City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay. Hi everyone. Good afternoon. We will call the meeting of February 24th to order. And uh let's uh turn off our phones. Make sure they're on vibrate so we don't disrupt the meeting. And remember we we don't clap here. You can do happy hands if you would like. Um, with that being said, we will do the pledge of allegiance. Council member Negrete, would you like to lead us in that? And, uh, Council Member Hall, would you like to read the uh, land acknowledgement? The city of Santa Monica is located on the land of Dovangar. With great respect, the city acknowledges the Gabrielano Tongva as the first people of this ancestral and unseated territory of Kurovanka, a village that we know as Santa Monica. We honor their elders, past and present, and the Gabrieleno descendants who are part of the Gabrieleno Tongva tribes. We recognize that these peoples are still here and as settlers in Kuam or guests, we recognize our responsibility and obligation to care for their land in partnership with them. The city of Santa Monica commits to work in partnership with the Gabriel and Yoyo Tongva people to uplift their voices and visibility on their ancestral land.

Phenomenal. Um, Madam Clerk, Council Member Negrete here. Council member Hall, present. Council member Raskin here. Council member Snell here. Council member Zernaya here. Mayor Pro Timwick here. And Mayor Terosas here. Okay. So, let me ask, are there any council members who will be recusing themselves from items on the agenda pursuant to the Lavine Act? None.

Great. Um, so in terms of agenda management, I would be asking for uh a motion to move the close session to the end of the meeting so that we can hear all the items before we adjourn to close session. And I would also just note that item 12A has been removed from the agenda. So if you're here to comment on 12A, that will not be heard tonight. So moved. And I have Can I ask a question? Are we going to continue to move it all the time to the we proposed the item and I'm just curious, are we going to keep doing agenda? I think we're waiting to hear back from just for the public. That's all that's what I was asking. I'll second that. Okay, great. And then um I uh Yeah, that's that's great. Well,

would the maker and seconder uh uh accept a friendly amendment to include waving the rules to receive three commenations? Yes. Sorry, I was about to say that. Um yes, yes. Yes. Okay, we need a voice vote on that. All in favor? I. Any oppose?

Great. Um, so we will now move on to general public input and comment on special agenda items. We have uh seven speakers. So, if you're here for item one, I'm going to call you up, but you can just come up and state your name when you're when you're called. Andrea Mick, or just Andrea Mcan Hunter Gross, Jerry Rubin, Jonathan Foster, Lawrence Cohen, if you could just uh queue up. Thank you.

You can go ahead and start speaking. Okay. Um, I wanted to honor my ADA rights. Um, people who are disabled don't always look that way, but I have epilepsy and um, I needed my ADA rights. sometimes adhere to, but neither here nor there. My name is Andrew McFersonson, a resident of the city of Santa Monica for almost 10 years. I had to wait in between refills for my epilepsy meds, and I had a seizure in the city of Long Beach. I was placed on my back in the ambulance, placed in restraints and given a sedative while choking on my own blood and gasping for air. I was placed in the ICU in Long Beach and um because my lungs were full of blood and um given the wrong epilepsy med after that extenduating circumstance. I'm here to focus on the positive like one of course um training all EMT staff that epileptic patients need to be on their sides and then two um ID bracelets, necklaces, keychains to identify people with chronic illnesses by name, emergency contact, uh doctor's contact info, and chronic chronic illness in itself with the medications. that would be great to work with someone who um directly could have uh keychains and just different things like that for children, for seniors, and for the disabled um for the city of Santa Monica to make your residents safe. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. Morgan Hunter Gross.

Good evening, Mayor, city council members, and city staff. Thank you, Mayor, for your office hours. It was really something special. My name is Morgan Hunter Gross. I want to start with one idea. Everything is linked. The problems in cities with parks, homelessness, public health, safety, infrastructure are not separate buckets. They are one system. Water, power, communications, waste, mobility, health, and human dignity. Moving through the same space. And here's the educational piece. Even the beach sand under our feet isn't natural. We engineered and built the wide beach out of desert reser sand. We repeatedly replenish our beaches with millions of cubic yards of imported sand over the decades, 90s and even earlier, in the mid '90s even. And yet we still don't have a clean and respectful way for people to wash off and change clothes. We still lack basic runoff capture so that the beach ends up holding soap, trash, and waste. It reminds me that when systems aren't designed end to end, pollution and harm can accumulate like the PAS firefighting foams and runoff that have been a concern at Santa Mon. That's a sign we're missing basic systems thinking. We could open innovation overlay zones. Beach Santa Monica would be an example would be respected. Modern beach rest stop for road trippers and a road trippers that makes equal equity visible as infrastructure and a model other coastal cities can copy. Rapid prototyping, crowd source design, measurable iteration. Santa Monica is a living lab proving new designs, toughest real world conditions, the coast, the crowds, and real human need while piloting water capture filtration, renewable power from waves, wind and sun with autonomy and accessibility, innovations for human hygiene and dignity. That's why in my mind, Santa Monica Airport and Santa Monica Beach are one quarter, one path and one solution. The airport is already a test bed. The beach, pier, breakwaters could be a test bed for new technologies. And when we connect them, the Santa Monica becomes a rare place where we can lead education in real world innovation. Starting with the simplest human need, a clean and dignified way to get clean. We can do better. We need private showers, hot water, and proper water handling techniques. A respected public system that residents, both visitors and housed

neighbors, can both use. Nice facilities will also help the city. When people get clean, they can charge up comfy. They'll stay in Santa Monica. They'll shop and dine instead of leaving wet and salty. Thank you. Thank you. Uh Jerry Rubin, Jonathan Foster, Lawrence Cohen, Samantha Mota.

Uh thank you very very much. Uh Jerry Rubin, Santa Monica, Mayor Terosas, Mayor Bo Wick, honorable council members, city staff, city attorney, city manager, city clerk, wonderful police officers, and fellow Santa Monicans. First of all, just want to say thank you for doing the close session at the end of the meeting because I know there's no perfect time and I know it's hard either way and how unpredictable it is. But I just want to say thank you for your dedication. I could go home and relax, but you might have to stay another hour and a half or two hours. And I hope people understand the hard work the council's putting in. The next thing I just want to say is I guess I'm saying this uh and I said it before, we're going to have a very large peaceful protest on March 28th and the police are commending everyone in Santa Monica and we're commending them for the hard work they're going to be doing. Please get involved. Come out with your family to the Palisades Park at 11:00 a.m. at Montana and Ocean Avenue. Bring your family. There's uh go to nokings.org and you'll see all the things that we're doing to promote extra safety and cooperation. But come out and let's make it the largest ever. I mean, all I could say is thank you for your dedication and on with the meeting.

Thank you, Mr. Foster.

Uh, who's is this? Is this a Okay. Hello, Jonathan Foster. I said I would speak about Jerry Rubin. He did a vigil for Renee Good uh ramming the ice with the SUV, and that's that's kind of nice, I guess. Uh I feel that way in general about citizens. Uh she's a pretty misled person. Uh I was wondering if he was going to do a vigil for J Shaw Jr. shot in the face by a dreamer, Pedro Espinosa, 2008, or if he was going to do a vigil for the recent murder by an illegal alien, Brian Rodriguez, killed 8-year-old Arya Asencio. Her dad is active duty Marine Oscar Asencio, and they had to amputate his leg. He's pretty much, you know, brain dead. Not not brain dead, he's got major brain injuries. Incoherent. His two kids are completely shaken up. Two sons, his wife's foots broken. Had a contusion break. I think that's the right word. His wife's hurt pretty badly. They they might be mentioned today at the State of the Union. And this this whole embodiment in California that says illegal aliens should be able to stay here. The sanctuary state crap. Your daughters should die. You should have your leg amputated. You should have brain injuries. that we should arrest you and prosecute you is sent you to jail for life. Why his daughter? It should have been your daughters and really no one should be dying from people not lawfully permitted in the USA at all. There's been several police officers shot by illegal aliens and nobody seems to care at all about a single police officer but Jonathan, the chief of police. I ran against Donald John Trump because he won't arrest the state of California. I would have already arrested this place would be arrested.

You seven would be in prison. I would have you all locked up. You people are disgusting. The people that do this is disgusting. Okay. Lawrence Cohen, Samantha Mota, Bryce Cooper, and Joe D. Rosa. Mr. Um, Cohen, before you come up, I know you have a you have a Do you have a video also? Okay. Okay. Yes.

Can't hear myself. I forgot to wear my hearing aids. Um, I'm feeling very emotional standing here tonight. Right now in DC, Epstein survivors are at the State of the Union. And on April 12th, we are going to do the world's first event to stand for survivors, to celebrate their courage, their resilience. It's going to happen here in Santa Monica. And I'd like to see how this all started by directing your attention to the screen, please.

Hi, my name is Summer Willis. When I was 19 years old, I was sexually assaulted and I stayed silent for a decade. But when I turned 29, I decided to run 29 marathons. And in doing those runs, I found my strength, my resilience, and community. And that is exactly what we're hoping to do with the denim runs this April during sexual assault awareness month in Santa Monica. Can't wait to see you all there. And and what Summer didn't say in that video, when we first started working together, she was shy. She could barely get a word out. And after she finished those 29 marathons, uh she rallied the support of Texas legislators to adopt the first law in Texas history to uh define consent for people who have been sexually assaulted. So, it's a miracle. if I if she knew then what I know now about her. Uh it's just been quite a miraculous journey. So, a few things I want to say. Well, I have 18 seconds. One, I want to thank the Lemley Theaters because they're giving us um a minute and a half of screen time for every movie for the month leading up to our event. Two, we just got the support of a u a major social media influencer, 2.2 million She's coming.

Fantastic. Thank you. Um Samantha Moa, Bryce Cooper, Joe D. Rosa.

Hello, city council members, city staff, and community members. My name is Samantha Ma and I'm a candidate running for the 37th congressional district. I am here to urge city council to amend AB551 into the city zoning ordinance to support policy development, community needs assessments, and into improve local food systems and promote regenerative agricultural practices. It will aid in the reinforcement and strengthening of plans, policies, and programs set forth by Santa Monica. It is a response to the commercial and residential development that threatens to engulf millions of acres of state lands which will be consumed by urban development. In the past decade, there were more than 48,490 eligible vacant lots across LA County's 88 cities. Why not be one of them? Like many other municipalities, there is observed and recorded neglected land that remains blighted and squandered for years. As servants, it is our responsibilities to support policies and programs that improve our communities and neighborhoods. Instead, our communities are being sold out and privatized in the name of affordable housing. Vacant lots should be utilized for agricultural and animal husbandry purposes to address food aparttheid, promote food equity, and accelerate Santa Monica towards a more equitable, resilient, healthy, and compassionate future. Equally important are the grants and funds provided to cities in California who establish a comprehensive set of goals, policies, and objectives to support the long-term protection of agricultural lands and put them back into the hands of the community. This is only possible by converting urban land into conservable agroa agricultural land. This isn't fear or nimism, but a retort to densification and urbanism all the while having a lack of regenerative and reliable food sources. In 2017, we used to say it's not affordable housing versus urban agriculture. Now, in 2026, at the rate and ineffectiveness of our so-called leaders, affordable housing means nothing without an affordable planet. Young activists like myself are

frustrated with servants who want climate resiliency. Thank you, Mr. Cooper.

Council Mayor, Mr. Chi, um, thank you very much for your time this evening. I'm here to speak in support of the Santa Monica airport. Um, I'm also here to address the inequity of the airport commission in its current composition. Yet again, I brought this up last meeting that the uh commission was basically the second most costly commission to taxpayers. We feel strongly this is due to the lack of professional aviation related knowledge that it takes to advise you, the council on very specific aviation related matters. Much like running an airport and future even potential closure, these matters really do need to be at least weighed in by professionals with that uh experience. It was also explained to Mr. Snell that this is essentially a lowcost committee based on the fact that it's paid out of the airport fund instead of the general fund. It's a very unique uh view on that, but this is the exact reason that we as users of the airport and stakeholders do need to be represented. This is even more a reason to be represented. Uh all we ask is that you support an immediate addition to the commission of a person or persons with aviation related knowledge in management or facilities management of that nature. In closing, there was also a recent independent poll some of you may have seen in the Santa Monica Daily Press that showed that 63% of citizens support the airport, not closure, support the airport. Granted, polls can always be interpreted, but this was a rather independent poll. Please pay attention to those results. A lot can change in 10 years. Just look what two terms of change can bring in the mind of voters in our national government, let alone our city. Please pay attention to the voters instead of the echo chamber that has become the airport commission comprised of persons that unapologetically using their public position to project personal sentiment. This is what democracy is about. This is not meant to be an echo chamber of people who are anti-airport or pro park. They're unapologetic about it, which is fine. But the reality is they should not be using their pulpit to influence those decisions, especially when related to

you, the council members that make these decisions on behalf of taxpayers. Taxpayers that paid. Thank you. Uh Joe D. Rosa.

Thank you, city council members. Um I have two simple requests. Um there's a lot going on with the beaches as far as making it a national park and removal of the coastal commission. I was wondering if you guys could put up like an information site that shows the benefits and like the negatives uh for each of those actions for the public. So this way they can develop an informed opinion. Uh the other one was one I emailed you guys about today about a parking regulation uh for parking transparency to prevent bait and switch parking like you see down at the Sears building down there where they say $10 an hour and then you park and it's $10 for the first hour and $20 for each additional hour. Since that's been going on over the last 5 years, we've suddenly see that area um become a black crow over it and vacancies and less shopping and it's right next to the pier. It's right next to Santa Monica Place and they're always out there with those $10 signs. And if you look at the reviews for that parking lot, they're always getting screwed with $70 bills and it puts a bad taste on local tourism visitors or anybody else who parks there who wants to come. And it creates a negative feeling for the downtown area. And I think it would be uh well within the city's uh standards to put an ordinance that prevents that type of stuff. Besides that, guys, thank you so much.

Thank you. I appreciate it. We have two phone callers. We have Anthony Jernigan. Mitchell, we're ready for the phone callers. All right, Mr. Jernikin, you can press star six to unmute yourself and your time will begin when you begin to speak. Mr. Jan,

Mr. Jurg, you can go ahead. You can begin. Yes. Hello. Can you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you. Thank you. So, you know, in uh speaking to my fellow residents here, a lot of us are starting to feel like we're just completely being left out of the decision-making process in the city. You know, major policies move forward with minimal transparency. Key discussions happen without clear explanation. And we're all left wondering, you know, does this council not know what's happening inside its own government? Or are you choosing not to tell us because you think we won't like what we hear? Because frankly, in many cases, residents probably wouldn't. But that's not a reason to withhold information. That's a reason to engage with us honestly and transparently. There's this growing perception that decisions are being shaped to satisfy the county, outside interest groups, or even political networks rather than us, the people who actually live, work, and pay taxes here. Whether that perception is fair or not, it exists because transparency has been, let's face it, lacking. This city is not thriving. Homelessness is worse than it has ever been. The strategies implemented so far have not produced visible improvement. Businesses are leaving. Commercial corridors have vacancies. Employers are questioning whether they can continue operating here. So what is the plan to stop that? What concrete actions are taking to stabilize the local economy? And then there's a fiscal reality. We are hearing more and more about structural deficits and long-term financial strain. Many residents are concerned that this city is drifting toward the brink of bankruptcy. If that's not accurate, then clearly explain the numbers. If it is a risk,

tell us what you are going to cut, reform, or prioritize to prevent it. The public deserves clarity. We deserve transparency. We des That was two minutes. Okay. Mike Montgomery. Mr. Montgomery, are you there?

Yes. Hi. Um, thank you. Uh, members of the council, I'm here tonight as a dad. Um, raising my daughter in Santa Monica. And like every parent, I'm constantly asking myself, is this city getting better for her or worse? And right now, I mean, the the kind answer is say I don't know. But, um, based upon what I've seen over the last number of months, I think we're headed down the wrong path. Um, you know, when when we go downtown and see and smell people using drugs in the open and, you know, another small business we like is suddenly gone. um when homelessness keeps growing and you know we experience real life threats um it doesn't feel like we see clear results. It feels like things are moving in the wrong direction and kind of kind of like we're we're stuck. Um you know what I think worries me most is is you know all the problems and all cities have problems. It's it's I think that I just don't understand the plan. I don't think most residents do and big decisions get made like the Ocean Avenue facilities and families like mine are generally left trying to figure out after the fact what the actual strategy is and who the priority or who the priorities are. the people who live here and pay taxes or is it the outside pressure whether it's you know the county um you know the mayor's employer or advocacy groups like Jesse's employer or political relationships um because from where a lot of us sit it feels like our voices are an afterthought. Um I think Santa Monica is an amazing place. That's why we're here. Uh but a lot of parents are worried right now. We're worried about safety. We're worried about the economy and whether we're getting straight answers from this

council. So, I'm just asking for clear priorities, real transparency, and and leadership that puts the residents of this city first. And that was two minutes. Thank you. Uh that concludes our public comment on uh non-aggendaized items. I I also wanted to do a quick a second point of agenda management. I would like to move the city manager's report up behind uh the special agenda items because I think we have a special guest for the city manager report. So moved. Do we need do we need a a roll call vote on that? Okay, you can just Okay, all those in favor.

I any opposed? No. Okay, great. Because I I just want to accommodate our our furry friends back there. Um, okay. So, we are going to move on to the mayor's highlight uh for this month and uh as we have been doing work honoring uh our city, our amazing city staff who has been helping to effectuate uh this realignment and uh rebirth for our city. Uh and if we could call forward Grace uh Kiton, Sasha Sergeant, Claire Caldera, Rosie Cruz, Mia Engel, uh Gilberto Sanchez, Laurel Buyers, don't be shy, maybe they're not here. Um, Shelley Goings, Rebecca Ortiz, Merl Wyn, Jennifer Yazzy, Richard Slugowski, Slagoski, sorry, Samantha Singha, and Amy Lee. Um, I you can you if if one of you wants to say something that's great. I'm just going to read off why we're recognizing you and then we'll take a a quick picture and I just super appreciate everyone staying late here today and and being here. So, a a strong this is our human resources department. We're honoring them today and and our wonderful staff and the individuals who make it happen. Uh a strong city depends on a healthy workforce and hiring the right people and taking care of our city team is crucial to the success of the realignment plan. And critical to the work is the amazing team in human resources. During implementation of the realignment plan, HR staff has been continuously recruiting, testing, interviewing, onboarding new staff, working super hard. And the most recent new employee orientation class reached a record number of over 70 participants. That's amazing. This is a group effort consisting of staff from recruitment, benefits, and training, all working together to get employees hired and onboarded to do the critical work associated with realizing our city's goals. This effort clearly reflects our core values. The team's humility was evident in their collaborative approach and willingness to adapt, learn, and support

one another under pressure. Their integrity showed in fair, transparent hiring practices and a focus on doing the work the right way, even when the timelines were demanding. The team's motivation drove them to meet ambitious goals while maintaining high standards and their genuine care for the candidates and new employees ensured that each person felt valued, prepared, and welcomed into the organization. The HR hiring team's work during this period has made a meaningful impact across every single department in the organization and set a strong foundation for future success. Your performance exemplifies excellence in service and commitment to our mission and you all deserve recognition for a job exceptionally well done. So, I just I think it's appropriate if we all give a round of applause and I'm going to come forward with some commendation.

Does anyone want to say anything? Thank you guys so much. Um, as you can see, this is a really large number of HR staff here. And what that represents is that it's not just one team. It there's so many pieces to hiring, recruiting and hiring, examining, uh, onboarding. I mean, we've got people here who are, you know, on the HRIS team. I mean, there's so many pieces that go along with getting some of the butt in the seat, as they say. And so, I can't tell you how proud I am of them and how, you know, they they've not complained at all. They've just banded together and done the work. So, thank you so much for recognizing them today.

