Growing Pains for Montana Avenue

Talk about midlife changes. Over the last 15 years, Montana Avenue in Santa Monica has metamorphosed from a humble neighborhood shopping area into a “glam-chic” boutique zone rivaling some of the commercial streets in Beverly Hills.

Montana Avenue’s shops between 7th and 17th streets have been featured in Women’s Wear Daily. It’s not uncommon to spot such Hollywood luminaries as Madonna, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kate Capshaw and Rita Wilson traipsing toward one of its boutiques or cafes.

But not everyone is delighted about Montana Avenue’s haute new image and its emergence as a popular Westside shopping destination.

Neighbors to the north and south of the block complain of swarming traffic, parking problems, noisy delivery trucks unloading at sunrise and pedestrians armed with cell phones, lattes, shopping bags and strollers rushing defiantly in front of moving cars.

“It’s a recipe for disaster,” said Frances Palmer, a cosmetic surgeon who lives north of Montana Avenue.

Merchants acknowledge the problems. But they say they face their own challenges on the street--which occasionally put their goals at odds with those of their neighbors. They must generate high sales volume to pay their $5- to $6-per-square-foot monthly rents. And that means they need to draw lots of well-heeled shoppers from areas beyond the immediate neighborhood.

It wasn’t always this way. From the 1920s to the mid-’80s, Montana Avenue harbored a collection of mom-and-pop shops--a hardware store, barber shop, service station, coin laundry, soda fountain and nursery, as well as an occasional empty lot. Back then, the merchants collectively advertised it as “the friendly shopping center.” Locals joked that time stood still along Montana.

But when Santa Monica’s residential real estate prices began to escalate, a changing of the storefront guard occurred on Montana Avenue. Out went the moms-and-pops. In came the pricey boutiques, body-care shops, trendy antique stores and coffeehouses.

Accompanying Montana’s arrival as a chi-chi shopping destination were the twin plagues of heavy traffic and scarce parking. Neighbors began to grumble as cars bound for the shops circled their blocks like sharks, or whizzed down their streets, sometimes running stop signs and endangering children.

“Montana is now a destination point for everyone, but it wasn’t meant to be,” said Doris Sosun, co-chair of the North of Montana Assn. “People are coming to see the movie stars. They’re coming to the coffee shops and some are spending entire days there with their cell phones and business papers. This makes it awfully sad for us. . . . It changes the ambience of the neighborhood.”

But Montana’s merchants and property owners say they cannot afford to let time stand still on the avenue anymore. They’ve launched a Web site--https://www.montanaave.com--and have changed the street’s motto from “the friendly shopping center” to “10 blocks of stores that completely dazzle the imagination.”

Santa Monicans such as Sosun do not easily shrug off mounting threats to their neighborhood’s tranquillity, however. Activism is as much a Santa Monica pastime as jogging and bodysurfing. When confronted with grievances, residents can be quick to organize and voice their protests--something Montana Avenue developers and merchants have learned.

Years ago, for example, when a developer revealed plans to build a 44,000-square-foot mini-mall at 7th Street and Montana, neighbors circulated “Save Montana Avenue” pamphlets denouncing the plan and collected 800 signatures against it. It did not go up.

Last April, locals moved quickly to “Save Montana Avenue” again--this time, from another developer who intended to tear down an old mortuary building on the street and replace it with an 11,000-square-foot collection of retail stores. They appealed to the Santa Monica Landmark Commission to protect the mortuary. So far, as hearings continue, the structure remains standing.

Residents scored another victory June 27, when the Santa Monica City Council banned further new “incidental food establishments” (sites that sell food or beverages but don’t provide table service) on Montana Avenue for the next two years. Neighbors had complained that the street’s seven coffee bars--including two Starbucks, a Peet’s and a Seattle’s Best--were generating considerable traffic and parking problems. They feared that more such establishments would only aggravate an already trying situation.

Some property owners, developers and merchants would prefer that the neighbors take a more libertarian attitude about the evolution of Montana Avenue.

“My experience is that anything that’s too regulated can result in disaster,” said Larry Taylor, president of Christina Development in Malibu, who owns several properties on Montana Avenue.

Chuck Dembo of Dembo & Associates, a retail leasing agency in Beverly Hills, said he thinks local residents who shop on the block are being somewhat hypocritical: They want to have their creme brulee and eat it, too.

“There’s a paradox about Montana,” Dembo said. “The neighbors really want its restaurants but they don’t want the traffic they generate.”

But there are other issues for locals. Commercial Darwinism, which has resulted in the exodus of useful service-oriented businesses and an influx of chic, expensive boutiques, is diminishing the street’s usefulness to the people who live nearby. Neighbors are quick to point out that, while you can’t fill up your car’s gas tank on Montana Avenue, you’re well-served in the antique department: There are 17 antique and furniture stores along the 10-block commercial strip.

“It used to be like a fabulous street in New York, where every store had its own unique image. But now it’s kind of homogenized,” said Susan Salzman, owner of Little Folk Art at Montana and 11th Street. “A lot of my clients say they’re really disappointed. They are going elsewhere to shop.”

Some neighbors worry that, should commercial rents continue to rise, big national chains like the Gap, Banana Republic or Williams Sonoma might start setting up shop there and the street could turn into an upscale version of Santa Monica’s 3rd Street Promenade.

But Montana Avenue property owners say that is unlikely. Large retailers are more likely to seek space on major thoroughfares, in developments that offer more square footage and ample parking, Dembo and Taylor said.

Even some property owners aren’t keen on the bigger-is-better idea.

“Could I make more money leasing to someone like the Gap? Possibly, probably,” said Jim Rosenfield, who owns two properties on Montana Avenue. “But we don’t want the street to be an open-air mall.”

Said Taylor: “I’m the largest owner on the block and I’m not going to let it happen.”

All sides seem to agree on one thing: Montana Avenue urgently needs a master plan. A proper plan would specify its uses, development constraints, aesthetic obligations, store setback requirements, parking requirements and, most important, the street’s purpose--whether it’s a neighborhood shopping street or an upscale retail destination. Such a plan is in the works, according to Kevin McKeown, a Santa Monica City Council member, who said he brought the matter before the council last year.

“We’re still hearing from neighbors, business owners and property owners about what they want, what their needs are,” McKeown said.

Meanwhile, the various players in the Montana Avenue development game continue along their individual trajectories. Neighbors, annoyed by the mounting parking and traffic problems, are discussing ways they might stem the automobile tide, possibly by petitioning for additional restricted parking on their streets. A few have wondered whether they can turn their streets into cul-de-sacs.

Merchants, hoping to further bolster sales, are considering hiring a marketing company to develop a logo and advertising campaign for Montana Avenue, said Mike Gruning, an optometrist at Montana and Euclid Street.

And Montana Avenue property owners, finding an abundance of willing lessees in today’s booming economy, continue to shape the street’s character by their choices of tenants.

“I find myself asking more and more, ‘Where do we go with this?’ ” said Darrell Clarke, a member of the North of Montana Assn. board and Santa Monica Planning Commission.

Robert Wachs, president of the Montana Avenue Merchants Assn. and owner of Sara, a women’s boutique at Montana and 14th Street, points to still another source of the area’s tribulations: “You have many egos on this street.”