O2345City Council Meeting 2-8-11
Santa Monica, California
ORDINANCE NUMBER 2345 (CCS)
{city Council Series)
AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF
SANTA MONICA ESTABLISHING INTERIM DEVELOPMENT PROCEDURES
PENDING IMPLEMENTATION OF THE LUCE
THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA DOES HEREBY
ORDAIN AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Findings and Purpose. The Council finds and declares:
{a) The City adopted a new Land Use and Circulation Element of the General
Plan of the City of Santa Monica ("LUCE") on July 6, 2010 but has not yet adopted
amendments to the City's Zoning Ordinance reflecting the LUCE's policies, goals and
standards.
(b) The adoptian of the LUCE was the culmination of a multi-year planning
process that commenced in 2004.
(c) The LUCE encompasses the community's vision of the City's future and is
designed to maintain the City's character, protect the City's neighborhoods, manage its
transportation systems, and encourage additional housing in a sustainable manner that
ensures a high quality of life for the City's residents.
(d) The LUCE implements the community's core values through its focus on
community character and neighborhood conservation, future trip reduction, vibrant and
walkable villages, integrated land use and transportation, local land uses and housing,
jobs tied to housing and transit, promotion of social and fiscal health and diversity,
sustainability, community benefits, open space, and implementation, phasing and
monitoring.
(e) The LUCE goals and policies are predicated on the integration of land use
and transportation including a focus on the type of land uses, the location of land uses,
the quality of projects, the amount of developmental change, and the pace of this
change.
(f) The LUCE was prepared with the general purpose of guiding and
accomplishing coordinated -and harmonious development of the City which, in
accordance with existing and future needs, best promotes the public health, safety, and
general welfare, as well as efficiency and economy in the process of development.
(g) The LUCE substantially revises the City's land use policies, goals, and
standards.
(h) The City's planning and zoning regulations are presently under
comprehensive review and revision in order to ensure that such regulations are
consistent with the General Plan as amended and consistent with the public health,
safety, and welfare. This comprehensive revision of the City's Zoning Ordinance is a
substantial project which is crucial to the community's long-term welfare as reflected in
the goals, policies, and standards of the LUCE.
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(i) Certain critical areas of conflict between the LUCE and the existing Zoning
Ordinance have been identified by the City's Planning and Community Development
Department as it has reviewed pending applications subsequent to the adoption of the
LUCE.
Q) Zoning Ordinance Part 9.04.20.28 establishes the applicability and procedures
for issuance of administrative approvals which provide for the ministerial administrative
review and assessment of proposed developments subject to explicit standards
contained in the Zoning Ordinance.
(k) The administrative approval process is premised on the assumption that the
explicit standards in the Zoning Ordinance have been adopted to ensure that a
completed project is in harmony with existing or potential development in the area and
is consistent with the goals, objectives, and. policies of the General. Plan.
(I) However, this premise underlying the administrative approval process is no
longer applicable given the significant ways in which the LUCE differs from the prior
Land Use and Circulation elements including, but not limited to, the direct linkage
between land use and transportation policies and programs and the establishment of
new development policies and standards which ensure that quality development
contributes to the character of the City.
(m) Additionally, the LUCE establishes a base height for each land use as a
baseline. Proposed development which seeks additional height above the base is
subject to discretionary review and must meet additional requirements consistent with
the community's broader social, environmental, and circulaton goals. This approach is
defined in three tiers.
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(n) Under the LUCE, Tier 2 and Tier 3 projects must provide community benefits
for the City and the neighborhood. More specifically, a developer seeking to develop a
Tier 2 or Tier 3 project must include certain preferred uses, beneficial project design
features, and provide critical amenities or meet other development standards that
address the community's core needs-it's social, cultural, physical, transportation and
environmental goals.
(o) The LUCE identifies five priority categories of community benefits-new
affordable and workforce housing, GHG emission and congestion reduction, physical
improvements to create connections and open space, social and cultural facilities, and
historic preservation.