You guys want to take them out? Yeah, take them out. Take them out. I think Yeah, we'll go up there with a picture. Hi. Hi. Hi. Come on over. If you can leave the yellow envelopes here, I'll get them for you. You can up. Thank you. Hi. Hi.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Madame Mayor, before we take the picture, can we request that Sarah be part of the photo also? Everyone Thank you. Okay,

now we will I'm very excited to commend Santa Monica's first black firefighter. Um, if our fire department wants to come up uh and we're going to do a commendation uh for Eddie Davis. We'll just give them a moment to walk on over. We're we're on a schedule here uh Chief Hex. So, get your get your boys. Let's go. and girls and people. Okay, I'm gonna start reading so we can maximize our our time here. Is is Mr. Davis here? He's passed, but his widow is in the restroom. So

Oh, okay. Well, let us um let us then move to Women's History Month really quickly. Is that okay? But appreciate that everyone's ready. Um sorry, who's who uh if we could have the the folks who are here for Women's History Month. Um, Barbara Jacobson. Uh, I'm gonna read the proclamation and then Miss Jacobson City team. Is Miss Jacobson here? Okay. Um, we will move on to kidney awareness month. Is Dr. Ristogi, the clinical chief of nefrology at UCLA Health and the Brew Beans Health Club. Here, I see we love our Bruins. Come on up. Um, so I'm going to go ahead and read our kidney awareness month proclamation and then if you want to say a few brief words and and we'll take a photo. Uh, so March is nationaliz recognized nationally as kidney awareness month, a time dedicated to raising awareness about kidney health and the prevention of kidney disease, a serious and often silent public health issue affecting millions of Americans. And one in three adults in the United States is at risk of developing kidney disease. One in seven adults currently lives with the disease and only one in 10 individuals with kidney disease is aware they have it due to the frequently asymptomatic nature in its early stages. Risk factors for kidney disease include diabetes, high blood pressure, age, medications such as ibuprofen, family history, making education and early detection critical tools in preventing progression and saving lives. And whereas early diagnosis through simple blood and urine tests combined with timely intervention and guideline directed therapies can significantly slow the progression of kidney disease and improve health outcomes. And whereas the green ribbon campaign led in partnership with the Brun Beans Health Club at the University of California, Los Angeles, my alma m and the core kidney program works to increase public awareness, promote screening and advocate for kidney health education within the Santa Monica communities. And

whereas the city of Santa Monica recognizes the importance of supporting public health initiatives that empower residents with knowledge, encourage preventative care, and position our community as a leader in health advocacy. Um, so our whole council is declaring uh the month of March as uh kidney awareness month. And we're asking all residents to seek appropriate screening, support the green ribbon campaign, and join us in raising awareness. And so if you wanted to give a couple remarks, we'll then take a photo.

Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. and uh I'm a kidney specialist at UCL Health and I have this my undergraduate club. So I just want to point out that there's a connection between kidney health awareness and Santa Monica. We used to do the kidney fair at the beach um at at Santa Monica Beach and and the last one was 2019 and u it's been a big part of our campaign and all that I ask is that a simple blood test and urine test can diagnose you. there 100,000 people waiting on the kidney transplant list. So also organ donation awareness is something that we really focus on. So I just want to thank everybody for having us over here. Thank you. You want to say something? You want to say anything?

Just a couple quick words. Um hi everyone. My name is Sim Olaker. Hi everyone. My name is Rain Wong and we are the co-presidents of the Brun Beans Health Club over at UCLA. We work in partnership with the core kidney program and we just want to thank you for letting us come back here a second year in a row. We were here last year to proclaim March as kidney disease awareness month. So, thank you so much for coming us back here. Thank you so much. Of course. Let's take a photo. Oh, mayor, may I share a quick story? I mean, well, yeah, go ahead.

Um, so I shared this story last year as well, but one of my friends uh her late husband had been diagnosed with uh kidney disease in the early 2000s. And when he was diagnosed, he was about 10 minutes away from full renal failure. And unfortunately, this is something that happens to a lot of folks who experience kidney disease because these symptoms are very easy to mistake for something else. Um, she had actually ended up being able to become a kidney donor to her husband in 2009 and he unfortunately did pass away in 2023, but that meant he was able to get an extra 14 years with her. with their pets, with his grandchildren, with their children. And so, thank you so much for being here to share to share awareness. And I I really appreciate it. Thank you. Okay, we're going to go in the photo. You guys'll hear So all of you profession

both landscape and vertical for socials. My Okay. Um I think we'll Yay. I'm getting the thumbs up sign. We're going to go back to our lovely firefighters. Um, so we want to have a commendation for Eddie Davis. He was Santa Monica's first black firefighter and I understand his family is here. So if we if you all want to come up uh to to the to the mic, I will start reading the commendation. Um, so whereas Eddie Davis holds a lasting place in the history of Santa Monica as the city's first black firefighter and a trailblazer who helped open doors in a profession that has long excluded people of color. And whereas in 1965 during a period of deep racial tension and significant societal change, excuse me, social change across the nation, he joined the Santa Monica Fire Department at a time when integration required extraordinary courage, resilience, and quiet determination. And whereas serving during the racially charged 1960s, Mr. Davis persevered through adversity and discrimination with professionalism and integrity, demonstrating unwavering commitment to protecting the residents of Santa Monica. And whereas over the course of a long and dedicated career, he earned the respect of his colleagues and the

community, becoming a well-liked firefighter known for his service, character, and leadership. And whereas the legacy of Eddie Davis is one not only of honorable public service, but of meaningful progress, reminding us that institutions evolve because individuals are willing to step forward, endure resistance, and remain committed to excellence. Uh, and I would just say it's so fitting that we're honoring uh him during Black History Month. Uh, so important. So, thank you all for being here. Now, uh, we as the city of Santa Monica hereby commend Eddie Davis for his historic service, enduring impact on the advancement of equity and opportunity within the fire service and his lasting contributions to the city of Santa Monica. And I don't know if anyone wants to say a few words while we come down and present the proclamation.

Don't be shy. It's your time to shine. To my right is my mother, Annie H. Davis, firefighter Davis's wife. I am Red Davis, his uh baby boy. On behalf of our family, uh there is four generations standing behind me. By the way, we thank you for this wonderful honor. And I'm going to keep it brief. Thank you very much.

Thank you. to say that it was nice while he was there. We would have dinners that sometimes I would cook and take to them while he was working. And I missed everybody because I had met some very nice young ladies there. and we would go and have the wives meetings and everything was always so nice because they would tell me what was happening and I'm a registered nurse so I wouldn't be free all the time but they would keep me up on what was going on And my husband, he was something else. And I I am so proud of him. And I'm so proud to know that someone else think he's worthy of giving a word of honor, too. Because he would do anything for anybody. That's just the type of man he was. But he was also a Christian man. So the way it goes.

Are we okay to go get Does she want to take Are you okay to go there for a picture? Yeah, of course. Have a seat, Mom. We're going to take a couple photos. Put your feet up. Excellent. I will see you soon.

Okay. Okay. Okay. And then already done that.

You killed it, too.

Yeah. Yeah. Everyone,

awesome. Why were you in there? Okay, amazing. Um, is our our Barbara Jacobson here?

Fantastic. So, we uh March coming up in a few days here is Women's History Month. So, we are going to proclaim the month of March uh as Women's History Month. And I'm going to read the proclamation and then Miss Jacobson, if you want to say a couple brief words. Um, so Women's History Month and International Women's Day are observed each March to recognize and celebrate the enduring and transformative contribution of women to communities, the arts, technological innovation, and the advancement of social, economic, and political progress. City of Santa Monica recognizes the ongoing importance of gender equity, inclusion, and respect for women of all identities as well as allies in creating a more just, compassionate, and thriving community for all. And whereas this marks the 39th annual observance of Women's History Month in the United States and the 115th International Women's Day, the women in the city of Santa Monica honor and builds upon the legacy of those who came before whose efforts helped pave the way towards a more equitable and progressive future. and women have historically served and continue to serve at all levels of government, including elected office, leadership, staff positions, emergency services, and public safety. Uh, and where is a diverse as a diverse community, we come together to harness our collective strength to advance a more just and equitable society and commemorate women's history month. So on behalf of the city council, we are proclaiming the munch of month month of March as women's history month in Santa Monica. And we are encouraging all women of all identities and allies, residents and visitors to come together to honor the past, celebrate the present, and help shape a more equitable and inclusive future for all. So, uh, if you would like to make a few remarks.

Sure. So, thank you so much. I really appreciate you all taking the time to acknowledge uh Women's History Month and uh International Women's Day uh especially at this time um where we are. Uh it's really important that we continue to uh continue moving forward especially in leadership and everything that we're doing as a city. Um it really helps to move the momentum forward. So thank you very much. Yeah, I don't have this many people but let's take a picture. We got some ladies.

Women and allies. Perfect. Thank you. department mobility. Oh, sweet. Okay, cool. Bye. Take care.

Uh before we move on, I think we have a a guest that's been very patiently waiting. Um so, we're going to move this, as we decided, the city manager report to now.

Thank you. Thank you, Madame Mayor, members of the city council. We have um a much more interesting and exciting city manager update for everyone this evening. Um before we get to the start of the city manager report this um tonight, um a couple of quick things to let the council and community know about. Um first off, um did anyone watch the NBA All-Star game last week at Into It just up the street? Um was a new format to the game? We saw some interesting things happen on the court. Um, what happened off the court was also super interesting. Did you know that the NBA designated Santa Monica as the location for all of the NBA Allstars? Um, the Regent Hotel was identified as the location that all of the NBA All-Star players and NBA personnel stayed at. Santa Monica was their base of operation. Um, our team at the police department did a great job keeping things under wrap while they also coordinated a bunch of security related efforts with the MBA public works team did a great job keeping downtown looking terrific um with a special shine as we had this terrific event coordinated in the region and really with so many sporting events coming up the next couple of years um it was really cool internally to know Santa Monica is still a place people want to be when there are big events in the region. We're looking forward to more to come as we move into the next couple of years. Um, a couple other things. NBA All-Star game may have come and gone, but as we come up to this next weekend, there's a ton of cool stuff happening in Santa Monica. First, the Freeze Art Festival is coming back to town and the region at Santa Monarch Airport. That'll start this Thursday, February 26th. The 11th annual Black History Greens Festival will also be held at Virginia Avenue Park this Saturday from 11 to 4:00. We'll also be wrapping up Black History Month um this

Saturday with a movie screening at the main library and a dance performance created around the public art at historic Belmar Park. A couple other fun things if you're into morning yoga. This coming Saturday, phase three of our Santa Monica Dunes project kicks off. Um we will be doing a morning yoga and restoration event in partnership with the Bay Foundation. We also have um a special event at Main Street Farmers Market this coming Sunday as well as the Julia Morgan Legacy Day at Annenburgg Community Beach House. Please log on to Santa Monica.gov backvents for more details. Um, we've been talking the last couple of meetings that maybe one of these days, um, as we introduce our adoptable pets of the meeting, we might be meeting those pets in person. I see Rob coming up with our team from the animal shelter. And today, instead of just a picture, we wanted to introduce everyone in person to Colonel, a 2 and 1/2year-old shepherd husky mix. He loves going for walks, playing catch, or playing with stuffies in the yard and exploring. Um, everyone take a look. He is here in the council chambers. We hope the council will come and take a look. We hope somebody out there sees Colonel, decides that Colonel needs to be part of their family. Please contact the animal shelter if you're interested in meeting him. And as always, you can visit the Santa Monica Animal Shelter Foundation website to make a donation or shop from the Chewy wish list. Colonel, welcome to our council meeting. You are the star of the evening.

Uh good evening.

Good evening, mayor and council, Mr. City Manager. Um thank you for having us. And as uh Mr. Ch said, this is Colonel. He was surrendered to the shelter on January 2nd of this year. So he's been with us for about two months. U playful as you can see. Uh he's been in council chambers now for an hour with us in the back and uh behaving very nicely in in uh in public. So um what we know about him from his owners that surrendered is that he uh very playful, likes to play with his toys, likes to go for walks, gets along with other dogs. Uh he uh yeah, I mean he's he's a husky shepherd mix, so he you know has a lot of energy and um we have a lot of great dogs at the shelter and a lot of great animals. We're uh hoping that people can come and help us out by adopting uh you know, Colonel and and every other animal that we have. And uh yeah, thank you so much for having us. Who's adopting your parent? Colonel's providing emotional support to everyone here today. Um, okay. Amazing. We're now going to move on to public

input under uh consent calendar items. And we have um one one uh Andrea and then I think we do have one on the phone. Keeping us clean.

Hello again. My name is Andrea McFersonson. I spoke about my extenduating circumstances due to lack of proper care of the EMTs of Long Beach. Basically, MTS need uh better communication equipment to receive patients private information to help save lives. I gave the secretary my ID bracelet that contains information about my chronic illness. It uh it is easily accessible and complete with a QR code and if it's scanned, all info automatically pulls up on the screen. Um the most positive thing that has happened throughout that extenduating circumstance uh is throughout that whole um situation I received an ANA blood test and it diagnosed me with lupus and um it explained why my kidneys um were bothering me and that is why I support kidney awareness month. That's very important. But now I know why I'm in so much pain and dangerously low electrolytes as well. But please think about working with uh the proper medical professionals to make disabled people, seniors and disabled children safer by even placing um the keychains on their backpacks. That's a great idea, guys. Think about it. And um I approved this motion, but please give the um EMTs updates on proper protocol having to do with major chronic illnesses like epilepsy, placing people on their sides instead of on their backs, and just all kinds of just different things. updating um proper information for EMTs, new and old. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much. And the bracelet, I gave it to the secretary. If you guys just want to take a look at it really quickly, it it's a ID bracelet with a QR code and then uh I'm going to get out of here as soon as you guys take a look at it. I'll take it. That's our clerk. Um thank you. Thank you. We also have Denise uh Barton. Go ahead, Denise. Hello. Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Go ahead.

Good evening. This is Denise Barton on item 4. Would this be our city council and mayor trying to make DI hires look competent for their positions with when they can't properly execute their positions? I asked because haven't you had a program like this at the Santa Monica airport? How's that going? And don't you think you need to better but you need better results before you expand it citywide? You know, the Los Angeles grand jury has previously found Santa Monica to be one of the most financially mismanaged cities, but the city council carries on that reputation. Oh, and is the human services department still posting receipts of funds any quicker than 100 to 200 days after receipt? It all goes along with the city. the city wanting to make as the city city staff wanting to make as much money as they can doing as little as they can. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Barton. Uh we will now move on to uh the consent calendar. Uh and I I understand that item 4D has been pulled. Uh and will is anyone recusing themselves from anything under the consent calendar? Okay, I see no recusals. Do I want to hear a motion for everything but 4D? So moved. Second. Great. I'm sorry. Was that council member Negrete? Okay. And Zernet's got a second. Yeah. Council member Zernaya. Yes. Council member Snell. Yes. Mayo Tim Swick. Yes. Council member Rasin. Yes. Council member Hall. Yes. Council member Negrete. Yes.

And Mayor Terosas. Yes. Okay, that carries. We will now hear 4 D. Uh, and Council Member Zernit Skay, I believe you pulled that. So, are you asking for a staff report? Uh, no. I I don't need a staff report. I just wanted to ask uh Mr. Santiago a quick question or two about some of the restrictions of our investment policy just so that the public can um understand what limitations we have as a government entity within uh how you know on how we invest. Um so, I don't know. evening council and mayor. Hi,

thank you so much for being here, Mr. Santiago. Uh, so I I noticed that in our investment policy, it stated that we have uh we had a divestment of Russia based investments due to the Russia Ukraine war beginning in 2022. Um, can you please confirm whether that's still the case and if there is any state laws that also affect that?

That is still the case. It was um a policy that council implemented in 2022. So, we're still observing that policy and we um we divested some of our investments. The ones that we have are insurance um type of investments. So, we can't really tie them to um Russia investments or anything like that specifically, but we have um you know, kind of divested from the other investments. Okay. Thank you. And um last year when we went over this, I believe we had added a pro prohibition on cryptocurrency and cryptoreated investments. Uh but could you please confirm if there is now also California level um code that prohibits municipal governments from investing in these types of investments? Yes, California government code prohibits it.

Okay. Thank you. It prohibits um cryptoreated investments in cryptocurrency. Okay. It's on page eight of our um policy as well. Perfect. Um and sorry, go ahead. Yeah. Oh u and last question. uh could you please clarify what what our investment policy means when it comes to socially responsible investing?

So we uh prioritize investments that are um categorized as social um social uh government investing I believe. Um and so we they're categorized because they the money that's used the proceeds are used for um for uh social causes. And so those investments are are categorized and they're also uh there's ratings that categorize the investments and so our investment advisor um understands the policy. So when they when they um recommend investments, they make sure that we kind of look at those investment first and then we assess the uh returns with safety principle and all that stuff when we're making decisions on our investments. But that's one of the categories that we look at.

Thank you. And the priorities the priority in general for our investment portfolio is to preserve capital um safety liquidity. Okay. First and then ready to return. Okay. Perfect. Thank you so much. Um if nobody else has any other questions, I'm happy to move this item. Great. I'll second it. Thank you. Thank you so much, Mr. Santgo. Okay. Council members Erneskaya. Yes. Council member Snell. Yes. Mayor Potenwick. Yes. Council member Rasin. Yes. Council member Hall. Yes. Council member Negrete. Yes.

Mayor Terosas. Yes. Fantastic. Um we will now move on uh to public input on the remaining agenda items. Um and oh before we do that, I'd like to ask if any council members have anything to report on travel. Thank you. since the last council meeting. Okay.

Sorry. Um this past weekend I was at the Independent Cities Association. I serve on the executive board. It was in Santa Barbara. Um it was great. Collaborated with other beach cities, inland cities. Um sessions ranged from um how to generate revenue in your cities without taxing residents. um creating um tax increment financing districts, cyber security um tech, etc. But the biggest um takeaway was Coastal Commission, not only speaking to the members there and the chair, but building those relationships, which has resulted in um Coastal Commission coming for a meeting here on Friday and um more meetings with our city manager's office. So um yeah, that was independent cities association and um that was this past weekend in Santa Barbara. Great. Um, that sounds fantastic. Um, we're going to move on now to public input on remaining agenda items. Jerry Rubin, with the exception of the public hearing item, Jerry Rubin, Luke Kaine, Peter Wheelen, Carol Valain, Connor Webb.

Before I begin, I wanted to speak on the 16 item. Is that Yes, you may do that. That's the one now. Yep.

Well, I must say I was uh very pleased to see this is on the agenda. I want to thank uh council member Negradi and uh Mayor Prom Zwick for doing this because it's so timely and so positive. It is something everyone can get behind and I think every business is going to appreciate it, especially the smaller businesses and the dining people. You know, just as an aside, I hope this isn't too much off the subject and everyone has a right to their own opinion, but when I heard these phone call public putdowns of Santa Monica, I thought I'm not saying that. And I go to the prominade a lot. It doesn't smell bad. It's clean. It's wonderful. And all the challenges are going to be overcome and all the great events and everything. So I urge everyone to understand that and how everyone's working together to see that and how everyone's understanding how important it is to get people out there. The weather is good. We want to be out. We want to be visible. And I just want to thank you for doing this. and it's great to live in Santa Monica.

