CITY HALL ROUNDUP

SANTA MONICA

A referendum on the plan to renovate the Santa Monica Civic Center area has easily qualified for the ballot.

City Clerk Clarice Dykhouse told the City Council on Tuesday night that opponents of the plan gathered 6,557 valid signatures, more than 1,000 more than the 5,466 needed to put the matter before voters. The signatures were validated by the county registrar of voters last week.

The council will decide early next month whether to put the matter on the June or November ballot.

The Civic Center plan, more than four years in the making, aims to turn an area now mostly covered by parking into a more usable space, with parks, walkways and other amenities. It also would allow the biggest private landowner in the area, the RAND Corp., to expand its headquarters and develop the rest of its property for commercial and residential uses.

Opponents of the plan say it will bring too much traffic and pollution to the area.

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City Manager John Jalili told the City Council on Tuesday that the number of uninhabitable buildings in the city has been cut in half since the first days after the earthquake.

There are still about 1,800 housing units that remain condemned because of damage sustained in the Jan. 17 quake. Jalili also said about 2,300 jobs have been lost at least temporarily. The city’s hotels lost $2 million because of canceled room reservations in the 13 days after the quake.

MEETINGS NEXT WEEK

* Beverly Hills: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. 450 Crescent Drive. (310) 285-2400.

* Culver City: 7 p.m. Monday. Interim City Hall, Trailer No. 1, 4095 Overland Ave. (310) 202-5851.

* Los Angeles: 10 a.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. 200 N. Spring St. (213) 485-3126.

* Malibu: 6:30 p.m. Monday. Hughes Laboratory, 3011 Malibu Canyon Road. (310) 456-2489.

* Santa Monica: no meeting. (310) 393-9975.

* West Hollywood: no meeting. (310) 854-7460.