historic Preservation Program by adding more meaningful incentives for Landmarking and creating a training program in Historic Preservation for staff, in all relevant departments, to help build a culture in City Hall of respect for our historic resources.
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But the scale and intensity of that new development will have a substantial impact on our community. As City staff, the Planning Commission and the City Council work on a new Zoning Ordinance, we need to find the sweet spot between residents’ desires for a low scale beach community and our ambition to grow sustainably via density near transit. I believe our zoning needs to retreat from the maximum heights allowed by the LUCE as there’s still a substantial profit for developers in more modestly scaled projects. New development should be predominantly residential to address our jobs-housing imbalance. We simply don’t need much more traffic-generating commercial development unless it fills a specific community need such as affordable retail or greatly enhances City revenues, as hotels do.
I’ve helped with the weekly bake sales at Eleanor’s school; every June I’m out at 7 am on a Saturday setting the annual SMASH carnival; and I’ve unloaded carloads of rummage for our yearly sale. The SMASH PTSA works hard money to provide extra staffing, resources and training, but it’s still not enough, especially in recent years.
which will rededicate unused asphalt for bioswales, bike lanes and enhanced sidewalks and will treat a substantial portion of that street's storm water runoff – it will be a model for green streets in Southern California. As a Recreation and Parks Commissioner I was involved in our beach greening project, which replaced a portion of a beach parking lot with a special turf surface to provide recreation space and treat runoff, and advocated for more open space, recycling in our parks and beaches, complete streets and other sustainability initiatives. And the work of which I'm most proud is my role as a Planning Commissioner in shaping our update to our Land Use and Circulation Element (LUCE), a planning document which is widely hailed for its vision of sustainable land use, increased multi-modal transit and significant GHG reductions.
I also recently remodeled a 1962 home with an addition of 500 square feet and green features such as solar thermal and photovoltaic panels, radiant heat, dual flush toilets and cork floors. I believe that adaptive reuses such as this are the greenest way to redevelop in Santa Monica. 
• Pollution from the Santa Monica Airport: As our current agreement with the FAA expires in 2015, we need to start collecting data now to prepare for negotiations to either close the airport or restrict operations.