Thank you, Jerry. Uh Luke Kaine, then Peter Wheelen.

Good evening, mayor. Good evening, council. Um you may have received an email from me um this week regarding the wastewater management fee and the waste uh the mitigation fees. Um I work in leasing. I've been trying to lease the prominade for 6 years. I'm deeply invested into this city. Uh grew up here, rent control tenant. Um you know, my family have the Bratannia pub. We've been in business nearly 30 years at this point. And um you know, I for the first time in a long time, it's felt like things are finally starting to come back. Um you know, the weather's been great this year. We're off to I I honestly thought it was going to happen last year, um but with the fires and everything slowed us down. um you know you guys have done a tremendous job kind of spearheading things like tearing down some of the red tape with uh you know opening you know any type of business on the prominade but I just do want to make note of um one of the issues that I'm running into and it's the first time I've ever seen this where a tenant is willing to take a retail space and convert it to a restaurant space. The level of investment with that is a lot these days. Um, we have these fees in place like 13 like like $1,400 a seat per new seat. Like if you convert a retail space, say it's 50 seats, that's 70 G's right off the bat that you like to get your permits, you have to pay that. Um, I think with all the work that you guys are doing, it's kind of almost all for not if we don't wave those fees. Um, again, like things are coming back like we can't afford a misstep and I really believe that. Um, anything you guys can do to wave these fees would be a tremendous help to not only like the uh real estate people like myself, but my family, all these other tenants on the street. Maybe they're thinking about expanding. Maybe they're thinking about opening up a new location. You know, I just don't want to impede on that. You guys have done a tremendous job like really spearheading some of this stuff. So, let's make it count. You know what I mean? So,

thank you so much. And we did receive your email. Thank you. Um, Peter Wheelen Caro. Oh, yeah. Great.

How's it going? My name is Peter Wheelen. I'm the facilities director for the LA Cargo Auto Group. I'm here on behalf of my boss, Mike Sullivan. We own 12 dealerships, seven of which are in the city of Santa Monica, and we employ roughly 450 people here. In the last six or seven years, we've we've put in excess of $50 million into the restructuring of our facilities here in Santa Monica. In some talks with some of your staff, uh, transportation and and, uh, code enforcement, I learned that we were doing a very late that we were that there was a safety study uh, on Santa Monica Boulevard and there there's a they're recommending removing the ability to turn left into our facility or onto Park Drive. I feel that's sort of burdom on us. Um, there's some other things as well. That bike path's going to remove some parking. I know you're doing work on Broadway, which we can't really talk about here, but that's going to remove parking around our area. Uh, and while I'd be a fool to sit here and say I don't want safety because that's what item 11 A is about. Um, I I do want and I do I I want to support that item, but I want to have a discussion about the ability as to how it imp or the ability to to access our facility. Um, and so I would ask that you just you approve the safety functions, but let's have a little chat about how we get in and out of our site. Okay? We've sent you a letter uh via email. Uh, I hope you get that and take a minute to read that um uh and see where we can go from here. But I'd really appreciate the ability to have a little conversation uh about that. I think that their response

to that no left turn is an extraordinary action to take for a minimal issue. So thanks guys.

Thank you. We also got your email. Um Carol Good evening, council. I'm Cara Valain. I'm here to speak on item 11A. Shocker. U first I want to thank all the staff for all the work they put into this project and many other projects. There are many components of this project that I strongly support and I hope to see soon. One of them is the intersection at Chelsea. This will be such a major improvement for McKinley students and families. I would actually love to see it moved to phase one as I think this could have a much stronger impact than other improvements proposed in phase one. And I think we shouldn't wait that long to make it safer. And while I appreciate other components of this project such as curb extensions, farside bus stops, turn restrict turn restrictions, it's hard to believe that this is the best we can do with this amount of time and resources. Staff has done so much great work. It's not uncommon to hear people um talk about Santa Monica streets and say that they're much safer than other cities. One thing you don't hear is people think they feel safe on Wilshire Boulevard and spending $11 million to mostly duplicate what has already been done on Wilshire where multiple people died last year seems kind of counterproductive. So I don't mean to take away from all the work that has already been put into this. But when we continue to to approve projects that kind of feel watered down from the community's perspective, it's kind of hard to believe that we truly take vision zero ser and want to um achieve it within our lifetime. So, I'm not here to tell you what to do, but I hope you can at least have a meaningful discussion and follow through with your request from last meeting to prioritize safety over throughput and unfounded fears. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Connor Webb.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Connor Webb. I'm here to speak on 11A. Um I again want to just start by saying thank you to all the mill many talented people um that have spent considerable effort and uh done a really great job on many aspects of this project. Um but two weeks ago council voted unanimously to acknowledge our failure on vision zero which was our commitment to eliminate deaths and serious injuries on our roads by 2026. That motion called for designs in the public rightway to prioritize human life over all else moving forward. And while the proposed plan has many good recommendations, I do not think it achieves the needed safety required to achieve that goal. And uh frankly, it seems very similar to the Wilshire changes uh which have been proven to be insufficient with multiple region uh recent tragic deaths. As a mid-ity resident myself, I've nearly been turned into a pink mist multiple times while using those new Wilshire crosswalks. Um you know, now I walk an extra six minutes out of my way um just to just to cross Wilshire despite living right next to it. Uh, I want everyone on council to uh think if they would allow their young children or nieces or nephews or grandchildren to cross those unsignalized intersections alone because if the answer is no, I think we need to do better. Seriously. And the best part of this plan is that signalized crossing at McKinley Elementary. Uh, but it's a later phase item. Um, so please prioritize that signal and uh make it a separate near-term priority. Uh, but I think we do need to improve this project overall. uh whether that you know happens after approval or we lay a clear path forward to getting those improvements done, I think changes do need to be made because this is a once ina-lifetime uh opportunity to redesign one of our most dangerous roads in Santa Monica and achieve vision zero on it. So agreeing to a plan that is anything but exceptional is unfortunately just an agreement to fail on that vision zero commitment for decades to come. Thank you.

Thank you. So, um I believe we also have some um virtual or phone callers. So, Jacob, I'm sorry. We have one late speaker, Robbie, that just signed up. Great. Um I'll move that to allow the speaker. Okay. Second. Do we need to vote on that? I Is anyone opposed to that? Don't see any. Okay. Um Robbie is Jones for everybody here. Come down to the courtyard. Red Wait. Come and tell us about your Tell us about your Come over. Come to the mic. Robbie, come on. Okay.

Tell us what you do. Why you brought these? We're hungry. We haven't eaten dinner yet.

Oh well. This is going to drive you crazy. See? Oh my god. Oh. Um, just Family Cafe Coffee Bar, uh, 1819 Pico Boulevard. I'm the owner, the first black owner of a coffee bar on Pico, historically African-American property. Uh, but we got these wonderful desserts here. We came here to um be uh present them at the reception for the first black firefighter and we have so many left and we brought a lot cuz that's what we do in the south. We make a lot of food. So, we got peach cobbler, lemon pie, uh, sweet potato pie, red velvet cupcakes, and pecan pie. Pecan cookies. We have everything. Y'all come down to the reception and this will be in the office for you guys or you want it right now.

But just want to do a little infomercial. Thank you. No, we really just wanted you guys to taste what we have and everybody come up. Happy Black History Month. Thank you. Um, okay. We have Jacob Wasserman. Mr. Wasserman, are you there?

Hi. Um, this is Jacob Wasserman. I'm commenting on uh the Santa Monica Boulevard study. I realized the disadvantage of commenting remotely is that I do not get to have any of that food. Um, real shame there. Um, yeah, I'm a planning commissioner, but speaking for myself, um, this study, it shows a lot of work, but it really unfortunately needs to be sent back to the drawing board. And I think particularly the the safety issues for pedestrians and bicyclists were raised by previous commenters. I want to focus on bus lanes. This corridor is a huge bus corridor. I take the one um all the time. There's metro on it as well. Um we could put a bus lane that would speed up transit for not just all riders, but particularly our most transit dependent riders, those um who can't afford a car. Um but this report, it it has like one partial peak hour bus lane for a couple blocks, but nothing for the rest of the corridor where buses poke along in traffic. And I I just want to quote one part. It's about the downvote comments, upvote downvote comment system that they had to gather feedback. They said that the most downvoted comment only had four down votes, but then they said, quote, "It's reflective of disagreements in the community over the idea of reducing the number of drive lanes on San Lukica Boulevard. Tell me, four down votes, the most downvoted comment. Is that reflective of disagreement?" I don't think so. I think that we're just having a situation where some people say they don't want it. Most people say they want bus lanes, but staff is treating them equally. And I think that your vote when you said that you were going to commit to Vision Zero, commit to prioritizing transit riders and the lives the lives and safety of our pedestrians and bicyclists mandates that this study be sent back to the drawing board. There's no funding

deadline here. There's no grant. You don't have to approve this tonight. Um, unfortunately, absent full bus lanes or at least something. Thank you, Mr. Two minutes. Miss Barton,

Denise, are you there? Can you hear me? Yes. Go ahead. You can begin.

Good evening. This is Denise Barton on item 16A. I'm baffled as to why you think the resident taxpayer should be responsible for any business upgrades on the prominade, especially when you refuse to provide a safe city to the residents or to anyone for that matter. And isn't the water and wastewater upgrade fees for outdoor dining county fees which require initial investment of tens of thousands of dollars? And aren't and isn't and aren't the prominade businesses privately owned? Then why should the resident taxpayers be responsible for upgrades or conversions from retail to restaurant for privately owned businesses? That this that this resident that the resident taxpayers will get no direct financial recovery from. This item looks like nothing more than further financial mismanagement from the city council members Wick and Negrete. Thank you.

Okay, that concludes the comments on these items and we will now hear the staff report on uh item 11 A. Let me read the title first. Oh, my apologies. Sorry.

So 11A is receive and adopt the Santa Monica Boulevard safety study funded by CALR sustainable transportation planning grant. Good evening, uh, Mayor Mer Prom, and members of the city council. Um, my name is Carlos Hernandez. I'm a senior transportation planner with the mobility division and I'm very excited to be at this point presenting the Santa Monica Boulevard safety study for adoption. I'm joined here tonight by our partners in public works department as well as Big Blue Bus. Um, and they've been essential in shaping this plan. We last met in June where I provided much of the background of this project and some of the work we've done to date. Uh tonight I want to provide more of an update on the work since then as well as our next steps for getting this project built.

Perfect. Thank you. So as we all know this project is a safety study of the entire 2.4 mile stretch of Santa Monica Boulevard within the city limits. Uh we know Santa Monica Boulevard as a key east west corridor for our residents and visitors. So balancing the needs of all users is very important for this project. Through this project, we gathered existing conditions and a 10-year crash uh history so we can really understand how the corridor has functioned. Um we did a robust community engagement process where we've worked with stakeholders in the community. We've done uh mailed flyers. We've done pop-up events to really get as much feedback for this project as possible and ultimately identify targeted safety improvements for just about every intersection on this corridor. So I mentioned we looked at 10 years of uh crash data as part of our safety analysis and I just want to give you a very high level summary of the findings because I know you've heard some of this information before. Uh we essentially found that right-of-way violations are the primary cause of crashes. So, one party crashing into another party. For crashes just involving vehicles, the most common crash scenario involves broadside crashes. For uh in pedestrians, this involves drivers turning left into a pedestrian crossing at an intersection. Through this safety analysis, we found that crashes occur most most frequently at signalized intersections, but severity is higher at unsalized intersections. So those locations where you have those stop signs on the side streets. So while the safety analysis provided a historic view of crashes, we wanted to talk the community, get as much feedback uh as possible, and that's been essential for understanding their experiences along Santa Monica Boulevard. So engagement for this project kicked off at the downtown

library. If you remember, it was a Halloween night and participants were able to uh vote for their priorities and their vision for Santa Monica Boulevard and these really fun interactive beacons. As part of our road show as staff, we actually visited uh Douglas Park, McKinley Elementary School, and the farmers market with some project boards again to get the word out of the project and meet people where they're at. We've mailed over 10,000 postcards to residents and businesses within a half mile of the corridor. We conducted an in-person safety audit of key intersections and worked with uh Providence St. John's Health Center. Um we've been working in partnership with McKinley Elementary School and presenting at their uh events and talking to the PTA. And we also hosted an online interactive mapping tool where we got over 350 comments, very detailed comments that helped us w with shaping the design recommendations. Um, I will just mention we also presented to our neighborhood associations as well as the city planning commission back in May and the final engagement event. It was a big production that took place at the Santa Monica YMCA where if you remember it was an openhouse style meeting and it was Route 66 names was really fun and had this sort of googy architecture style to it. We had uh 62 participants there take essentially take a road trip down Santa Monica Boulevard and they're able to leave us comments on the 15 intersections we had propped up on displays. So over this over the course of this year-long engagement process we learned that residents are mostly concerned with two things. One is pedestrian crossing conditions and two is driver speeding along the corridor. Of course, as I mentioned, we got a lot of detailed information information throughout the year and that really helped us with the designs for each intersection. Of course, we've also paired community

concerns with the safety analysis work that I had mentioned um as well as our field observations and our understanding of land use patterns uh along the project area. So, considering this, we've organized improvements into three buckets. The first is corridorwide improvements, focus intersections, and transit improvements. And I'll talk a little bit about them. So, we'll start with corridor wide improvements. I know this graphic is a lot, right? There's a lot of information here, but the main takeaway here is that we are recommending improvements at just about every intersection on Santa Monica Boulevard. These corridorwide improvements are low to moderate cost and they're applied consistently throughout the corridor with an emphasis of uh addressing crash patterns. The types of improvements you see here include ensuring that pavement markings and signs are consistent, applying the right turn only restrictions from the side streets at those signalized intersections, improving bicycle crossings through the intersections to get bicyclists onto the bike network. installing leading pedestrian intervals to give pedestrians a head start at signalized intersections and signal timing coordinations along all signalized uh locations. For transit improvements, we're recommending relocating bus stops to the far side of the intersection to improve visibility but also minimize right turning conflicts. So places with uh bus stop relocations include 6th Street, 11th, 14th, and Berkeley Street. And at Berkeley Street, that westbound bus stop has already been moved to the far side in coordination with BBB. And that was um us just already getting some of this work done in coordination with them. So for locations where we can't move the bus stop to the far side for let's say a driveway or another conflict, uh we propose Q jumps. This essentially gives

buses signal priority at the near side stop um and lets them cut in front of traffic. As you can see in the graphic, these locations include Lincoln Boulevard and 26th Street. And at these locations, we also propose widening the bus stop or the sidewalk area. Um so we can have increased sidewalk space. the buses will stop in lane and that can prevent drivers again from sort of going around buses and making those right turns causing some of those visibil visibility issues. The third transit improvement is peak hour bus only lanes specifically from Harvard Street to Sentinella Avenue where the roads wide enough to accommodate all the same travel lanes um and also new bus only lanes with minimal impact. So they would operate during the peak hours as you can see in the diagram. Uh the proposed bus only lanes are recommended where there's currently a parking lane and only operate in the AM and the PM peak hours. So these are the times um bus service experiences delays. This design similar to what we see out there on Lincoln Boulevard today. So our recommendations for bus only lanes also support regional efforts that are being led by CALR and the westside city's council of governments. Calrans is working on a peak hour bus only lane project from Santa Monica Boulevard or on Santa Monica Boulevard from the 405 freeway to Sent Nella Avenue and in our study we recommend extending the reach of that bus only lane. Um, of course, the Westside Cities Council of Governments is leading a separate effort called the Westside Bus Connection Program that improves uh it aims to improve bus service on three corridors, one of which is Santa Monica Boulevard within the city limits. Um, the COG is currently doing community engagement. Uh, and our team will continue to work with the COG on this separate study. Um but ultimately staff

is prepared to uh continue on the design of the Santa Monica Boulevard safety study once the engagement process of the COG project is completed so it could all be coordinated together. So now the third bucket of improvements is of course the focus intersection improvements. I'm sure you're all seen some of these diagrams. Um, so there's 14 of these locations where we're recommending uh targeted improvements. They're very um cater or tailored to the intersection and some of the crash history we've seen. So I'm going to walk just through three of them tonight. Um, but I'm happy to take uh questions or discuss any of the other focus intersections as well. The first one is at Sixth Street. So this is a downtown location with a lot of pedestrian activities. So here we are recommending a new pedestrian scramble uh paired with no right turn on red restriction. Again, heavy pedestrian activity that we've seen here. Um we're including curb extensions as you can see in the number three. So that supports that near side bus stop at the southwest corner and then a curb extension at the southeast corner as well. Uh in outline in number four, you could see the bike markings across the intersection. There's a bike lane here. So, it supports getting the bike lane all the way to the intersection and getting bicyclists through the intersection. And then a bus stop relocation, as you can see indicated in number five, uh working again with Big Blue Bus on the rerouting of Route One. So, this supports um that effort. So, Chelsea Avenue is the other uh area uh focus intersection I want to talk about and this received some of the most comments as a place to improve crossing conditions. Um I mentioned we did a lot of outreach and a lot of it did focus here on Chelsea um as we worked with McKenley Elementary School. We've had

popup uh events at their family literacy night and the world their world heritage day as well. Um we did our walk at it and this was one of the locations where our team went out there and observed sort of the behaviors. Um we've talked a lot uh with Victor the crossing guard here at this intersection. He just he's seen so much and of course we've observed right we we've seen a lot of people cross the street here out of necessity. Uh so at this location we are recommending a new crosswalk with a pedestrian signal. So, this crossing would be further reinforced with a median refuge island that allows both pedestrians and bicyclists to sort of get through that median refuge. Um, and it does also limit the turning movements at this intersection. So, the eastbound and westbound left turns would be limited as well as the southbound left turn. Um, again, create uh creating an environment where there's fewer uh turning movements and fewer potential for conflict. Again, our goal here was really to improve crossing conditions and to get bicyclists safely through the intersection and get them on the bikeway network. We have a project on Broadway where we want to get bicyclists uh easily through um onto their bike the bikeway network. And we've received a lot of positive feedback from the community on this design. And I think what I hear a lot from the parents at McKinley is I wish it could be done today because my kids are there right now. So the third example I'm going to show today is at Princeton Street and we know there's a recent crash here and we realize that there's already a crosswalk here as well. Um, we do propose improving it with a landscape median refuge to again shorten those crossing distances and narrow that roadway space to to make it uh feel and and become the

slower street. Uh, we also propose limiting the turning movements here with the landscape median and the right turn only from the side streets. Again, limiting the number of turning movements and potentials for conflict. Now staff recommends that improvements are organized into two separate phases for implementation. Phase one could be implemented within two and a half to five years and planned with the repaving of Santa Monica Boulevard. So our public works team that we've been working with um they've prioritized Santa Monica Boulevard as an area to repave um and coordinate those efforts so that we can get these phase one improvements on the ground. So in phase one, we would install all the necessary striping and ballards to enforce those right turns from the side streets. We could outline the curb extensions and introduce center line hardening as you can see in the diagram here and that helps reduce those turning speeds for drivers. Uh we could add bikeway markings through the intersections again getting bicyclist onto the bikeway network. We could also uh include minor traffic or changes to traffic signals like implementing leading pedestrian intervals uh signal timing coordinations and in particular coordinating the area between 20th and 26th Street. So that's phase one and phase two requires more significant uh design and civil engineering work since we're impacting curb lines, utilities, catch basins, fire hydrants, those sorts of things. So these projects would be implemented after phase one. So you do phase one, get it on the ground, and then you can modify as needed. And that way phase two has a design that's sound and that we've learned from. Phase two improvements could be implemented within 3 to 10 years. And that includes some of

our bigger ticket items like new signals, left turn phasing, concrete curb extensions, uh curb ramps, landscape median islands, things like that. Phase 2 improvements for the entire corridor estimated to cost around $7.2 million. So, the scale and the cost of these phase 2 projects means we uh need to find additional funding from local uh or state or federal grants. So, if adopted tonight, staff is ready to begin work on phase one for the improvements that include the signing, striping of the corridor, and of course re coordinating that with the repaving of Santa Monica Boulevard. So that effort can begin immediately and can be projected to be completed before the Olympic and Parolympic games for phase one as you can see at that top bar. At the same time, staff uh will be applying to the statewide active transportation program for phase two and that includes all the concrete work um at those focus intersections that I had mentioned. uh with the application being submitted this June and if awarded we anticipate going through the process to accept funds and begin on the design for phase 2 in the summer of next year and if that timeline holds construction can begin in the winter of 2028-29. Again I I'm happy to be here. I'm I just want to thank our stakeholders who are listening who have supported us throughout this whole process. our consultant team, our city departments who have been a part of this project from the beginning. Uh so with that, I'm happy to take any questions you might have. Thank you.