(p) The existing Zoning Ordinance does not currently incorporate this tier structure
or establish a mechanism to prioritize and necessitate that projects participate in the
community benefit tier structure, which is the basis by which much of the LUCE vision,
goals, and policies will be achieved.
(q) Additionally, the LUCE establishes 17 distinct land use designations. One of
these land use designations is the Downtown Core. The purpose of this designation is
to maintain and enhance the downtown area as the heart of the City and as a thriving,
mixed use urban environment. Unlike the other land use designations, the LUCE does
not establish new height and FAR development parameters, but instead provides that
the height and FAR along with other development standards shall be determined
through a specific plan process.
(r) At present, there are approximately 750,000 square feet of administrative and
development review projects, not including development agreements, pending planning
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review. Of the 750,000 square feet, approximately 500,000 square feet is located within
the Downtown Core.. Approximately half of the projects in the Downtown Core are
Administrative Approvals that do not require public review and need only comply with
objective standards in the existing Zonirig Ordinance. Bringing forward approximately
250,000 square feet of new development before the completion of the Downtown
Specific Plan means that nearly a quarter of the growth anticipated in the Downtown
could be constructed inconsistent with the yet to be adopted Specific Plan. The
Downtown Specific Plan will include a circulation framework that will address the
integration of Expo light rail into the Downtown system, freeway access, direct parking
structure access, and congestion; establishing the foundation for future land use and
transportation decisions. If these Administrative Approvals proceed in a piecemeal
fashion without these components, it undermines the community vision set forth in the
Downtown District goals and policies, as well as the Downtown Specific Plan process
underway and would detrimentally affect the City's ability to implement LUCE goals and
policies, particularly with respect to: providing open spaces, trip reduction, coordinating
with adjacent sites, congestion management, and achieving community goals through
community benefits and quality urban design.
(s) Additionally, transit-oriented districts in the City's transitioning industrial areas
are not reflected in the current zoning ordinance, which allows uses that would now be
considered undesirable and inconsistent with the LUCE.
(t) Pending completion of the comprehensive update to the Zoning Ordinance, it
is essential that development be consistent with the General Plan so that the goals and
values of the community, as reflected in the LUCE, are not significantly undercut.
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Adjusting the development standards as provided in this Ordinance will ensure that the
quality of life, the environment, the ability to move around the City, and the efficacy of
the ongoing planning process are preserved.
(u) As detailed above and in the January 25, 2011 City Council staff report,
there exists a current and immediate threat to the public health, safety, and welfare
should this interim ordinance not be adopted and development of projects inconsistent
with the LUCE be allowed to proceed through the issuance of Administrative Approvals
or Development Review Permits which are not consistent with the explicit standards of
the LUCE or with the tier structure and the provision of community benefits.
(v) Adoption of this ordinance would not prohibit any development, but would
instead provide an alternate process by which development is reviewed and approved
so as to ensure consistency with and appropriate implementation of the LUCE.
(w) Pending completion of the City's review of its planning and zoning regulations,
it is necessary on an interim basis to modify the Zoning Ordinance as set forth in
Section 2 of this Ordinance.
SECTION 2. Interim Zoning Regulations
Notwithstanding any provision of the City's Zoning Ordinance to the contrary, the
issuance or extension of permits for either a new development project or for the
expansion of an existing development project that exceeds 7500 square feet
("development project") that does not comply with the interim zoning standards set forth
in Section 3 of this Ordinance is hereby prohibited and no zoning permits or approvals,
subdivision maps, building permits, or other land use permit shall be approved, issued,
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or extended for a development project in contravention of Section 3 during the
pendency of this Ordinance or any extension thereof.
SECTION 3. Interim Zoning.
(a) Administrative Approvals. No development. project shall be approved
pursuant to Santa Monica Municipal -Code Section 9.04.20.28.020 [Administrative
Approvals] unless all of the following findings are made:
(1) The proposed development does not require discretionary review or approval
as established in either the Zoning Ordinance, the LUCE, or this Interim Ordinance.
(2) The proposed development conforms precisely to the development standards
contained in both the Zoning Ordinance and in the LUCE for the zoning district and land
use designation in which the development is located.
