West LA Times

At last night’s meeting, the Santa Monica City Council discussed and provided direction on the implementation of the City’s certified and fully compliant 6th Cycle Housing Element. Council will continue the discussion on the implementation of the City’s certified Housing Element on February 28, 2023.

To support implementation, City Council considered proposed amendments to Santa Monica’s Land Use and Circulation Element (LUCE), Downtown Community Plan (DCP), Bergamot Area Plan (BAP), and Zoning Ordinance for consistency with Santa Monica’s certified Housing Element and for compliance with State law.

The City Council provided the below direction at last night’s meeting:

• Accelerate housing production by streamlining 100% affordable projects, moderate income housing projects, and housing projects with no more than 25% non-residential floor area on sites up to one acre in size.
• Eliminate the existing tier system and rezone to increase building heights and floor area ratio standards for housing projects across the City.
• Encourage the production of affordable housing by requiring housing projects citywide to provide 15% of units as on-site affordable housing units.
• Update the City’s Density Bonus ordinance for consistency with State law
• Expand the application of Assembly Bill 2097 by eliminating minimum parking requirements for all housing projects not within the R1 zoning district.
• Incentivize the production of moderate-income housing by creating a Moderate-Income Housing overlay.
• Establish an ordinance to implement Senate Bill 9 (SB9), which requires the administrative approval of lot splits and duplexes on parcels zoned for single units and provides additional development potential for larger parcels. In addition, incentivize SB9 projects by waiving the affordable housing fees but applying other development impact fees.
• Establish limits on lot consolidation in the City’s Neighborhood Commercial zoning districts located on Main Street, Montana Avenue, Pico Boulevard, and Ocean Park Boulevard, except for sites already identified on the Suitable Sites Inventory, to help preserve small-scale businesses in these commercial districts while also allowing potential redevelopment of existing larger parcels.

The Council also directed staff to submit a letter to the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) requesting technical assistance on whether amending the certified Housing Element to keep existing zoning standards for the Neighborhood Commercial districts on Main, Montana, Ocean Park, and Pico Boulevards would still allow the City’s Housing Element to remain in compliance.

The 6th Cycle Housing Element was approved by City Council at its October 11, 2022, meeting and certified by HCD on October 14, 2022.

For more information, see last night’s Staff Report or visit santamonica.gov/housing-element-update. For the February 28, 2023, City Council agenda, visit santamonica.gov/council.

Original source can be found here.