Thank you. Do folks want to get in the queue with questions? Okay, Council Member Z,

thanks so much for this. Um, excited for many of these improvements uh to become a reality and appreciate all the work that's been done this far. Can't believe it was 2024 when we started talking to people about this. Um, I have a couple questions. Uh, excuse me. Um, bear with me as I go through this because it was a long report and I'm still digesting it myself. Um, first of all, I just want to say again, I appreciate the work that's been done. I also especially appreciate the treatment on Chelsea. Um, as you highlighted, um, I would love for it to happen in the next 5 years. Uh, like the parents who who said the same. Um, so I'm I'm concerned that it's that it's slated to happen not, you know, for at least five years. But um beyond that um I wanted to just speak to a couple things and ask questions. The first had to do with speed um um on the corridor and efforts to reduce speeds. Um, I know that when we spoke in the summer of last year, we talked about reducing lane widths as one technique for reducing speeds on the corridor, especially uh in the sections where I think the 85th percentile speeds are between 35 and 49 miles an hour currently on the corridor. Um can you go into which parts of the um plan involve reduced um lane widths? Um because I seem to see several that that seem still quite wide.

Absolutely. So in that eastern segment um we have noticed that the 85th percentile of speeds is higher. So we have recorded sort of higher speeding vehicles on the east. We also know that that's the segment of Santa Monica Boulevard that has the widest profile. So, hearing feedback from the um study session back in June, we went back to the drawing board and looked at travel lanes um for those segments where we have the ability to narrow uh travel lanes in certain segments and also at the entrance and the departure of certain intersections. we're able to sort of stripe a fog line to delineate and better delineate and create just a narrow uh a narrower narrower lane as drivers are traveling through the corridor. So that is one of the speed reduction strategies that we are implementing on the corridor in particular in that eastern segment.

Okay. Um, I want to just speak to a couple sections that were pointed out to me where I guess from from 20th to Chelsea, um, and from Chelsea to 26th, I think I'm, if I'm not mistaken, I'm seeing lane widths that are still like 12 and a half feet wide. Is that correct? Um, I'd have to pull up the AutoCAD uh of of the existing lane widths there. I see five travel lanes at 63T feet in width and no other, you know, improvements on that section. So, I guess just 63 divided by five gets me to 12.6 as an average lane width. Does that sound correct?

Yeah. And not all lane widths are sort of either like the the number one lane is usually narrower. The number two lane is wider because it carries um transit buses who require a wider lane width. And the parking lanes whether they're there or not th those will also differ. Okay. But definitely more than say a 10-ft lane for instance it would seem.

Okay. Um and then uh I guess I wanted to talk about the the second thing related to uh uh the far siding of bus stops. that seems like a great practice, but I guess I didn't see it um implemented in all of the the the the treatment or all of the potential stops. Um uh I'm thinking specifically uh one example being the uh uh 26th in Santa Monica intersection, I believe. I'm just curious as to why we didn't farside the bus stops in that intersection, for instance.

Yeah, that's a great question. Uh so at that uh intersection the street um east of 26 sort of widens up and currently there is a near side bus stop in the westbound direction. Um and then the near side bus stop is in the um eastbound direction on the southwest corner. Um so at that location we propose uh for the southwest corner to have an expanded sidewalk area. As I had mentioned, there's certain areas where um the sidewalk space is um sort of at its minimum and there are things like trees, furniture, the bus stop itself. Um so this was an opportunity to both expand the sidewalk and offer just a bit better pedestrian environment um and also allow for inlane stops. Now at the southwest corner in the southbound direction, there's also bus stop number 43. So for anyone making connections there, it makes it more convenient for for uh bus patrons to just use or to stay sort of in that corner and be able to transfer. Um so those are two main reasons why we propose leaving that one near side. Um and then at the far side location where Alan Jeff framing is currently there is on street parking. So moving at far side would uh potentially impact some of the parking uh there. Um and instead we propose a curb extension at that southeast corner. um which again shortens crossing distances, supports pedestrians. Uh but it can also um eliminate that northbound right turn lane which then we can introduce a couple of more on street parking spaces to support either parking, loading, other things that are sort of uh needed along the corridor.

Got it. So um theoretically you could do the bulb out on both sides, I imagine. Um and theoretic and and seemingly uh we've added parking spaces at the same place that we're worried about taking them away. So theoretically, yeah, we can um move the stop far side. Yeah. And that was um staff's determination was to amplify the sidewalk space at the near side location. Right. But we could do both, right? Yeah, I believe so. Well, if there aren't any driveway conflicts in the area, I believe we can. I'd have to look at the concept.

I mean, you said we were losing two parking spaces, but we're also gaining two parking spaces, it sounds like, on that same corner. Is that correct? Yeah. Okay. Um, and I I I assume the reason why we generally are trying to farside these bus stops is for the efficiency of the buses, correct? So that they can not stop at an intersection, face a light, and then have to wait again, you know, to go. Right. that and um you know not have cars drive around and squeeze through and turn in front of them.

Okay, thank you. Um with the uh area uh uh closer to downtown, I noted in the study that there's some some of the slowest bus speeds on the whole route are are are between I think fourth and and Lincoln. And I think it said something between 4 and 7 m an hour at peak. Does that sound correct?

Yeah. Was there any consideration of expanding the uh bus lane that currently exists? I think uh going westbound, sorry, eastbound. Uh currently stopping at Fourth Street and extending that to Lincoln Boulevard. Can you repeat the question just so I can visually

Yeah. Um so west uh eastbound traffic uh bus speeds are indicated to be between seven and four miles an hour at peak. Um there's a bus only lane that exists but it stops at 4th Street. Um was there any consideration of continuing that bus only lane to Lincoln due to the fact that this is one of the slowest bus speed areas on the whole corridor?

Yeah, that's a great uh question. We didn't um consider that particular design. Um the eastbound um curbside lane from Ocean to 4th is sort of um a transit plaza project that we know that it's been around for quite some time. Um extending that um could be a consideration. I think the only trade-off there would be on street parking for the segments um would be east of uh Fourth Street.

Yeah. Okay. Um, lastly, I'm just curious, you know, again, because these 85th percentile speeds are very concerning to me. Um, were there any treatments that were considered? I know there was some lane narrowing, though there's other sections that I feel like they're still too wide, but were there any other treatments that were considered to reduce speeds where currently they're, you know, in excess obviously of our speed limit, let alone at a safe speed where someone were to collide, you know, with a bike or or pedestrian. Are there any other treatments to reduce speed on that section?

Absolutely. Um at many of these locations, we've uh proposed median refuge islands um quite long and landscape median refuge islands to narrow sort of the the the visual field um and create just a narrow profile profile street. So instead of seeing a street that's, you know, 78 ft wide, it'd be sort of half of that as somebody's driving down the intersection. So the median refuge islands, that's that's one. Uh curb extensions, um that helps slow down right turning drivers in particular and also creates a narrower field of view at intersections. Uh so those are some of the things that we've done to slow down speeds and we've been working with our um traffic team as well to do signal timing coordination which is another element of this project which can be timed in such a way to discourage speeding.

Okay, last question. Are we at all concerned about the new um unsali crossings that we're adding at unsignalized intersections? I mean, I know that's a treatment that we did uh at Wilshire where it seems like a similar treatment here where we are, as you said, adding some um um refuge islands and some um flashing uh I can't remember RF RFB RF flashing beacons. But we know that that you know there have been pedestrian injuries and fatalities on Wilshire, you know, since we did that exact treatment. I mean, are we concerned about adding new crossings uh at unsalized intersections with just that same treatment?

Well, as I mentioned, one of the main sort of um desires from the community were improved crossing conditions. Um what we've seen out there today, in particular at Chelsea uh Avenue is, you know, people are crossing the street where wherever they need to. um and using federal highway guidance for um improving crossings at uncontrolled locations. These are the treatments that we are putting forward today which fall in line with the guidance there and support new pedestrian crossings. Chelsea is signalized though, correct? That's the proposal. Chelsea is a pedestrian signal. Correct. Signal. Okay. Um that's all for now. Thank you. Thank you.

Great. So, we have Council Member Zern Skaya. Snell, are you out now? Okay. Oh, I I actually hit the wrong button. That's fine. Zerna, then Snell then Hall.

Um, thank you. Just echoing the thanks for all this work. I went to the September open house with my dog and we had a lot of fun walking through all of the different little uh areas and I apologize if anything that I'm asking has already been stated. I might have just missed it. So, um, starting with regarding the peak hour, uh, bus rapid transit lanes, could you confirm where we're contemplating putting those in? And, um, understanding that the Westside City's COG is currently studying uh, bus rapid transit lanes uh, along San Monica Boulevard. How easy or difficult would it be for us to potentially make changes to ours in the future based on the results of that study? So to answer your first question, we're looking at implementing peak hour bus only lanes from Princeton Street uh east towards the uh city limit um Sentinel Avenue which would then link with the CALR project for buson lane. So it' be continuous throughout there. Um and the second question is how easy would it be to coordinate designs with the westside city's cog study and our staff is um you know involved in that project and I think that the timing of this um on one hand we have the opportunity to sort of work on um a timeline that's coordinated with public works for the repaving of it. At the same time, we want to make sure that it is um that it works with the westside city's COG study. Um I think previously I' had been asked if any of these improvements sort of conflict with the potential for u bus only lanes west of Princeton and the answer is no because we still have to go in and sort of design um what the busy lane looks like, how it functions and

how it can be modified. Of course, with repaving, you don't want to, you know, stripe everything, re repave, stripe, and then have a study come in much later and then say, "Actually, we're going to restripe or redo some of the things." So, we want those efforts to be coordinated. And do you happen to know how many um how many bus uh like how many routes currently use Santa Monica Boulevard including both Big Blue Bus, Metro and any others?

Yeah. Uh for the majority of the extent it's uh Big Blue Bus Route One and uh Rapid 10, which I believe it's still um uh in operation there. and then uh metro local route 4 and then when you get towards the sort of transit plaza area that's where every bus seems to stop there making transfers and things like that but it's usually just circulates there but the extent of Santa Monica Boulevard it's three lines okay and could you please remind me where that plaza area is again it's from Ocean Avenue to 4th Street

okay and what improvements are we thinking there to make it easier for all of the buses that stop there. That's a great question. We've actually uh been working with Big Blue Bus to reroute um route one in particular. Um so part of our improvements at the intersection for Sixth Street does have a bus that's a bus stop that's relocated so that it can better sort of loop through that area. Um that's as far as we've gone in terms of improving through this plan. Obviously, any other improvements down the line, this plan wouldn't preclude, you know, rerouting bus stops or anything like that. And the transit plaza would still be in place.

Okay. Thank you. And and for the bus stops, including the ones we're relocating and the ones that are uh planned to remain in the same locations, are we also looking at physical improvements for the bus stops themselves, so folks waiting for the bus are protected from the elements and all of those other wonderful things?

Yeah. No, that's an excellent point and I think that's something we just have to keep coordinating with uh Big Blue Bus. I did note that at Berkeley um the east sorry the westbound bus stop was relocated and that was partially um due to wanting to install a a new shelter, a new bus stop furniture there and they you know contacted us and said what's your plan for Berkeley? We said relocate the bus stop and it was done. So those efforts are coordinated. Um to the extent that we can, you know, move bus stop or furniture and those shelters, things like that, I think that's to to be determined with BBB.

Got it. And that and to make sure I'm understanding correctly, that does also include improving the the furniture and the physical aspects of it to have actual covers and and everything like that to to the extent it's feasible working with the blue bus and the the furniture available and those sorts of things. Yeah.

Okay. Got it. And then um I I believe we've discussed it up here before, but could you please confirm if we're also planning on eliminating u quote unquote beg buttons for pedestrian crossings and for bikeway crossings and instituting some sort of uh more automatic or motion sensor, whatever technology there is to make it easier for pedestrians to cross without having to press a button.

Yeah. Yeah. And I think the um the science behind uh you know signal timing is is something I'm just still learning more and more about every day. And and really the focus of this project and some of the recommendations we have in here are to to improve um audible signals for sight impaired pedestrians. So we do recommend uh audible pedestrian signals which means um you know a a vision impaired person can press a button and then they it'll indicate sort of where the location whether they have a weight or a walk signal and then the the countdown. Uh so those are things that we are recommending. Now, some of these locations would be on recall where you don't have to press the button. Um, but we are recommending the audible portion of it through this plan because that's something that again supports pedestrian crossings.

So, would it be that that they're automatic, but there is a button just so that there's a speaker for better ADA access?

Correct. that that's how I understand it is there for the most at most many locations they kind of be automatic where you don't have to press the button but the button is there for an audible component and there may be times a day where the pedestrian signal is time where you may have to press the button and that is based on again some of the traffic engineering and the signal lengths. Is there a way that they that during those times they wouldn't actually physically have to press a button and there would be some sort of um detector or sensor that would know there's somebody waiting to cross.

Hi uh Kyle Kosar, principal transportation planner. Thank you all council. Um yeah, so uh we would but like those recall periods would be during like coordinated periods of so um on some signals where it's a lot of pedestrian traffic downtown and things like that then yeah I could be always on recall and there's some other places where you know if you're only getting kind of maybe one or two or three pedestrians an hour or something then you know on off peak times when there's not a lot of volume, they could be in recall when it's coordinated with that. And then like in off peak times like late at night or something, they might not be because um because you know there's questions about you know vehicles might get frustrated. They're sitting there then they start running red lights if they're waiting and there's nobody there. And so you know there is a a science to finding using data kind of where it makes sense and what times of day you want to do that so that it doesn't lead to other unintended consequences. But there's nothing that would just have a sensor so that somebody doesn't have to physically touch a button or there is.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's what the recall would be. So it would automatically um you know you wouldn't have to it would sense you and could do that. Okay. But it would it would not always be automatic at every location if that makes sense.

Why? Because so like for instance if you were at an intersection where you know the data shows that pedestrian activity is way lower say late at night uh and then every tra time the traffic signal went it went into um like some pedestrian phase or something when it's not called then uh then you know drivers can sit there there's nobody there. they might be waiting unnecessarily and then it leads to it can lead to like other frustrations and things like that. So we can coordinate that that uh functionality you want using data with the right times of day when it can be implemented if that makes sense when it's most advantageous.

Okay. Thank you. And and that's something that we have just ongoing control over. So that's something we could change when we're working on it. So we've been upgrading all of the traffic signals to new technology and new software. our traffic engineer is not here so I can't say exactly where we are but they've been making incredible progress and as we do that then the functionality to be able to do those things and coordinate them is going to be able to do it yeah

that sounds very exciting thank you um and then so I I wanted to get some clarification for the uh currently unsignalized intersections and the intersections where we're putting in unsignalized intersections or planning to um are there also going to be lights on the actual street in the crosswalks that we're putting or just on the sides? Um, are you referring to like the embedded on the ground sort of flashing beacons? Um, I I believe we've tested or done those at a couple of intersections with not much success um in terms of maintenance and you phased them out.

We phased them out essentially um and instead favor sort of the flashing beacons above. Um we have looked at vendors that um have equipment where the flashing beacons can be located on mast arms. So basically instead of just at the corner where the sidewalk is uh a larger mast arm where it can be in lane so that drivers are seeing the flashing beacon right in front of them. Um there's numerous examples um in in throughout our I think our neighboring city Los Angeles in the Venice neighborhood. There's a couple out there I took photos of. So, that is some of the equipment that we're looking at. Uh, primarily because we phased out the sort of in the ground flashers.

Did we phase those out because they were just too expensive to maintain and weren't effective or Yeah, they they they break very easily with the nature of where they are. They're very costly and expensive to maintain. It's like a ton of work. And so, uh, we had two actually on Santa Monica Boulevard. I believe it was at like 15th or 16th or something like that and maybe 18th and you know it was just in a constant state of disrepair and so it's just been a very challenging thing to implement more of those and then every time you repave too then it's a whole other thing and a whole other level of maintenance and challenge with

it sounds like it sounds like the costbenefit analysis just isn't there. Okay, thank you for that clarification and um one last question. So, I understand the prioritization of phase one to phase two to implement these quick build improvements using paints, ballards, and the like. Would you be able to clarify how we could you utilize paint and how we're planning to to create visual cues for drivers to encourage them to drive at safer speeds?

Yeah. Um so the the striping that's uh shown in some of these uh sort of diagrammatic intersections um in particular at um at the corners of intersections where there's sort of like you know no space because it's a red curb or something like that. Uh these are areas that we uh find opportunities to improve like the daylighting uh using paint and ballards in some instances. is I think there's some good examples out in Pico uh Boulevard of a recent project we did there where um there's just a lot of opportunities to use paint and ballards and signs to again implement those measures to narrow the field, create more organization on the street and delineate travel lanes.

And do we also utilize things like optical illusions to try to, you know, to make a driver think, oh, there's a bump there, but there actually isn't a bump. just looks like that because of the paint and they slow down.

That's a good question and I think the only one I'm familiar with are are mainly diagonal lines that sort of veer drivers away from sidewalks or c corners or things like that. Um as well as uh reflective pavement markers. Again, if you drive on on Pico Boulevard tonight, you'll see a lot of that. Um a lot of reflectors, so the streets lit up, right? And it's fairly lower maintenance. um as opposed to like you know lights throughout the medians and things like that. So those are some of the things that we can definitely implement as part of this project. Okay, great. Thank you very much. Thank you.

I I just have two quick questions. The first one you said is that phase two you've uh applied for an application looking for funding to implement phase two of the project. Is that what my understanding is? that that is our plan uh is to then apply for uh grant funding for phase two. So that would be sort of part of our next steps if next step. So you haven't applied as of yet?

We have not because we we need to adopt the plan to be able to then apply for funding to build the elements in the in the project. The reason I asked is because uh we we got a lot of comments from the community regarding the the Santa Monica Chelsea area with respect to that lighting there, the light there, which I think is a you know, excellent idea. And I was just wondering in your implementation, is there a way that we could uh speed up that particular project because I think that is a a strong safety measure. Is has there discussion about it?

Yeah, there there has been internal discussion about it. I think ultimately that's an intersection that um you know you you can't sort of stripe a signal, right? You can't do like a a quick treatment of um of a new pedestrian signal. And I think that implementing a new signal with new curb ramps with the new crosswalk is sort of all in one package and it gets quite expensive. So that's why we look for outside funding to leverage grants to be able to do that and implement that all. It's sort of labeled a phase two. It's not to say that it's not important, but it's just phase two is sort of our approach for going out chasing money, getting money to then build sort of our our more civil and engineering heavy projects like that one.

