Dealers Back Auto Mall Plan--In or Out of Santa Monica
Members of the Santa Monica Automobile Dealers Assn. have announced their support of a plan to create an auto shopping center at a single location, outside the city if necessary, to end their conflicts with residents over noise, traffic and plans for expansion.
The idea for the center, to be organized like a shopping mall with several car dealerships at one location, has been “very well received” by the 12-member association, said spokesman Barry Greenberg.
If dealers cannot obtain an appropriate site in Santa Monica, Greenberg said, “we would explore looking into adjacent areas.”
When told that the auto dealers’ association had threatened to move out of the city, Mayor Christine E. Reed said, “I don’t think that it adds to positive discussion . . . for those kinds of statements to be made.”
She said that the city values its auto dealers--whose 30 businesses contribute about 25% of the city’s $3.2 million in sales tax revenues--and wants to keep them in Santa Monica. “I want them here, the City Council wants them here,” she said.
Reed was also somewhat skeptical of the proposal to establish an auto center in Santa Monica. “It’s a lovely idea, but there is no place to put one,” she said. “If they’ve got their eye on the Santa Monica Airport (where 43 acres of city land is targeted for development), they shouldn’t waste their time looking at that.”
She said the city views this property as a source of “maximum revenue production,” expected to yield $4 million to $8 million in income from office or industrial tenants, she said.
The auto center plan is still in preliminary stages, having come to public attention only about two weeks ago at a meeting of a new Planning Commission task force studying problems between car dealers and their neighbors.
Conflict between residents and auto dealers occurs repeatedly because residential and commercial areas exist side-by-side in Santa Monica. Most of Santa Monica’s car dealerships are located on Santa Monica and Wilshire boulevards, immediately adjacent to residential neighborhoods.
Most recently, Robert Kramer sought approval to build a 54-foot-tall building to expand his Honda dealership at 18th Street and Santa Monica Boulevard. Santa Monicans for Responsible Growth, a group of residents, opposed the project because of concerns about traffic and environmental problems.
Kramer was unsuccessful in an appeal to the City Council in October, and last week announced that he had redesigned the project. The new plan, with increased setbacks and an underground floor to accommodate service traffic, will be heard by the city Planning Commission on Nov. 18.
Santa Monica auto dealers believe that their relationship with neighbors would improve if they consolidate their showrooms and service facilities at a location apart from residential neighborhoods, Greenberg said. A specific location has not yet been chosen by the association, he said.
Claes Mareld, president of Lynch Motors Inc. and a proponent of the auto center plan, said it is a “definite possibility” that the 12 members of the association would consider moving outside of Santa Monica, if necessary, to ensure their ability to expand.
May Be a Problem
The expense of relocating in the Westside may be a problem for auto dealers because, according to real estate sources, land here costs as much as $100 a square foot for prime sites such as Wilshire Boulevard.
It would take at least 20 acres to create an auto center for 10 dealerships, and in other areas auto malls occupy as much as 45 acres, Mareld said.
The concept of auto shopping centers has become popular across the country, especially in areas where there is an ample supply of open land, auto industry officials said. According to the National Automobile Dealers Assn., there are about 30 centers nationwide, and more are expected.
The 5-year-old Auto Square in Cerritos, for example, generated an estimated $150 million in sales last year. In Southeast Los Angeles County, the cities of Downey, South Gate and Norwalk are vying to build auto malls to compete with the one in Cerritos.
To help solve problems between Santa Monica auto dealers and their neighbors, the city Planning Commission recently established an eight-member task force headed by Commissioner Eileen Hecht. The committee, including residents, auto dealers and an architect, has met twice and will consider a broad range of environmental, traffic and business expansion issues, Hecht said.
Mayor Reed said that during hearings on the Kramer project, residents brought up a number of complaints that apply not only to that project but to all of the city’s auto dealerships.
‘Generic Complaints’
“I asked the Planning Commission to give some thought to how we could resolve some of these generic complaints neighbors have toward some of the operating practices of auto dealers,” she said.
Such problems include noisy outdoor paging systems, bright lighting, offloading of cars in front of homes and driveways, and “the manner in which repair employees test-drive cars in residential neighborhoods,” she said. “I think that we ought to be able to work out some of these concerns so that the auto dealers could exist in harmony with neighbors.”
Greenberg said that the car dealers association will continue to study the idea of an automobile shopping center because they want to do business in a “more conducive atmosphere” that would allow for expansion and growth. “If businesses are to grow they have to be able to expand,” he said.
Citing the opposition Kramer encountered in his expansion plan, Mareld said, “We don’t think that is an isolated case. We all, sooner or later, will be faced with the same situation. . . . We have to have the ability, and the city’s blessing, to expand.”
Don Nelson, co-chairman of Mid-City Neighbors, said that residents may support the idea of an auto park.
Although the Mid-City Neighbors have not yet taken a vote, Nelson said he believes that residents would like to see dealerships move to a centralized location in an industrial area.
“In my opinion, the neighbors would prefer that dealerships would move away from residential neighborhoods and that more compatible neighborhood-serving uses (like dry cleaners and shoe repair shops) would come in,” he said.
