Santa Monica Adopts Quake Rebuilding Plan

“The Way We Were” would make a fitting theme song for the Santa Monica City Council earthquake rebuilding program.

The final plan, adopted by the council last week, places a premium on returning the city to the way it was before the earthquake--warts and all.

It allows commercial and single-family structures to be rebuilt to their original form and allows apartment houses to be 15% larger to encourage rebuilding. The plan also mandates that a portion of units in rebuilt buildings contain affordable housing.

But the plan does not address one of the most prominent “warts” that existed before Jan. 17: lack of parking in areas with multifamily housing, especially north of Wilshire Boulevard, an area heavily hit by the quake.

Half of the apartment buildings damaged in the quake were constructed before 1937, when the city had no parking requirements, according to a city staff report. Moreover, about 90% were built with less parking than would be required under today’s standards.

The council, however, decided not to require additional parking than was already in place when the temblor hit, reasoning that to do so would thwart rebuilding because of added costs.

On this point, the real estate interests and the council agreed.

Where they parted company, however, was on the rebuilding requirements and the amount of affordable housing that will be required for buildings that need reconstruction.

The council’s rebuilding laws require one-fourth of the units to be set aside for low- and moderate-income families as part of the city’s philosophy to provide affordable housing.

“The City Council, relying on a ludicrous financial analysis, imposed a 25% low-income (unit) requirement on reconstruction that will be impossible for landlords to meet,” said attorney Rosario Perry. “What will happen is that the buildings most severely damaged will stay that way for years to come.”

The result, Perry said, is that “tenants who could live in Santa Monica will have to live elsewhere until the City Council wakes up.”

Attorney Chris Harding, who has represented the Los Angeles Apartment Owners Assn. while the rebuilding plan was being devised, agreed that the plan is well-meaning, though shortsighted in part because of its inflexibility.

Harding was referring to requirements that limit construction to prior configuration of the buildings, without leeway for individual circumstances. City Planning Director Suzanne Frick said a measure to allow homeowners to reconfigure their homes, but still qualify for fee waivers, will be on the council agenda this week.

Frick said the formula is the city’s best effort at balancing the “needs and character of the city with need to reconstruct in a timely fashion. . . . We’re confident this will work for the majority of properties.”

Besides, Frick said, those who must rebuild are getting a lot more latitude than they would have if they came to propose a new project.

That’s because restrictions on building density have been tightened several times in the past decade. But owners whose buildings took a hit in the earthquake can rebuild them the same way as they could in the good old days.

“We’re sacrificing something to get something back,” Frick said.