I'd be interested in keeping a breast of what what that project goes along because that's something. Then my last question, we heard from a we heard from a public today regarding um the commercial businesses and how we um introduce them to the new lanes going left and going right only and these kind of things and what have we done with respect to our business along Santa Monica to get them uh aware what's going on and how they will um interact with their customers going in and out of their businesses.

Yeah. So from the start of this project, we've um sort of set up our centralized, you know, project web page where we have all of our information, but we really tried to reach out to businesses by both sending out, you know, the 10,000 postcards that I had mentioned uh at the beginning of the project. Um, we've done door knocking um on the corridor and we've I'd say we've talked to six 70 80% of the businesses there that were willing to engage with us and we've left posters and certain businesses and cafes. So, we certainly, you know, want to talk to as many businesses and people as possible that would be um in interested in the project and see how we can work together. Uh those are some of the things we did. um proactively so that we can get the word out about the project. Um as you know we had that Route 66 meeting that was you know publicized social media again our website we have a newsletter um that that goes out to our membership base as well. So we do our best to get the word out at least for sort of where the project is at and what phases it's in. Um same for the intersection design. So we had you know this intersection design at the meeting on September. Uh we posted that immediately after that meeting to our website. So we had that living uh on our project web page and then you know in preparation for this uh item tonight um have sort of publicized as much as we can the designs of of all the intersections.

Thank you

council member Hall. Uh, thanks staff for bringing this study to us. Um, several questions here and forgive me if I missed this in the thousandpage report. We had four days to look through, but did we look at reducing speed limits along any portion of Santa Monica Boulevard as part of the study? I believe the city uh recently conduct survey um maybe about two years ago. the blog post that Mia put together um on the city website, but streets where there were five mile per hour reductions I per hour on the western end and um um am I remembering that correctly?

I think so. But the team is verifying it. So this the speed survey is the method by which we look at streets citywide and assess you know bas based off 85th percentile and then based off engineering judgment how we can sort of leaves posted speed limits where they're at or if we decrease them by 5 miles per hour. Um so we'll verify right now if that was the case.

I'm seeing heads being shook in a negative. Okay, I'll assume no until it's told otherwise. Um, the report states on page 29 that quote Oh, sorry. Go ahead.

Sorry, Council. I can just clarify that we did confirm. So, in the as a sorry, I need to director of the Department of Transportation. Great to see you all and thank you for the support of this study. Um, we did look at every street in the city through the speed study a couple of years ago that Carlos referenced. San Monica Boulevard based on the data in the speed study um was not one of the ones that was identified in the many many miles of streets across the city for speed limit reductions. So a speed limit reduction has not been implemented as a result of that speed study and a subsequent speed study would need to be conducted um in order to to effectuate speed limit reductions but it could be something you know that we take a look at going forward.

Okay. Thank you. So the report states on page 29 that quote vehicular operations should be considered alongside crash data end quote. Can you tell me where level of service falls in our priorities uh on the on this project?

Yeah, absolutely. And um I think you know safety is really the primary goal here um for this project. Um at the same time I had mentioned balancing the needs of all users for this um multi-lane arterial that carries up to 27 28,000 vehicles per day buses etc. So we use level of service as one of the sort of tools to understand how vehicle throughput uh interacts throughout the corridor. And we're able to also use, you know, computer simulations to see when we have the proposed improvements at every intersection, what has that done to the corridor in terms of level of service degradation or improvements etc. So that's how we've used level of service in this project.

And were there any treatments rejected because of level of service and throughput decrease? Yeah. So the initially we had considered um a scramble intersection at 20th Street um after visiting it during the uh one of the walk audits that we did and at that location we thought well there's there may be sort of the land use that supports a lot of crossing movements. You have medical centers, hotels, cafes, etc. Um, so this could be something we could look into, right? And I think that after looking into it and seeing sort of the the tradeoffs, which would be the sort of vehicle throughput impact, um, which would also affect bus operations in that segment from 20th to Cloverfield, that's sort of the most congested part of the corridor. um with the goal of sort of separating pedestrians crossing the street versus vehicles turning. Uh our team ultimately did recommends that left turn um signals at that or sorry um left protected left turns at that intersection can sort of achieve that same result which is separate pedestrians crossing versus vehicles driving through. um and does not have the same impact on the vehicle throughput as a full scramble intersection would. So that was one instance where we had initially looked at it and said let's go sort of run it through the simulation and see what degradation looks like again for both vehicles and for transit and ultimately are recommending uh left turn signal phasing at that intersection to separate those vehicle pedestrian conflicts which was the main goal. Doesn't 20th Street already have left turn signal phasing?

Not in all directions? Okay. What's the difference between left turn signal phasing and having protected left turn lanes? Because 20th Street has left turn lanes in all directions. Yeah. So, it has it has left turn lanes in all directions, but not protected left turn signal. So, that left green arrow essentially. So, um it allows for vehicles to better time sort of oncoming traffic. When you have a permissive, um signal phase or just the green ball, you're sort of looking at oncoming traffic, but you're also checking over your shoulder to see if people are crossing. So, this eliminates that.

Okay. Um, with the proposed Q jump at 26th Street, will there ever be a time when a vehicle will have to take a right turn around the bus from that middle lane or what is effectively the middle lane or does the light turn red every time the bus stops there? That's a great question. I think the design is intended for vehicles to wait behind the bus and not turn right in front of them on the number one lane, which would be the middle lane to to your point. Um, in terms of signalization and and how we Yeah, that that's a good question.

We'd have to talk to our um traffic uh person to see. Okay. I I I would assume that we're probably not timing a red light to the bus stopping at the bus stop, which means that we would effectively create a situation where a vehicle could be in that middle lane. I think you called it the number one lane rate, where they would be turning right in front of the bus and thus have a reduced sight line to any pedestrians that are crossing uh 26th Street. Correct.

Yeah. So any right turning vehicles would turn right from the number two lane. So, they're laying closer to the curb if they're following the law. But we know for a fact that that's not what happens at the intersection, right? I'll tell you, I've seen it many times. Okay. Um, okay. The the bus only lanes and the partial bus lanes. And sorry, I know you've been asked this two times now, but I still don't know if I fully understand. And so maybe let me try back briefing here. Like we are not including bus only lanes west of Princeton because the westside COG is conducting their own study to include full bus lanes at that point. Um the the recommendation that we have set forward is to include the bus only lane east of Princeton because the impacts are minimal as far as this safety study sort of has carried this project along the way. and knowing that we have the Westside Cog study uh moving forward to look at sort of more indepth uh transit analysis uh more so than this project could have taken on because it was primarily a safety focus. But Kyle, do you want to add some?

Yeah. So, um, the Westside Cog study, like Carlos said, so the tradeoffs to fit a bus lane going west of there, um, are much more significant. And so, you know, they would need to be weighed in on by you all in that it would require removing a tra lane in each direction on Santa Monica Boulevard. So at any point kind of you know I think somebody had mentioned um uh by the transit mall or just going east eastbound behind uh from the transit mall. So from uh Fifth Street to Lincoln or 7th or whatever it was. Um you know so that in that stretch as well one of the two travel lanes would have to be removed and be re replaced by a transit lane. Um and so in this study focusing on you know primarily safety improvements and knowing that the Westside COG is going to be studying and doing feasibility analysis of all of that. um uh you know so we we kind of we knew where it fit where those trade-offs you know and and they were going to give us analysis of what those trade-offs were and then to make those decisions you know you all as a deliberative body would have to you know decide for a major corridor you know this these are the trade-offs and that's what we want to go with and so we've been waiting for the westside cog westside cog study uh to get their analysis of that so that you know that decision could be made in a more deliberative way.

Okay. And do we know when that study will be coming back to us? Umed

uh no. So I I think um we're waiting now to figure out when exactly we're going to get the initial 10% design. So they're doing a process by which they will be developing or they're in the process of developing like 10% designs and the initial feasibility analysis and kind of their recommendations, their consultant team recommendations. Um and I think at that point would be a good time to uh you know have you all look at that. Um um and so the the path at which that happens I'm you know we don't have that. So you know whether it's like you direct us to come back or if we need to schedule a study session or whatever it might be um to present that information. I think that the consultant team that's doing that also would could come and present their findings and whatever their initial recommendations are. Um and then the decision would have to be made by you all on those kind of big trade-offs for the street.

Got it. Thank you. But but and the last thing I would say is you know our and so that they are producing those kind of 10% concept designs and we can check in with them after this. I'm like you know at what point would that be ready for that? um and then could communicate that back to you all on how that works. Um there is a timing question because and so you know we'd probably want to have that happen as soon as we can because if you saw the um

you know our intent is to move quickly with the plan um and implementing it assuming you know I don't want to be too presumptuous assuming that we have an adopted plan and are given direction to move forward you know um public works is uh queuing up Santa Monica Boulevard for restriping 2027. That means we need to start working on implementing design and that means we would want to get all those sorts of details laid out on what we are designing. Um that would be like the most efficient way to do that and meet those deadlines or laid out here. Um and then it wouldn't preclude us from beginning our grant applications uh that would start and be uh submitted in June.

Okay. on the pedestrian push buttons. Um, council member Zern Sky had some really great questions there. Um, but I didn't hear you answer why wouldn't we just have the pedestrian recall with audible noises automatically? Oh, yeah, that that part would be. So, what's the point of the pedestrian push buttons then?

So, I'm I'm I'm not an expert in this, so I'll just do the best that I can and or maybe I shouldn't. I don't even know. Um, in talking with uh our traffic engineering team, it's that um maybe I'm confused about the question honestly. So in the in the study in the staff report it says that some pedestrian some intersections will have pedestrian push buttons buttons uh to initiate an audible noise but um we heard earlier that uh there will be pedestrian recall on a lot of intersections and so the point of having the the beg buttons the pedestrian push buttons was so that an audible noise would be available.

Yeah. So um so I think the and again I I think it's more about like we're having technology now that we'll be able to implement a more nuanced approach to this and so but I think like scenarios that could arise is that um if somebody like let's say it's late at night at uh Berkeley or something and if it's coordinated to always do that automatically regardless of time and traffic. Let's say somebody walks by it but isn't intending to cross and they trigger the sensor and they switch the light and then a tra somebody waiting in their car gets the light and so there is there can be this pattern where people that again we know that people break the law so people can start to get frustrated or they just run a red light if they're in their car and they say well I don't see anybody like why is this light always triggered so I think that the consideration is is that there are scenarios and there are certain times of day at certain locations where maybe we can use the technology to make it work in a more nuanced way. Um, instead of just, you know, blanketing it that it's always working this one way all the time. I think we can be nuanced about how we implement it so that it's most effective at the right times for the most amount of people.

Okay. Not sure I agree with that, but I'll I'll buy that for a dollar. Um, you mentioned Yeah. So again, sorry, on the push buttons, you mentioned that part of what we're using here is data around which intersections have the most pedestrian crossings and at certain times, right? Um, did we control for anything around maybe people aren't using these intersections because they're not safe?

No. And and and we haven't done that analysis and assigned those locations. I mean, I think as we roll that out, that's the sort of thing we would uh look at, you know, volumes of pedestrians and things like that. Okay. Are there any specific treatments that can be installed within the next 6 to 12 months? Um, signal stuff. Yeah, like you know, signal stuff. Um, trying to remember leading pedestrian intervals.

Leading pedestrian intervals. Some of the bus stops that are farsighted. I think you know working with BBB we already moved one of them at at Berkeley. So those sorts of things I think could be done very quickly with little effort in terms of like designing and but you know restriping and creating a a striping signing plan uh with you know even vertical elements, paint and post uh curb extensions and things like that uh you know all that has to be designed that can be on a much faster track because we can use um contracted support staff that we have on call uh to do that. And you know this timeline kind of emphasizes that you know our intent if if this is adopted is to move as quickly as we can to try to get the phase one done before the Olympics and ideally um a phase two funded and half designed and so started after the Olympics. Right. So that would be our our goal in terms of timeline for implementation. Um and the only and but you know obviously factors can slow that down. So,

okay. Were any raised treatments explored specifically at Chelsea? Can you elaborate? Raised treatments like a raised crosswalk.

Raised crosswalk. Um, they were not explored um primarily because of it being a multi-lane arterial. Um, it's not a treatment that we've done here in Santa Monica, nor one that I've seen on a multi-lane arterial that carries, you know, buses, um, first responders, and things that would have sort of vertical deflection. So, it wasn't uh considered for the Chelsea intersection. Instead, we opted for the Refuge Island.

Okay. Uh, last question. So, we have a new city policy regarding like unidirectional or perpendicular curb cuts. Um, I saw some of the designs. I think the Sixth Street intersection on the Tar and Roses Corner had that diagonal ramp. I assume that's just a uh an outdated design that if it's technically feasible, we will do um city policy.

Yeah. So, at all the locations we want to ensure that curb ramps are aligned with the crosswalk. um at the Sixth Street location, for example, if we're proposing a new scramble crosswalk, a lot of those ramps, in some cases, those ramps um are sort of at the corner and they have sort of a wider radius radi that would allow for diagonal crossing as well as we have a fourth street. Correct. So, at some locations, we may not want to necessarily direct traffic or pedestrian traffic in one direction if that makes sense. Yeah, that makes sense. Okay. Thank you. Council member Raskin. Then we have one question from Council Member Zoe.

Thanks. And I I've really just only got I think one question uh that was uh cued by uh Council Member Hall questioning. Um but first just to clarify when you're talking about the the signal stuff we can do in the next 12 months. Are you talking about like coordination or things along those lines? signal coordination. Um, of course pending, you know, updating hardware, software, things of that nature, but essentially coordinating um the corridor so that it, you know, behaves in sort of a way we we or improves safety or speeds or controls for congestion, things of that nature. Um, and then uh leading pedestrian intervals as well. Um those are the sort of signal treatments that are within you know in that we could do in house.

Got it. And uh so uh following up on on Catherine R's question about uh speed limits and speed studies um and I apologize for trying not to ask this in advance but a member of the public had asked me you know I assume that signal prioritization for buses can be coordinated with the uh signal timing uh to mitigate speeds for uh vehicular traffic. Um, can you just briefly speak to how just confirm that that's that's correct essentially? Uh, are you referring to coordinating signals so that buses travel at consistent speeds? Is that exactly essentially?

Yeah. And and I think you know the the through line here is that you know buses are operating with with vehicles and you know ensuring that speeds especially during peak hours are as free flowing in the congested areas um helps drivers get in and out of Santa Monica as well as transit patrons in and out of Santa Monica. Council member Z.

Sorry just one question. um that came up when we were talking about the uh uh parallel study occurring around the bus lanes uh through the westside cog in the parts of the proposed designs that that that indicate a uh a bulb out where the bus would then stop in lane uh in order to pick up passengers. Isn't there some is there not a concern that building that that treatment would actually potentially limit a bus only lane if that were to be built in that section seeing as then that parking lane could not easily become a bus lane if it was hardened with such a treatment.

Yeah. the the profile of the street west of Princeton is it sort of starts narrowing every few blocks to a point where um even the parking lane being at 7T let's say pick an intersection between 17th and 18th street um you have parking on both sides and that parking lane is around 7 ft and those driving lanes are let's say anywhere between 11 and maybe I don't know around 11t that parking lane is still insufficient for buses to travel there as like a peak hour or bus only lane and there's not enough room in the travel lanes to squeeze them to widen that curbside lane. So in that instance that number two lane would serve as a bus only lane.

Got it. Thank you. Okay. I have some questions that I haven't had the opportunity to go. Um, I appreciate all of your hard work on this and I I came to some of the community engagement. Really just appreciate how how much you've done. Um, but I'm a little bit concerned just in terms of like what the governing principle is here because I think this council has um kind of stated pretty emphatically our commitment to safety and vision zero. So can you just explain is safety the governing principle here in everything that you put forward or is it level of service and where did we make sacrifices based off of level of service and what we're seeing here.

Safety is the number one approach for this project. Level service was used as a tool to understand vehicle throughput and how the corridor functions without improvements but also with improvements. And I alluded to one location where on 20th Street where we had initially, you know, thought of the idea of a diagonal crossing there, a scramble crossing, and then walk that back and instead favored protected left turns because the um the level of service at that location would make it so that people might have to wait two or three signal cycles in front of, you know, Providence St. John's to get westbound past 20th Street. So that was

sorry when you say people you mean cars correct

drivers. Yeah. Um so that was one location where we have sort of have to had to balance the needs but also improve that location with you know signal or left turn signals. Um there are if if you if I can remember correctly there's about eight other locations where level of service in some cases degrades a little bit in favor of the proposed improvements. So again, safety was the primary sort of driver for this project. Um, understanding that, you know, level of service and traffic and volume throughput may uh be impacted in particular, let's say the throughs and lefts from the side street locations where we're proposing uh several of these uh at the unsignalized intersections. So that's one place where we are uplifting safety and the priority of pedestrians versus drivers being able to go through or make lefts at those sites.

It sounds like we made decisions here in this what was presented to us based off of level of service over pedestrian safety. And isn't it true that we've had over 400 serious injury crashes in the last 10 years here in the city? Like wouldn't we want to on the street? Yeah. Wouldn't we want to prioritize safety? I I mean, I understand that you're saying, "Okay, people are going to have to wait a few cycles," but sounds like we're prioritizing the car experience over the pedestrian experience, if I'm not mistaken.

I think that these recommendations do prioritize pedestrian safety and pedestrian crossings. Um, and that's something we heard from the community. Again, a lot of the turn restrictions, medians, restricting left turns, those types of things do slightly degrade vehicle throughput. Um, people sort of making their route in the neighborhood and through Santa Monica Boulevard, but that is a trade-off that I think, you know, this project does carry forward as something to to do. Okay. Um, I have to go back to this bus only lanes. Why did we um limit the bus only lanes to peak hours as opposed to all the time?

Yeah, I think that the um recommendation here is in line with um the proposed peak hour bus only lanes um in the city of LA portion where we see um typically the most traffic during the peak hours. So we want to provide buses their own lane so that they're not competing with cars on the same street. So that's why peak hour bus only lanes make sense. Um during the rest of the time um bus operations fairly steady. I believe we have around 10-minute headways outside of the peak hours. Uh so we want to prioritize peak hour locations. Again, this is something we can we do mostly with, you know, signage enforcement and striping. Um what those peak hours look like can be determined um after we look at this uh westside COG study a little bit more as well. We'll get more information, but peak hours is the recommendation because of the traffic patterns. So basically we're our gold standard is the city of LA here.

I failed to mention um loading zones and on street parking for local businesses outside of the peak hours. That's something we can again preserve um for local businesses.

