After Another Cut in Size, Airport Project Wins Planners’ OK

A sprawling commercial office and retail project next to Santa Monica Municipal Airport is getting smaller and smaller.

The Planning Commission Thursday voted 4 to 0 with one abstention to reduce the project, to be known as Santa Monica Common, to between 600,000 and 750,000 square feet from the 1 million square feet to which it had been reduced earlier. The developer, Reliance Development Group, had agreed to a city staff recommendation that the project be reduced from its original proposal of 1.3 million square feet.

The commission’s recommendation now goes to the City Council, which will hold a public hearing on Oct. 3, and make a final decision the following week.

Commissioner Ralph Mechum proposed the further reduction because it would have less impact on traffic. Some commissioners disputed the projected traffic in an environmental impact report and said that by recommending the smaller project, any margin of error would be remedied.

However a spokesman for the developer discounted the commission’s decision as a vote “to go home. They could not reach a consensus,” said attorney Chris Harding. The council cast its vote shortly after midnight.

Harding said that the smaller project would not be economically viable. He said it would have to be between 822,000 and 1 million square feet for it to succeed.

“I don’t think the City Council will act irresponsibly,” he said.

Victory for Residents

The further reduction of the project represents a victory for many homeowners in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Santa Monica and the Mar Vista area of Los Angeles. Although many residents were pushing for no project at all, most were willing to accept a smaller project.

“I never thought they would go this low,” said Greg Thomas, a Los Angeles resident. “I’m elated.”

With a smaller project--to be built on a portion of 37.56 acres of city-owned land at Bundy Drive and Airport Avenue in the airport’s southeast corner--there would be no “significant” effect on traffic, according to an environmental impact report.

Under the 1-million-square-foot proposal, three intersections--all in Los Angeles-- would have been “significantly” affected during morning rush hour, the environmental report found. Those intersections were Bundy Drive and Ocean Park Boulevard, Centinela and Rose avenues and Centinela Avenue and Palms Boulevard.

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

Less Office Space

Exactly how the project would be scaled down was unclear Thursday night. However, under the 1-million-square-foot project proposed by the city staff, the amount of office space would have been 977,000 square feet. The other components would have been 21,370 square feet of retail space, 7,250 square feet of restaurants and 8,700 square feet for a child-care center.

The project would have been built in three phases, with completion expected by mid-1996. It would have covered 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, just north of the current intersection with Airport Avenue. The main road would accommodate two inbound and four outbound lanes.

Many residents of Sunset Park northwest and southeast of the airport oppose the project because they fear it would create traffic problems on their already increasingly congested narrow streets.

Too Much Traffic

Residents of Mar Vista and other Los Angeles neighborhoods complained that, because of its location, the project would result in traffic pouring onto Los Angeles streets without residents enjoying any of the financial benefits.

Supporters of the project, including former Santa Monica Mayor James Conn said it is needed because of the revenue it would produce.

Financial estimates for the smaller project were not available.

Under the 1 million square foot proposal, the city would have received one-time payments 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 have received $243,500 in development fees.

The city would have received about $1.25 million annually in taxes and fees beginning in 1996.

The biggest source of revenue would be rent. The developer would make annual payments on a 55-year lease on the land--with two 10-year extensions available at the developer’s option--and the city also would get a percentage of revenues received by the developer from project tenants.

Projected Rental Income

Under the larger project, the city estimated that its rental income would total $28 million for the first 10 years after completion and $103 million for the first 20 years.

The developer is seeking a development agreement, which would protect the developer from any mid-project rules changes by guaranteeing that the project can be built under current city building standards.

About 500 people attended a public hearing on the matter recently at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. Most of the audience appeared to oppose the project.

Supporters said the city needs the revenue the project would generate, but opponents said traffic problems the project would create outweighed any financial gain.