(3) In the case of any inconsistency between the Zoning Ordinance and the
LUCE pertaining to any objective development standard or permitted use, the proposed
development conforms to the more restrictive development standard and is a permitted
use authorized by the LUCE.
(b) Tier 2 and Tier 3 Development Projects. Notwithstanding the development
standards specified in the Zoning Ordinance, no development project which would
constitute a Tier 2 or Tier 3 project as established pursuant to LUCE Chapter 2.1 shall
be approved except for projects developed pursuant to a development agreement
adopted pursuant to Santa Monica Municipal Code Chapter 9.48.
(c) Downtown Core. Notwithstanding the development standards specified in the
Zoning Ordinance, no development project in the Downtown Core as delineated in the
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Land Use Designation Map approved by the City Council on July 6, 2010 shall exceed
32 feet in height except projects developed pursuant to a development agreement
adopted pursuant to Santa Monica Municipal Code Chapter 9.48. However,
development projects located entirely within the BSC1 Zoning District shall not be
subject to these interim standards provided that the development project is less than the
height and floor area of the existing building.
(d) 100% Affordable Housing Projects. Notwithstanding subsection (b) and (c)
of this Section, affordable housing projects with 50 units or less in which one hundred
percent (100%) of the housing units are deed-restricted or restricted by an agreement
approved by the City for occupancy by households with incomes of eighty percent
(80%) of median income or less will continue to be processed ministerially. Such
affordable housing projects may also include non-residential uses, as long as such uses
do not exceed a maximum percentage of 33% of the total floor area.
SECTION 4. Applicability.
This Ordinance shall apply to any development project which has not received its
discretionary planning entitlements (e.g., development review permit, variance,
architectural review permit, conditional use permit) or received any requested extension
to these planning entitlements as of March 11, 2011 unless the development project has
otherwise obtained a vested right to proceed.
SECTION 5. Any provision of the Santa Monica Municipal Code or
appendices thereto inconsistent with the provisions of this Ordinance, to the extent of
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such inconsistencies and no further, is hereby repealed or modified to that extent
necessary to effect the provisions of this Ordinance.
SECTION 6. If any section, subsection, sentence, clause, or phrase of
this Ordinance is for any reason held to be invalid or unconstitutional by a decision of
any court of competent jurisdiction, such decision shall not affect the validity of the
remaining portions of this Ordinance.. The City Council hereby declares that it would
have passed this Ordinance and each and every section, subsection, sentence, clause,
or phrase not declared invalid or unconstitutional without regard to whether any portion
of the ordinance would be subsequently declared invalid or unconstitutional.
SECTION 7. This Ordinance shall be of no further force. or effect sixty
days after its effective date, unless prior to that date, after a public hearing, noticed
pursuant to Santa Monica Municipal Code Section 9.04.20.22.050, the City Council, by
majority vote, extends this interim ordinance.
SECTION 8. The Mayor shall sign and the City Clerk shall attest to the
passage of this Ordinance. The City Clerk shall-cause the same to be published once
in the official newspaper within 15 days after its adoption. This Ordinance shall
become effective 30 days from its adoption.
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APPROVED AS TO FORM:
Approved and adopted this 8th day of February, 2011.
1 _
Richard Bloom, Mayor
State of California )
County of Los Angeles } ss.
Gity of Santa Monica )
1, Maria M. Stewart, City Clerk of the City of Santa Monica, do hereby certify that
the foregoing Ordinance No. 2345 (CCS) had its introduction on January 25,
2011, and was adopted at the Santa Monica City Council meeting held on
February 8, 2011, by the following vote:
Ayes: Council members: McKeown, O'Connor, O'Day,
Mayor Pro Tem Davis, Mayor Bioom
Noes: Council members: None
Abstain: Council members: Holbrook
Absent: Council members: Shriver
A summary of Ordinance No. 2345 (CCS) was duly published pursuant to
California Government Code Section 40806.
ATTr=ST:
Maria M. Stewart, City Jerk