Okay. I mean I don't think anyone here is saying that we don't want to help our local businesses. I think that that's important, but seems like we're kind of uh I don't know not prioritizing multimodal transit. Thank you, mayor, for the question and for highlighting this. I think what you're hearing a lot of the the comments and the Q&A that we've heard from all of you really highlights that all of this work is about trade-offs, right? And optimizing first and foremost for safety, right? And what Carlos has underscored is that this is a safety study, right? The primary purpose right is to advance our vision zero objectives. The council has of course clearly reiterated the primacy of that staff is fully aligned with that. I think to your specific question with regards to the operation of peak hour bus lanes in the stretch that the study's putting forward it really reflects when we actually get kind of the bang for our buck so to speak uh with regard to current travel times. So overall, and we do have um you know the the leader of our transit planning performance here if we really want to nerd out on bus travel times, but overall where we actually see the gains, where the buses are moving slower now, where they sort of need or really benefit the most from a bus only lane are those peak hours in both directions. The rest of the time, generally, um route one moves quite well. Metro buses move quite well. And so yes, we would have to take away a significant amount of parking around the clock to have a 24-hour bus only lane. That's an option. But would we be actually getting the necessary benefit to our bus speed, travel times in order to have a significant potentially detriment to those businesses and those other uses? That's where those that trade-off question. We really look at that costbenefit analysis. So that's similar to how our existing very successful lanes on Lincoln work. Those are actually currently one direction and peak hour. What we're proposing here is actually peak hour both directions so that they would be bus only lanes eastbound and westbound morning rush and afternoon rush. So actually kind of uh an upgrade in some ways uh from the

Lincoln bus only lanes which are currently one direction in the morning and one direction in the evenings. Okay, I hear that. Thank you. I appreciate that kind of just wanted to kind of clarify that.

Yeah. Yeah, that I appreciate that. Thank you. Um, so I have to bring up this McKinley Elementary issue again. Um, because I don't know if I've made the point, we've made the point clear enough. Why are the pedestrian signal and raised median at Chelsea classified as phase two rather than phase one? Yeah, really the phase two designation is around the funding and the level of effort to construct the pedestrian signal curb ramps that align with the new crosswalk, the new crosswalk and then a concrete median refuge island there. All those things require significant funding, design, um engineering, construction. So for those reasons, we couched it into a phase 2 because it's advantageous um according to the phase 2 ATP application and getting the funding for that. Um it could well be within you know the perview of the city to um make that a even higher priority. Uh I think funding would be really the question behind that.

Yeah. I mean, I think the issue is is that what I'm hearing is like, well, we only have a limited amount of money, so we're going to do like the lowhanging fruit first rather than what is the biggest impact around safety. I mean, I'm just I'm giving you feedback. That's the that's the vibe that I'm getting from the answers to these questions. And I think what you're hearing from us is that we need to prioritize safety. So, I guess it would be helpful to know if you could come back to us and say, um, if we had XYZ amount of money for phase one, um, we would be able to prioritize this, uh, intervention right now. Like, is it an issue that you don't have enough money to do this?

Madame Mayor, I might, um, um, offer a suggestion, too. I think some of this was designed with existing um, sort of resources available if that is a priority of the council this evening. That's one of the pieces of feedback we're looking for. Okay. To identify a prioritization and if um that is the council's priority to look at Santa Monica, Chelsea, we'll definitely take that into account as we develop our capital budget moving into okay um the um the early spring and then the summer

because it sounds like okay we can only do things with striping and ballards but maybe some of these interventions require more than that and we need to kind of assess whether you know what's what what is the biggest bang for our buck truly in phase one. Um okay. Uh, and then I I I obviously sent these questions in advance, but I'm I'm I'm saying it here publicly because I think these things are important to me and the folks that are listening. But on the performance outcomes, I'm a little bit concerned that the only like key safety indicator, key performance indicator is like less pedestrian deaths or injuries. And I think I would like to be able to see, I mean, could you come back to us with additional KSIs or KPIs around speed reduction? um pedestrian delay, bus on time performance, etc. Like I I think we need some more robust measures through which to um evaluate whether this is working. Would you say that that's fair?

Absolutely. And we we are prepared to sort of look at you know we did our existing conditions analysis for bus ridership speeds. Obviously we have crash history um and we've actually been looking at a counts plus methodology that um Calrans is sort of uh uh developed as through the ATP project. So if uh we apply and get that grant, we'd be um applying that for yield compliance in particular. So that's another uh metric that we'd be able to assess uh before and after for yield compliance in addition to all the other metrics that I had mentioned. Okay, great. And I see a question from council member Hall, but I think we're ready to move into no comments. Okay, great. Council member Hall, thank you. What?

Hearing, right? No, no. The only thing that's a public hearing is 12A 12B. Sorry. Yeah. No, you're fine. Continue.

All good. Uh, thank you, mayor. Um, so I used to live two buildings away from the intersection of Santa Monica and Yale. Uh, and one day I was working in my home office when I heard a crash so violent that the window to my office shook. Um, a driver had been speeding westbound on Santa Monica, lost control, ran the red at Yale, and hit a palm tree with such force that she wiped the entire tree out and continued on with enough force to smash into our bus stop there. Um, which was like 15 ft further from the tree. So, I I ran outside to help. I opened the driver door. the driver kind of like stumbled out in a days. Um the car I'm sure was totaled. Uh and like she is lucky that she is alive and and frankly we as a community are extremely lucky that she hit that tree because if she had been 5 feet to the left or 5t to the right, she would have careened into a building that's filled with children's dentistry offices. Um and and of course, who can forget the more recent crash uh that affected the search print shop. So, like these are not fluke accidents and we should expect this to happen when speed meets forgiving engineering. Um, I really want to thank y'all for the work that you've done on this. Uh, you know, the crash analysis was really comprehensive. The public engagement was very thoughtful. Um, I really appreciate that you listened to neighbors who had key criticisms of the current road conditions and specific intersections. And I appreciate that many of the ideas that we discussed in the first study session um are reflected including the new medians, the landscaping, uh the crosswalks, the lighting, the curb pullouts. Um it's really clear that you listen to much of this and and I'm really grateful for that. Uh but I have to say, if I'm being completely honest, it does feel a little bit like Groundhog Day up here. Um, we've now had the same conversation about parking spots and far side bus lanes and bus stops like multiple times now with the East Pico

Boulevard safety project with the first iteration of the safety study last summer. And as our DOT director mentioned, like this is about trade-offs. Um, and you mentioned that you're aligned with our thoughts on vision zero, but then we're also hearing that, you know, you got push back on certain safety uh initiatives and safety designs, you know, quote, from the community. And while I stand by like I appreciate your consultation with the community, but that sounds like you're making design choices contrary to policy set by the council. Um, so like let us be your shield against people who don't want to see these improvements. If the voters don't like what we're doing here, they will vote us out of office. The four of us were elected in the last election and won pretty handedly on a policy platform that promised a zealous approach to street safety and always prioritizing safety over parking or level of service or vehicular speed. You know, this corridor, this this street has had 435 high injury crashes in 10 years. Pedestrians and vulnerable users are over represented in all those injuries. And like that's a speed problem. And as we heard tonight, you know, we didn't even do any reductions in speed limits on Santa Monica during the last speed study. So I guess like I would say and like quite emphatically say underlined bold italicized if an improvement reduces the likelihood of someone being killed or ser reduces the likelihood sorry I'll start over. if an improvement reduces the likelihood of someone being killed or seriously injured but reduces vehicle throughput like we support that improvement and I'd ask my colleagues that in our emotion tonight um if we make one we explicitly state that as part of what we um as part of it so that as we move into project design of these improvements like no safety count countermeasure will be eliminated because it worsens vehicular throughput

um so I I appreciate this work I really do. Uh but it feels contrary to some of the the recent uh policy direction that we've given um especially at the last meeting uh with regards to vision zero. And you know like when I asked about why we're not moving a bus stop to the far side of 26, we were told that was because we want to prioritize two parking spots uh for a business. And like that's a that's a policy decision for ours for us to make. And like as we've stated time and time again, we want to prioritize the street safety and public transit over parking, public transit over private vehicles, and pedestrian and bicyclist safety over driver speed. Um, and so as as a bit of a preview to the community for our upcoming police department annual report, you know, the police department are doing their their their fair share of of street safety work. You know, they've stepped up traffic enforcement threefold since Chief Jacobs taken over. Um, and I want to make sure our DOT and public works teams are helping make PD's job easier by designing the best streets possible. Uh, so I will not be voting to approve this item tonight and would love to see staff return in 60 days with more meaningful improvements uh that prioritize safety better. Thank you. Um, Council Member Zwick, I'm also prepared to say something about what I think summarizes what most of us asked about.

I'll be brief then um and just say that again I I appreciate the work that's gone into this study. I think there's a lot of good work. Uh I'm excited um to see the right turn restrictions, the improvements at Chelsea, uh a number of things like that. Uh I am concerned that we haven't done enough to reduce lane widths as per direction from council. Um that we haven't far-sighted enough bus stops, you know, at intersections where it is feasible. Uh that um we didn't look perhaps for more efficiencies for our bus um uh bus at at sections where we've identified where the bus speeds are very slow uh specifically eastbound in our downtown. Uh and I would like to see an exploration of race crossings at certain unsalized intersections. Um the Federal Highway Administration indicates that if it's at speeds below 30 m an hour, it's an effective way of um slowing traffic speeds without um necessarily compromising uh buses or emergency responders if done appropriately. So those are just some thoughts of mine.

Council member Zernaya,

thank you. And I agree with much of what's been said and um I do also agree that I'm very grateful for all of the work that has gone into this. I recognize it's not an easy task to try to get feedback from the public and balance our council direction with the demands of the people with the demands of businesses and everybody else that uses our streets. Um, I do agree about the prioritization of the intersection at Chelsea to make it safer for the kids at McKinley. I also agree about prioritizing pedestrian and cyclist safety even if it reduces vehicular throughput through throughput that's a difficult name word to say sometimes um according to the staff report pedestrians are over represented in fatal and severe injury crashes so that's part of why I think we really need to prioritize pedestrian and cyclist safety because as we know when there is a pedest pedestrian or cyclist versus vehicle, it's the people that are outside of that vehicle that are the most significantly injured or sometimes killed. Um, I noticed that in the staff report there was a comment that not all incidents are preventable. So, it said on notably not all incidents are preventable from a roadway design andor safety enhancement process. And I completely understand that people are people. We are human. Everybody makes mistakes. Everyone gets distracted at times, whether we're behind the wheel of a car, whether we're on a two- wheeled vehicle, maybe a unicycle. I don't know who rides a unicycle around here, or if you're walking. Um, but I did want to note that I don't know if anyone's read There Are No Accidents by Jesse Singer.

It's a really great book about how a lot of the things that and just to backtrack a little bit, I really appreciate that we're using the language of collisions and crashes as opposed to accidents because these aren't accidents. Yes, in not all incidents are preventable, but significant injury and deaths are preventable when we prioritize the appropriate infrastructure. And one of the things that uh was noted in the book was that we can make roadways safer by designing them with the quote unquote lowest common denominator user in mind. So, the person that is significantly distracted, the person who is trying to keep an eye on a million things going on all at once to make sure that they don't get a chance to make an inadvertent mistake that can hurt or kill someone. Um, so I do want to make sure that we're we're prioritizing those things. Um, and I do also agree about exploring raised crossings at certain intersections. So, if we're able to include all of this feedback and direction within the item, um I'm happy to vote for it, but I do want to hear where everyone else is at.

Council Rosen.

Yeah, I I want to start by echoing the thanks for the work that uh you and the team have put into this. Um it's it it's not easy to embrace trade-offs in a complex way and uh I think that we're certainly aware of uh the complexity with some of the work that goes into this. Uh you know e echoing what uh my colleagues have said I I I am supportive of making sure that we we get this right and taking the time that we need to explore all options. But for the sake of developing consensus up here, I I think I speak for all of us when I say that I I wouldn't want any delay to slow down anything that can be implemented now to improve safety, you know, quick build options, signalization improvement, or anything else that we can start now to kick off this work and to promote the goal of safety that I think we all want. So, uh, yeah, I'm also curious to hear where we're going to land with a motion if there is one, but I just want to say that for the sake of developing consensus. Okay. Well, I'll I'll go because I think I actually heard uh some some feedback on what folks thought up here was missing. Um and I I too I don't want to say that any of these comments should be taken as anything less than appreciation. I just think we're kind of reacting to what we were given. And and I have to say we can't be given this amount of voluminous staff report like three or four days before the meeting. we have to have some sort of briefing because this was uh a lot of information to digest with a very short period of time. So, uh city manager Chi, hopefully we can rectify that in the future. Um but I think you know this is very serious, very thoughtful work that you all have done um very deliberatively and I appreciate that you're trying to balance the trade-offs. I do get that and I'm not trying to be um ungrateful, but I do think that, you know, we've all said Santa Monica Boulevard has experienced over 400 injury crashes in the last decade, and this council has said pretty emphatically that we're committed to clean and safe. Well,

safety means pedestrian and bicycle um safety as well, and we're we're pretty seriously committed to that. Um and I think that safety needs to take precedence in what we're seeing here. And I just quite frankly did not um totally feel that commitment in some of the trade-offs that were mentioned. I think that uh when safety improvements uh are are in in conflict with vehicular le level of service, we have to calibrate around safety, not level service. Um and we haven't really fully aligned with our vision zero policy. So that's where I'm coming from here. Um I think I heard that. So, I'm I'm gonna propose something and you guys let me know what you think. I do think that you all need to come back in in two months here. Uh I think that we need to see a reduction in lane widths to approximately 10 ft on average as directed by council. We've heard that the Wayne lane widths need to be reduced specifically 20th Street to Chelsea, Chelsea Avenue to 26th Street uh were referenced as problems. Um, and I think we need to make all the bus stops farsighted wherever feasible as a best practice. Uh, which was also mentioned. Um, 26 and Santa Monica Boulevard in particular. Uh, we need to extend the bus only lane eastbound down in downtown from Fourth Street to Lincoln. I think that was mentioned as a a fe piece of feedback that was missing. Um, we need to explore raised crossings. I think there's some debate here on whether or not that works, but uh you know, we've we've looked at it and and seen feedback and we need to explore race crossings at as at new and existing unsalized intersections. Um and prioritize pedestrian signal and race crossings at Chelsea as a phase one project. Uh we we all I think kind of uh

talked about that we want to protect our kids who are in school and if we need to allocate money from the capital improvement budget to do so we are um I think amendable to that and want to hear staff's recommendation on what really would give us the best safety solution um and prioritize safety over level of service and transit over parking to just make that emphatically clear. Um, we also want feedback on what actually can be accomplished in the next 6 to 12 months, not 2 years. Uh, so it would be helpful to know to council member Rasin's point, what are the things that we're getting done right away versus what's a little bit longer term, even in the phase one. Um, that was one of my questions and I don't think I got a clear answer to it. I see you all are um, conferring there. Um, and then I think we need to re-evaluate everything in phase one for the highest impact interventions. And when we say impact, we mean safety. Um, and then we need to get feedback from uh, city manager Chi as to what we need from the capital improvement budget and then we'll make the decision as to whether the trade-offs are are needed based on the budget ask and we want to see some real KSIs that are going to be tracked uh, and reported out post implementation. Uh, and then finally, I think you heard from council member Zern Sky and others that we want to pri prioritize pedestrian recall over push buttons. Uh and so coming back with those recommendations and so um I would say that I would make a motion that we um discuss this again in two months uh with that feedback incorporated.

I'll second that. Is there any other discussion on that? Sorry, just to make sure we're on the same page. So I I I don't think this is the intent what you're saying, but we're not going to slow down the work that can be started now between now and coming back in two months. Sure. But um city manager Chi, are we slowing anything down by asking for this?

The um in essence, no. We can do both. The um feedback tonight's been clear. I think staff has an understanding what the council is intending. Um what's presented before you though really ultimately constitutes concepts that we're thinking about. um it is not final design per se. It's not the design of the street. It's not the design of the actual capital project that we're working on. And so if the direction is continue to mature concept plan, certainly takes some time to do that. Um we would like to concurrently move towards um all of the design work for implementing the actual project. In 27 is when construction currently is internally slated to start. And so we do need to move towards design processes at some point. I think we've heard all of the feedback clearly. So if um what I might suggest if the council would like us to maybe synthesize what we're hearing, bring it back to you maybe even sooner than in 60 days as it relates to design concepts you want implemented into the permanent design. we can compile those suggestions, bring it back um relatively quickly and then if we have concurrence with the council, u maybe move into actual design of what the capital project will look like.

Yeah, I don't think anything here is intended to slow down. My understanding that today was just concepts and that there wasn't anything ready to like we're not putting out out of Ballard tomorrow. Um, so yeah, that that's um I think um synthesizes well what we're intending to do and uh we have a a motion in a second.

The only thing maybe I'd suggest I think the motion was within 60 days bring something back as relates to updating the concepts. Would the council be amendable to maybe considering that the direction is synthesize the feedback we've received tonight and identify more clearly for the council the specific improvements we've heard that we would integrate into a permanent design? Um we could probably get that done a lot more quickly than in 60 days and would likely allow us to transition maybe into something a little bit more um substantive as it relates to the actual design work. Yeah, I would say um in no more than 60 days. So, if you want to bring it back sooner, that's great. Council member Hall,

I think my concern with that is that this document ends up becoming the base safety study for the entire project, every project that flows from it. And so, I I would feel more comfortable if this specific document came back to us with updated concepts um as opposed to general guidance given that then gets incorporated in later certainly. Project designs. Understood. Okay. So, I think we're ready to vote. Yes, Council Member Zerna,

I just had a question because I want to make sure I'm understanding this motion and understanding the direction. Um so the motion is to incorporate the feedback that we have given into this specific document. Bring the document back and then be able to move forward with any design specific um actions.

Yes. With one amendment that they're going to work on design concurrent like with some of the uh items that are already kind of in progress so that we're not going to slow down anything. There's certain things that we can certainly work on related to the capital project outside of the specific treatments that have been discussed tonight or tactics. So, we'll um certainly think about how we do that internally. Okay. And they would would they be able to bring it back to us in less than 60 days should it be ready sooner. Okay. Yes. So, we'd be able to get moving on trying to make Santa Monica Boulevard safer.

Yeah. And I don't think anything we're not procluded from having like individual briefings in the interim period as well just to make sure everyone's on the same page. Okay. Thank you. Okay, let's vote. Council member Negrete, yes. Council member Hall, yes. Council member Rasin, yes. Mayor Pro Tim Swick, yes. Council member Snell, yes. Council member Zernaya, yes. And Mayor Terosas,

yes. Great. Um, we will now move on to agenda item 12B. And uh, thank you all for your uh, efforts. Really appreciate it. We have three public comments on agenda item 12B. Uh, just as a matter of process, do we want to hear the staff report and then take the public comment since it's a public hearing? Yes.

