Commercial Building Moratorium Studied

City officials are considering an emergency, one-year moratorium on most commercial development in Santa Monica.

The City Council voted unanimously this week to instruct the city attorney to draw up the ordinance.

The moratorium, expected to be voted on next week, would apply to all nonresidential projects except those for which permits were filed before May 2.

Projects on public lands, hospitals and the Third Street Mall area would be exempt, as would development on Santa Monica College lands.

Any projects that fall below certain space limits, which vary according to neighborhood, would also be exempt. These limits range from 11,000 square feet in the Main Street area to 22,000 square feet downtown.

Although hotels are considered residential, the council voted that they should not be exempt from the moratorium. A group of activists recently announced it would fight hotel construction on Santa Monica’s beach.