Yes. Okay, great. You already have it in there. Right. Good evening, council. uh Steve Mlakami as well as Carrie Fukui and we're here from city planning and uh tonight we'll be presenting uh what is this next phase of zoning amendments related to economic recovery growth and opportunity and this is consistent with the city's new realignment plan and also with council's direction to bring forth uh current ICO standards for permanent adoption. Uh tonight's proposal is the latest phase of what we anticipate will be an ongoing series of zoning amendments uh focused on economic growth and opportunity. Uh the city council uh continues to provide support to the business community that has been very critical uh for economic recovery um allowing for greater flexibility in our land uses and review procedures for both new and existing uh Santa Monica businesses. Uh most recently the city council adopted zoning amendments back in uh August of last year uh permanently

adopting portions of the current downtown IO uh which really focused on alcohol permit streamlining. Uh since then uh staff has continued to look at additional uh streamlining and expanding uh the scope to the entire downtown as well as the outside of the downtown in district citywide. Uh we've received a great amount of positive feedback uh from brokers and the business community on the streamlining changes to land use review. Uh not only that uh it provides greater certainty for these prospective businesses uh and also signals that the city is open for business uh but we've seen uh businesses come through the permitting process uh that have benefited from these changes. And so the feedback and the results uh are telling us that our streamlining strategies uh in the downtown are working. Uh so tonight's proposal comes in two parts. Uh this slide gives a brief overview uh of tonight's agenda. Uh first the formal adoption of all current um ICOs. Uh second would be consideration of new changes within the downtown as well as in the citywide districts uh based on the similar strategy that we've taken for the downtown ICOs. Uh and we also have four policies for the council's uh consideration tonight uh related to uh retail size uh pub crawls uh tap room closing hours and the uh potential reestablishment of bars on Main Street. So, I'll quickly go through the four uh we have four ICOs and a set of emergency order provisions that staff is uh recommending for permanent adoption. Uh that is the downtown ICO. We also have an ICO on sidewalk dining as well as massage. Uh these were um through the years created as ICOs and we are uh seek

uh proposing to permanently adopt those standards. Uh we also have resource recovery and recycling ICO um that uh Ross will be able to go into a little bit further detail later tonight. Uh and uh we also have the adoption of the Palisades emergency order uh supporting the relocation of schools and daycare facilities. Uh so additional changes in the downtown, we are proposing uh to further streamline land re uh land use review which we've done through the current ICO. Uh but we're also looking to expand our alcohol exemptions for commercial uses that are listed here uh that are already available to the third street prominade area. Um and so we're looking to expand this to the rest of the downtown area. Uh staff also proposes to allow uh existing non-conforming pawn shops uh to relocate anywhere in the downtown area except for Ocean Avenue. Uh the council had considered this proposal last year uh and did not move forward with the change at that time. Uh so staff is reintroducing this uh change today uh and want to clarify that this is in response to an existing long-term Santa Monica business uh that would help support their business operations. Uh, as we have proposed the language, this simply would allow for any existing pawn shops to relocate anywhere in the downtown and will not result in any new pawn shops. Uh, next, uh, Carrie will be going over, uh, the strategy behind the changes and also provide an overview of the new changes citywide. Hello, good evening. Uh, thanks for having us tonight. I'm Carrie Fukuy, acting principal planner. Um, as Steve mentioned, I will now be jumping into the citywide amendments. Um, before we get into what we're proposing tonight, I just wanted to go briefly over our general strategy of how we made these uh, changes in our proposal before you.

Um, so we really try to look at these five topics here. So, one, building on the successes of recent changes made downtown. Um, targeting limitations and ground floor restrictions that are seen as barriers and what we've heard from businesses existing and new. Um, also make sure that comparable uses have the same limitations and restrictions in the land use process. Uh, we'll also look to remove or downgrade entitlement processes that are time consuming, expensive for applicants and that we see can be handled by the zoning administrator, by the planning director or by staff. Um, and all of this is kind of happening in a lens where we're seeing neighborhood commercial as, you know, different from our other uh boulevards. uh there's more preservation of ground flooror activity. So everything we do kind of trickles down from downtown to as the most flexible to the boulevards and then down to the neighborhood commercial zone. Um before jumping into the changes again I just want to go over our entitlement process. Um so I'll just go over these briefly from the hardest entitlement to the easiest. So starting with a conditional use permit. Um you'll see it's pretty expensive about $10,000 for a land use permit, $20,000 for alcohol. This goes in front of the planning commission for a public hearing and is appealed to you the city council. Um approval of this requires uh findings these eight findings in the code. Um and this is significant staff time applicant time coordination before the hearing and can take about anywhere from 3 to 5 months. Uh next is a minor use permit. So a step down. It's cheaper at $8,000. It's in front of the zoning administrator for a public hearing. Uh appeals to this go to the planning commission. um they're required to meet the same eight findings as a conditional use permit. So the threshold for approval is the same as a cup. Um and it takes much less staff and applicant prep time uh before going to a hearing about 2 months. Um next is a special limitation. So we have limitations that apply to our land uses. They're standard conditions that must be met whether the

use is permitted by right or requires an entitlement. Some of these limitations uh you know hit on things like max tenant size uh parking and loading requirements uh residential buffers or ground floor restrictions. And then finally we end with just a P in the table which is permitted by right. The applicant just needs to get a business license. So jumping into the changes the first thing we did was looked at how we could simplify the review process. And the first thing we saw was where can we downgrade a conditional use permit to a minor use permit. And to do this, we really looked at what uses have impacts that are easily identifiable, typical for that use, and can be mitigated with simple conditions. A lot of these uses that we looked at, the impacts are related to noise, parking, loading, access, RR, all things that we believe can be handled, you know, at the zoning administrator or with staff guidance. Um, these uses we still see a value in a public hearing to address any community concerns. So that's why the MUP would be reviewed in front of the zoning administrator. And again as I said appealable to the PC with the eight required findings. Um an example of a use where we downgraded cup to MUP is smallcale facility. This is kind of a catchall for a range of commercial entertainment businesses. A lot of what we see for arcades uh kind of popup experiential things that we see on the prominade. Um under the current regulations these require a conditional use permit along all the boulevards. um we assess this use very typical and common to like a general retail use and as impactful as that and don't see how that would rise to the level of a conditional use permit. So this is one example where we downgraded this to a MUP because this use can kind of encompass so many different things. We still think it should have some level overview. Um so that's an example of that downgrade there. Um next we simplified even further where some uses went from a cup and mu to just by write permitted. they just need a business license. Um, we really looked at in what

instances an entitlement was used as a deterrent for a use rather than a way to evaluate compatibility of a use. Because a conditional use permit, a minor use permit, it's a permitted use with conditions to ensure it's compatible rather than something we just use to say yes or no. Um so we looked at specific conditions on recently approved entitlements to see you know what were the greatest concerns what were the typical conditions placed on these entitlements and again a lot were related to parking loading and operations. Um so we also see this as something that could be just required and handled at the staff level. Um another thing we looked at here was removing inconsistent application of entitlements. So there were a lot of comparable uses that had to go through different process um which could have just happened over time as the code was created. So we just try to look at those uses and target them and make sure they're all treated the same. Uh one example of this one, let's see. So we actually are streamlining offices starting in the downtown where offices are really permitted everywhere by right. Um, under new under current code, all new construction of office uses requires a conditional use permit on the boulevards. Um, so we saw this as pretty ownorous. Um, and we also looked at existing entitlements that were recently issued and a lot of the special conditions were related to uh, building design or kind of how it interacts with the street, not necessarily around the business function or the operations there. So this is one example of where we changed a use from MUPCUP to straight by right. And again we looked at NC a little differently where we saw this is you know we want to maintain kind of the active use feel of Main Street in the smaller scale. So we left some of those uh restrictions in for there. And next we looked at simplifying restrictions and limitations for the ground floor. Um so these are limitations in the land use table that

could put restrictions on how big a tenant space can be or the actual frontage of that storefront. Um this is forced as we've seen through business license review applicants to seek loopholes. They face very timeconuming and expensive process. They redesign their floor plans or they chop up tenant spaces all to just end up in this space anyways. So we looked at this and you know where could we remove this and where will it not have a major impact on our boulevards. Um, and we just want to note that throughout all of this, design review is still part of the process. So any kind of concerns about uh frontage or building design, that will still be handled through the ARB. Um, so an example of this is uh banks actually. So in the downtown, the DCP previously restricted bank frontages to 20 ft. Um and on the boulevards we had frontage restrictions for things like retail and general personal services which are nail salons, dry cleaners, tailor, all very common uses. Um we reviewed these and we don't see any real mitigation that that limitation does on an impacted use. Um so we removed these, you know, and it just definitely helps with retening of some long-term vacant spaces. So, next year I'm going to jump into some more specific examples of what we did. Um, retail strategy is one that had some uh bigger changes for the city. Currently, you'll see at the top row are existing regulations. Uh, retail is broken into these three categories of small, medium, large. All throughout existing staff proposal and the planning commission's proposal, everything small scale within that category is permitted by rate. Um what we're really seeing changed is here in this middle column in medium scale where right now existing regulations require a cup staff proposal is to change that either to a minor use permit when close to residential neighborhoods or just permitted by right with approval of a parking loading operations plan. Um and

I want to note in the record that the staff report actually misidentified planning commission's recommendation on this. So this clarification here is that they actually weren't changing the definition. They just wanted to change the threshold of which a cup is required. So in a medium scale retail, everything between 25 and 50,000 square feet is approved through a minor use permit similar to staff proposal. But above 50 and up to 80 requires a cup. So the difference here between staff and PC is that staffs is a little more flexible where anything within medium scale is just a MUP or a PLOP. So, that's our first policy question tonight that we'll bring back up later. Um, if a CUP should be required for anything over 50,000 square feet for medium scale retail, uh, this means that that CUP is required. Anything between 25 and 50 is more flexible with the MUP. Um, so the yes would be aligned with planning commission's recommendation of the CUP between 50 and 80 or no would be with staff's recommendation. And next I am going to go over uh grocery stores. So this was another pretty big change that we made through the city. Existing regulations require a cup for any grocery store over 15,000 square feet. And that counts for a grocery store going into an existing building or new construction. Um we've seen this as a barrier over the last year for difficulty of retening very large tenant spaces. We had that right aid site that's over 15,000 and a grocery store came to us and was looking at how they can break up the space. Um so our proposal is really addressing that. Um you know and we've heard from our mo partners in mobility that some existing grocery stores the biggest issues are the loading the parking the operations. So that's why you'll see in both staff and PC proposals will always require the approval of a plot for any new grocery store in the city. now. Um and staff proposal is for new

construction. A minor use permit only when the grocery store proposes greater than 25,000 square ft. Anything below that is permitted by right with the plop. PC went above and beyond and uh increase that threshold to 30,000 square ft with staff support. A lot of this was based off research we had done that showed the average and median size of grocery stores was between 25 and 28,000. So that 30 just really makes sure it captures everything. And with that, I'm going to pass it back to Steve to go over alcohol. All right. So, this next uh section is uh staff's proposed changes to our alcohol permits. Um so, first uh we are proposing to first downgrade the baseline uh conditional use permit required for all of our alcohol permits. uh and we would be downgrading that from a CUP to an MUP minor use permit uh ex except that bars would continue to require a conditional use permit and that was uh something that was recommended by the planning commission. Uh the alcohol related suspensions uh per the emergency order um are proposed to be formally removed as alcohol requirements in our permits moving forward. And we've also created a process where existing businesses can also simply request that those same conditions be removed from their current alcohol permits. Uh a lot of these uh uh regulations kind of spanned uh many years in the past. So there's a lot of permits out there that they are complying uh you know subject to these requirements. We want to allow for existing businesses to be able to come in and also uh get that as well as new uh new applications for permits. Uh the planning commission uh did recommend to maintain the uh the pub crawl restriction uh and they expressed uh some safety concerns with participating patrons as they're jumping from business to

business. Um and so policy question number two for council uh is whether it would be appropriate to continue the allowance of the pub crawl events uh consistent with the emergency order. Um so uh next is our alcohol uh exemptions. So uh we've taken a similar approach with expanding uh alcohol exemptions to districts outside of the downtown uh but with a much shorter list of potential uses in comparison. Uh staff presented this uh concept to the planning commission uh as policy questions and which the commission was supportive of. Uh so this would include uh food courts being added um and businesses such as art galleries, uh day spas, beauty shops, uh retail shops that are not typically associated with alcohol-related issues. Uh these new businesses would be able to apply for an alcohol exemption permit. Um tap rooms is a new category uh being introduced uh with this group uh that would be limited to the service of beer and wine uh only. So we would not have spirits as a part of that definition. Um and this looks to address like newer trends of businesses such as um Junior Shine on Main Street that is considered a bar uh since they they they do not have food service. Uh so this group is also may include wine bars in this category. Uh and we're looking to provide an easier path for these more innocuous businesses uh that do get caught up under the bar classification. Uh the planning commission supported the addition of this tap room category uh and recommended a closing hour of 900 p.m. for these businesses. Uh considering that the closing hours for alcohol exemptions for restaurants are at 12:00 a.m. Uh staff does propose the closing time to align with these restaurants for consistency. Uh so policy question number three uh should

the closing times be 9:00 p.m. uh or 12 a.m. for tap rooms seeking an alcohol exemption permit? Uh next category moving on from alcohol. Uh here is a list of minor changes that simplify standards for these various uses. Uh I will uh highlight one. Uh all forms of exercise and physical fitness uh for example would now be permitted by right. uh whereas in most cases right now a conditional use permit is required. Um uh we'll go on to our last policy question. So following the planning commission's review um and recommendation of the proposed amendments, uh staff proposes an additional change uh in response to the condition uh commission's overall discussion about alcohol. Uh, and we do propose to allow existing bar establishments located in the NC district on Main Street, uh, that have been closed for more than 12 months to be able to have the right to reopen. Uh, currently, non-conforming standards would require a bar, uh, that has been closed for more than 12 months to convert to a conforming use in the district. Uh since bars are not permitted in this district, a new bar uh would not be able to be approved and therefore this change seeks to preserve the opportunity for existing bars to reopen and avoid permanent termination. Now, this is the same provision that is currently in place uh that we have for bars within the downtown uh and for other uh we also have this available for other types of uses uh uh mainly like restaurants and retail uh to be able to allow for those uh that were uh having a difficult time for reoccupying to be able to reoccupy provided that there uh isn't a conforming use and that's the last known use of that tenant space. Uh this proposal would also help maintain the variety of commercial uses uh that Main Street has historically

provided. Uh so uh policy question number four uh should uh previously oh yeah previously uh operating bars that have closed in the NC district be allowed to reopen if the bar has been closed for more than 12 months. Yeah. just for one second. Okay, sorry. It looks like a couple of slides were not included, but I just wanted to go over a couple of new revisions that were not included in your packet or I guess I should say uh removal of amendments u related to the trash rooms uh for RR requirements. Um the proposed amendments, we're looking to increase them. This largely was started with the self-certification program, but as we moved into codifying them into the code, we've heard from developers and architects regarding some of their concerns regarding this increase. So, at this time, staff is actually recommending to just revert back to what they are right now. Um, so to not kind of move forward with the amendments in your packet uh to give staff more time to more holistically look at kind of all trash operations before we kind of propose any additional recommendations. So just to kind of on the record to read it, it would be remove, it would be going back to 21 ft and 7.5 ft for 3 to 10 units and keeping the 21 ft width for 11 to 20 units. And similarly, that would actually go along for both the commercial or non-residential and residential um tables. So sorry we didn't have those slides, but just wanted to uh go over those quick edits. Right. So, that uh concludes the staff's report. Um we recommend that council adopt the proposed amendments uh tonight as discussed in the staff report and our staff is available for any questions.

Uh don't don't all jump at once. Council members Wick, go ahead. He's really quick at getting in there. Do we do public comment after after our own questions that Oh, thank you. Uh, Miss Anderson Warren, should we do public comment now? Yeah, generally generally you u take questions of staff first and then because then the public has the benefit of those um questions and answers. Okay, great. So, questions only now.

Okay. Well, just slip in that I'm really jazzed about all this. Uh but uh on the topic of questions uh so I just want to parse through some of the cup MUP alcohol exemption elements here. Uh we're moving to MUP for most of these uh establishments that protect that could potentially now qualify for an alcohol exemption under certain standards. Is that correct? Yeah. So, that's the change from CUP to MUP. So, all of our alcohol permits really just start off at currently right now it's a CUP, but we are proposing they start off at an MUP. Uh if an uh if a business can uh agrees to u the alcohol exemption criteria, they can prop uh apply for that, get that permit, and then they wouldn't have a a minor use permit.

Okay. Um it seems like we're dancing around trying to allow these all these things more easily but still saying essentially that bars are not allowed anywhere essentially. Yeah, it was a policy question that we did talk to the commission for. Uh it was one use that they still felt uh that still warranted um some uh discretionary review. um the any the process just for bars uh have always traditionally required cups in the past. Um so but it is is a question that we've we've asked.

Okay. Yeah. Just because it's like we're we're trying we're introducing this new category called tap rooms which is great. We we're we're doing this dance to keep these existing bars that we like. We're trying to keep them in service but we're still making it illegal essentially. And I'm I'm curious uh uh there I guess is there a possibility just so I understand maybe for the future whereby there could be a MUP process for bars that if they meet specific standards related to noise uh other things of that nature outdoor patios I'm not sure you know distance from residential uses could then qualify for an alcohol exemption through that process.

Yeah if the council would like to give staff direction. Um, again, this is uh just kind of the beginning as we're reaching citywide. So, there's going to be a lot of opportunities in the future uh for us to kind of self-correct or even further enhance changes that we make tonight. Uh so, yeah, that could be some research that we could take a look at that.

Okay, awesome. Um I'm I'm trying to hold back from all the excitement I have generally about this and just focusing on the questions. Uh there's some ongoing restrictions on the office campus related to certain a number of uses uh that are restricted to 25% of office campus. Uh I think they're termed special limitation six on a number of uses like you can have a grocery but not a bodega or I don't know what.

Yeah. So, you know, we had heard this and we saw those limitations and we were looking at untangling that and it started to get kind of unwieldly and turned into like a bigger look at, you know, how are we going to address these land use regulations for this whole office campus district. Um, so it's something that we want to bring forward in the next iteration. Okay. Awesome. Yeah, cuz I obviously now that housing is an allowed use, it feels like we want to allow other uses. Definitely neighborhood commercial serving uses and things like that.

Yeah. Okay. Thank you. And then trash room. I won't go into it. It sounds like we're not really dealing with that right now. I would say that I do appreciate that we I think are trying that we are making changes. I I think are we still making changes related to larger projects because that was something that I think was appreciated regarding that being a more streamlined process for larger projects. We did remove the requirement for a public works director to kind of decide for the larger projects to kind of all hone into this table so there's more clear objective standards for all projects moving forward.

Got it. And and then on the smaller ones, I appreciate that we're sort of maybe going to look at that more holistically. Uh I've heard that other jurisdictions sometimes look more at like square footage as opposed to specific dimensions as a way to maybe allow for more flexibility. Is that correct? Yeah. And we've started those conversations. Okay. Awesome. Thank you so much. Great. Council member Zernet Skaya.

Thank you. Um, I'm so excited about these these uh cleanups. I wanted to get some clarification because I I think I'm not understanding something here when it comes to the prohibition on pub crawls because I know we have some pub crawls as events throughout the year. What is what is this prohibition on pub crawls? So the pro uh the pup crawl prohibition um I mean

uh they're a part of um our alcohol permits kind of just over the years. Um this would be a pro a prohibition as it currently is uh on businesses from holding events where you know you can have a couple of businesses on Main Street or or whatnot get together create an event and have a pub crawl. So the restriction just doesn't allow for the alcohol permit holders to be able to kind of organize or participate in something. Now fast forward to where we are currently today and pug crawls. We've seen these events. We've have uh a handful on Main Street that we've seen. Uh those are a little bit more organized, but nonetheless uh we do have an environment such as the easy the downtown for all of our patrons to be able to walk down sidewalk with alcohol within the thirsty prominade. So, we do have something of a change of policy and I think uh the council um wanted to include these suspensions for these more um arduous type of conditions on our current operators. And so, in the emergency order, it's been suspended um as kind of that change of of thought process. So, as we're looking to uh you know get these into the code permanently um you know staff had uh recommended that pup crawls also be included in this batch of uh removals. Uh but it the planning commission did share some concerns about uh overall safety. So, if we were to um remove a prohibition on pub crawls, does that just mean that the uh alcohol license holders would be able to be part of a group that organizes or potentially manages a pub crawl?

That's correct. Yeah. But it wouldn't preclude any third parties from uh working with them to organize something. I mean, I assume they currently work with them, right? They have to, right? It would not preclude uh anybody from preventing pub crawls.

Got it. Yeah. I I remember in Berlin I went on an alternative pub crawl once was really it was really fun. We went to an absence bar. We went to a a tabletop tennis bar. Went to a couple of others. Um, and you know, maybe folks might decide to create some sort of themed pub crawl to highlight places. Um, does this do these amendments also would these amendments also allow for things like corner stores and and things like that or is that potentially some part of a future update?

Um, so you mean like convenience markets and things like that? Yeah. So, we've released that use. Um, especially in the downtown, it's just more about the alcohol permit. So, that's a very separate entire, you know, it's a business and then the alcohol approval. So, the alcohol is where we're still holding the cup uh for convenience markets. Got it. So, so they would, so if a corner store, bodega like uh establishment wanted to sell some sort of either liquor or beer or wine or whatever, they would still need to get a CUP.

Yeah. Yeah, that's correct. In front of the planning commission. Do they are all to make sure I'm understanding are all establishments that sell alcohol required to also get a permit from the alcoholic beverage? Yep. Yeah, that's correct. So, they have to get their license and they show that when they submit their application. So, there's still that check at the state level regardless of whether or not we have some sort of CU versus MEP restriction.

Right. Right. They go through them as well. Okay. And I saw an example of um of a venue that had to get a cup to serve alcohol was uh the Crow, the comedy um uh theater. Is that the right word? Anyway, uh so if we were to implement these changes, would it retroactively allow those uses for the existing ones that had a CU? And if they had to move or something like that, would it how would that work?

It it wouldn't apply retroactively, but then they would be able to come through and apply for this administrative process, which, you know, happens very quickly just with staff within a few weeks. Um, as long as they're okay with the conditions, the standard conditions for that use. Um, you know, sometimes the cup is a little more flexible because, you know, they can kind of negotiate the or fight for their hours or whatever they're looking for. Um, so it really would just depend on what works best for them, but they would have to apply again for a new AE.

Okay. But we would we would be able to uh create standards for hours and things like that under the MEP that wouldn't that could that could potentially not negatively impact those types of businesses. Great. Okay. Thank you, Council Member Hall. Thank you. There. Thank you, Mayor. Um, would you mind pulling up the policy question slide, please? Can you very succinctly state what the staff recommendation is for each of these and what the planning commission recommendation is for each of these?

Yeah. So, for number one, uh, what is shown is the planning commission recommendation. So, a cup is required for mediumcale retail between 50 and 80,000. staff recommendation is anything within that 25 to 80 range is either an MUP if it's adjacent to residential or just a plop. You know, majority of our commercial parcels on the boulevards are adjacent to residential, so it would require that. Um, and then second, do you want to take the Yeah. So, question number two, the planning commission uh recommended to maintain the current uh prohibition on prawls. Uh question number three uh the planning commission recommended

sorry what's staff staff I'm sorry to uh staff recommendation is to um to eliminate this along with all the others. Uh question number three. Should the hours be 9:00 p.m.? So the planning commission recommended a closing hour of 9:00 p.m. and staff is recommending 12 a.m. to sync up with restaurants. Uh and question number four was not something that was discussed with the planning commission. this question or this proposed change devolved after kind of their discussion in terms of how we can improve um our existing businesses. So, this is uh a question just for the council and does staff have a recommendation on number four?

Uh yes, we do recommend uh allowing for bars uh to be able to reopen if they're closed more than 12. Okay, thank you. Council member Negrete.

Um okay, trying to keep things brief to move it along. I just had two questions. Um, our barcles. I was just asking and I want to ask out loud. We used to have a baricle that was on Main Street. I mean, you could only drink on the actual It's like a people pedaling. It's like a big bike. Um, so I was just curious like how that fits into this. And then maybe related in second to that is um cart. The question has been asked many times about bringing it back and then carts on the prominade like if an already established establishment can have like sort of outdoor cart like seasonally or something.

Yeah. Yeah. Um so on the cart issue actually that's what um Cabo Cantina does right now. You know they serve direct to the sidewalk um and we facilitate that. That's allowed because of the entertainment zone. you can have open containers straight into the public right away. It was actually a very creative um idea and the uh license agreement was updated for that. Um we have heard interest in kind of like a mobile beverage cart uh idea um you know that we're we're looking at. Um someone had had proposed that but that's certainly allowed. Um and it also allows uh DTSM also um on the promot for example to put um uh kind of like brand activation you know with alcohol service. So, sort of like that pop-up experience as part of the entertainment zone. Um, so that's typically where we see that kind of like, you know, mobile beverage cart um kind of experience on the bar. That is an interesting thing. I I want to say that it's like

we had it. I've experienced. Yes. No, no, we have one. We haven't We don't have one operating right now. I think No, they I don't They stopped years ago and I don't know if it was like liability reasons or something. They said years ago there was some issue because it was on Main Street. Yeah. Um, yeah, let's bring it back. Um, what about pettic cabs? Sorry, maybe we're taking it too far. Um, can I just since I'm the last question, can I say my comments and then go back so I don't have to go back in the queue or do you remember? Sure. I have one. I have

Oh, sorry. We have public comment. Okay. So, to We're not really sure about baricles and carts are directly attached to an already established establishment, right? Not I just want to make sure people can't just come in and set up a cart because then it takes away from the existing businesses. Yeah. Yeah. I was referring to the entertainment zone as part of like an event activation or something. Yeah. Yeah. But when when it's an event activation, it's still attached to an establishment that has their living. Not necessarily. No, it could be a third party.

That's one thing that's a little interesting I'd like to explore is protecting the existing businesses who already pay all the taxes and have already gone through all the things before we made it easier to be able to sell alcohol and serve the community. then someone comes in for an event and takes that opportunity to get that foot traffic. So to the extent it's on the public rideway, you know, that's going to be really the city's proprietary capacity, right? That's not really like a land use regulation, you know, in terms of um uh you know, whether it's connected with a local business or what have you. That's that's hard to do in a zoning code, uh per se, unless it's like right on private property. Typically, you're talking about something again in the public right of way. So on the prominant for example, this would have to be something that's discussed maybe within downtown Santa Monica where when they do those

or within our event permits cruise that they have to make an arrangement that you don't take away from the existing businesses. Well, and I think it could also be part of the entertainment zones management plan as well. So um which is something that you delegated authority to staff to um uh promulgate as part of the entertainment zone. But, you know, should council want to give direction on that at another time, that's not before you this evening, but that could be discussed as part of the entertainment zone as well. Okay. Thank you.

Great. I just have one question. Um, since there seems to be a lot of uh differentiation on the alcohol uh issue between what the planning commission recommendation is and what the staff report staff's recommendation is, and we've had some discussion on it. Um can you tell us about how the proposed alcohol thresholds for cups etc um compared to other jurisdictions that we might be competing with for new business activity i.e. like smaller cities like Pasadena, Culver City, West Hollywood, Long Beach. Um because I think it is really important as we're looking at where businesses might try to locate, you know, we want to make be as business friendly as possible. That's the goal here. How do we compare to other jurisdictions? And I do believe that that was answered earlier today. So hopefully you have that information.

Yeah. So I think we looked at retail and we got generally information for the Hollywood Pasadena. So there is an administrative option available um for some eligible restaurants um and uh retailers. So it may be similar to our program. I think we were we didn't have all the information, you know, in front of us. I think we were just starting to do some of that research. Um I will say we have had overwhelmingly positive feedback on our alcohol exemption program um within the downtown and now it's expanded proposed to be the entire uh downtown for a variety of uses. Um restaurants and I looked since you know we made this switch and there's probably been over a hundred uh permits issued for alcohol exemption. people that have switched over

from cups are like we love this better you know and it's like if you have everything you need we can approve it in a matter of days which is um super everyone listening hello it's pretty different than I think our pure cities at the speed at which and the ease um it's just like one form you sign and date it staff reviews it and if it looks fine it's fine um you know we we try to make it easy and common sense so um I think it's been wildly successful you know we hear really good feedback Well, I appreciate that you all understood the assignment and you're coming to us with the recommendations that are going to make it easiest to do business here. So, really appreciate that. I think um I don't see any more. Oh, Snell has questions.

Just one quick question. And since that, you may not be able to answer it, but can you kind of tell us uh what type of um what the effect has been with our police department and you know, how many instances have we had because of that? I mean, I think not something we looked at, but I think if if something if a business was a problem, we would certainly be aware of it, you know, whether through law enforcement, code enforcement. Um, with alcohol exemptions, these are typically um it's like a ancillary. It's a beverage service ancillary to something else. It's a restaurant. These are like lowrisk issues even within um the prominade, right, where you can open a bar with an alcohol exemption. I mean the fact is they they have a vested interest in you know behaving well be being good neighbors. it we we we've not seen it being an issue, you know, other than the sort of I think like typical, you know, drunken disorderly as as may happen with any alcohol service, but it has not been a prevalent issue. Um even during COVID, you know, when we had um alcohol service, you know, that may have extended like to um and private uh parking lot right next to someone's backyard. I think we had like one one issue, one business that was an issue and it was dealt with. So, it just overall hasn't been, you know, this this massive problem um in terms of streamlining the process.

Thank you. Amazing. Oh, you would you like to say something? Oh, yeah. Just to touch on that, too. All al alcohol applications require a security plan approved by the police department and that has to be provided with the application. So, that's already done before it even comes to us. So, that's another check that happens.

Great. So, the sky is not falling. Um, okay. We have three comments for 12B. Michael class, Luke Kane, Will Class. I appreciate you guys staying here for so long. Thank you. Good evening, mayor, council members, and Mr. City Manager. My name is Michael Class. My brother Willie and I own Santa Monica Jewelry and Loan, the city's only remaining pawn shop. We are deeply invested in this community. I live in Santa Monica with my wife and three young children. This is home. The amendment we are talking about does not expand pawn shop uses. It does not open the door to anything beyond what the city has already allowed for the past 75 years. The only purpose of this amendment is to correct a documented error made in the 2017 downtown community plan. An error acknowledged by planning staff themselves. Just so you know, there were originally four pawn shop licenses given out in the city of Santa Monica. We are the only pawn shop left. That mistake stripped away relocation rights that have been in existence for 75 years. No one informed us about the change in DCP when it happened. We were not at the last council meeting when it was discussed because we were told it was going to be a simple fix. That wasn't the case. We also presented this situation to the planning commission. They voted unanimously for the staff to correct the error and allow the relocation that was established years ago, which is in your staff report. That clerical oversight is preventing us from relocating to a safer, most more suitable downtown space in downtown, something we've done before with full city support. We purchased this business in 2009, and it has been operated in good standing for over 45 years. We contribute nearly 20 We contribute $20,000 annually in license fees and pay

six figures in sales tax. We serves thousands of residents who rely on safe, regulated, non-reourse loans, a service no other business in the city provides. Approving this amendment does not create risk. It prevents unintended harm. It restores the city's long-standing policy. I respectfully ask you to correct the error, restore the rights the city already granted, and allow Thank you. Um Lu Kane.

Good evening again, mayor and council members. Um I'm here tonight uh again to discuss a matter of basic fairness and the survival of a long-standing local family business. Just a little history. For 75 years, pawn shops have been allowed in the city of Santa Monica, but were limited to the area of Second, Thirdd, and Fourth Street between Wilshire and Broadway. Angelo's Pawn Shop was the last remaining pawn shop in Santa Monica uh which was purchased by Michael and William class. Angelo's original location was on second in Santa Monica Boulevard. He was forced to move because that building was being torn down. Finding a new location was difficult. Once Mayor Gendzer and the city council became aware of the difficulty, the city council created a text amendment to allow pawn shops to operate in what the city deemed was downtown Santa Monica, excluding Ocean Avenue. This allowed the pawn shops to relocate within the borders of the newly designated downtown. The first new home of the pawn shop was in the was in a city-owned property on Fifth Street just off Santa Monica Boulevard. After a few years, that building was torn down. Around that time, Angelo's Pawn Shop then became Santa Monica Jewelry and Loan. Being forced to move again, they moved to 408 Broadway where they have operated for almost 15 years. Santa Monica Jewelry and Loan is the only pawn shop left in the city of Santa Monica. They are heavily regulated and fully compliant. This amendment simply corrects a documented oversight admitted by the planning department regarding the 2017 DCP. It does not allow for new pawn shops. It merely restores the relocation rights the city has upheld for decades. Denying this correction due to a clerical error could force out a long-standing family-run business. Blocking their ability to relocate was an error. It is not a policy. It is an unintended consequence that harms a long-standing compliant local familyrun business. This amendment simply corrects that mistake, nothing more. I urge you to approve the amendment. Thank you so much for your

consideration. Thank you, Mr. Kane. Um, Will Class.

Good evening, mayor and council members. My name is Will Class. My brother, Michael and I own Santa Monica Jewelry Alone, and we are raising our families here. Six kids between us. This city isn't just where we work. It's where our children are growing up. It's our home. For decades, this family business has served this community. We purchased the business in 2009. We've followed every rule, paid every fee, and relocated whenever necessary. We've done everything right. And yet today, because of a clerical mistake made in 2017, a mistake the planning department acknowledged, our entire livelihood is suddenly at risk. We were never told about this error. We only discovered it when we started asking questions because we are looking to move. Now, a business that has been part of Santa Monica for generations could be shut down over something we had nothing to do with. That is not how a city should treat a family business that has played by the rules. That is not how you treat a business that has stood with this community for 45 years. This amendment does not bring in new pawn shops. It simply restores the relocation rights of an existing business the city had already granted, rights we relied on in good faith. If this isn't corrected, our employees lose their jobs, our families are harmed, and thousands of residents lose a service they depend on. I'm asking you to fix the mistake. Restore the right to relocate in the limited area that was set up 45 years ago and reestablished with Mayor Gendzer's council. And let us keep serving the city we love. Thank you.

Thank you. Um, so that concludes the public comments because we don't have any on the phone. Uh, I do have one person on the phone. Oh, I thought she wasn't here. Okay, so it's Jacob Wasman. Oh, my apologies. Jacob Wasserman.

Mr. Wasman, are you there?

Go ahead. You can start.

Oh, yes. Thank you so much. Um, hi, I'm Jacob Wasman again. Um, Wilmont resident planning commissioner. Um, I'm not speaking on behalf of the whole planning commission, but I will speak with my planning commissioner hat on. Um, this is a great ordinance. Um, I'm so thankful for the work the staff has done. One thing you might know, we actually discovered this during the planning commission hearing. Midnight mass, um, late night satra or any other religious event that goes into the night is currently illegal in Santa Monica. if you actually enforce the rules. Um, this ordinance would correct that. Um, so there's a lot of good stuff in here. I think staff has gone over it well. I I just wanted to clarify um two things. One is that the staff report talks about certain restrictions only applying on Maine and Montana. Um, we had made a motion that we are fine deferring to staff on what they think is right, but that it shouldn't call out specific streets. You know, if we have zones for a reason. Um, and then second with regards to the pub crawls, um, as I understood what we decided, we were recommending that pub crawls be allowed, um, by right with an alcohol license downtown, um, but need a cup outside of downtown. Um, split the difference. Personally, I would be fine with them everywhere, but just so the record is clear, that is my understanding of what planning commission recommended. um downtown allowed outside downtown a CUP, but otherwise this is a great ordinance. I'm I'm so glad staff has proposed it. I think it'll help revitalize business both downtown and across the city. Thanks so much.

Thank you, Mr. Wasserman. Um Council Member Negrete, yeah, first I would like to move this item. Great. um because it's getting late and I'll just quickly say um do you want to answer those policy questions? Yes. So question one um should a c be required for medium scale retail 25 to 80 ft um proposed greater than 50 um I'm sorry I'm just looking at that question I'm looking at it from the 25 to 80. So, we're saying it would be required for any mediumcale retail above 50,000 ft. Correct.

This is a little more helpful here. Sorry. Because you have the both in there. So, it's we didn't change the threshold of medium. So, it's still 25 to 80. It's just within that medium. If you go from 50 to 80, that's when the cup would kick in. So, then technically, you don't need it from 25 to 50. Correct. That would be an MUP for that instance. Um, and that's the planning commission recommendation.

Um, okay. I'm going to So, okay. 50 to 80 under both options. Retail between 25 is more flexible, no charge. So, I was going to leave that at yes. Sorry. Um, and then if you could go to the other questions. Yeah. So, the pub crawl I I don't understand. I was also agreeing with the um speaker on the phone that I thought it was going to be um allowed but just not outside of the entertainment zone. Um so I'm I think we should allow the pub crawls. It feels like it's already sort of that's sort of the idea of the entertainment zone. Um and then the next question um yes staff recommendation. Yes, number four is bringing back. Yes, that should have happened a long time ago. And number five, is there a fifth question?

No, that's these four. Can I make a friendly moment? Yeah, we I'm just making sure. I just wanted to go through because the square footage one was a little confusing to me. So, um so moving yes on questions one through four. Um, just quickly commenting that taking into account some of the other stuff that we talked about looking at and for me the biggest thing is like making sure I guess I guess it's not in here but that we're protecting the existing businesses like we don't want to take away from those that have gone through the effort of establishing a business and then having others come in to be able to offer and sell alcohol without utilizing them. So, I'd like to move um 12B with the staff recommendations or the questions answering yes to questions one through four.

Sorry, just to clarify um because I wasn't tracking exactly what yes versus no was on all these, but the we're moving the staff recommendation for all the policy questions and not the PC recommendation. Okay. Exactly. Thank you. And one other minor um clarification is staff um read some changes into the record related to the RR&R as well. Just wanted to make clear that that would be part of your recommendation. Yes. Yeah. Just just for clarity though the the staff recommended to remove the cup in the question one whereas I think you were saying to Right. Yeah. That's why I was asking. Yeah. Sorry. Well, I guess I was I was saying we want to maintain the medium at 25 to 80.

Yeah. So staff would allow more of a flexible process for anything from 25 to 80. Um just the MUP process at most whereas planning commission is the more um it's a little more strict where from 50 to 80 it's always going to be a cup. So staff recommendations just removes the cup option completely. Yeah, I know. And the planning commission was rejecting that. Yeah. and they wanted to maintain CUP for kind of this medium large

not to go into a whole discussion. We just did that. I I I just I'm trying to understand. I know right now, look, I'll just say, you know, right now we're suffering to get people in and reimagining what an 80,000 square foot gap could possibly be. And so, you know, I don't know what the dangers are, what the real main concerns quickly are about like what would happen, what people are concerned about if we were to just to help like ground it a little bit for you, like what does 50,000 square feet look like? if that helps. It's uh think about the Bristol Farms Big Five combination up there. That's like 47,000ish square feet. Gives you a sense of scale. Whole Foods on Bullshure in 23rd, that's like a 30,000 square foot grocery store.

Um just ju just to give you some some grounding as to, you know, what we're talking about. Um I don't know that we have something that 80,000 square feet. You know, Santa Monica Place is 500,000, right? So that's enormous. Um so what this is is between 25 to 80 It's either permitted or it's a minor use permit. Minor use permit allows us to take into consideration some sight specific considerations particular to that location. In all cases what we have seen with any retail is like when you have a large scale imagine what if it was Costco or something right it's the parking loading and operations piece that is always the issue because it's always the logistics of how do you you know deliver um that that kind of thing. um that that's where we often spend most of the time, you know, in looking at this. So, that's why the staff recommendation was either minor use permit um or it's a per outright permitted use, but you must have that parking loading and operations plan um in order to mitigate, you know, what would be the greatest impact without going through this like massive cup um process. So,

right. So, what are you losing in that process? What are you losing in that process? Um, I don't I I don't know that we could advocate for a cup because a cup will still be required for 80,000 square feet and above, which is very, you know, the the sort of like mega stores of which we don't even have here. Um, you know, so I thought we we we felt that that MUP or permitted with PLOP was a reasonable compromise. Sort of balancing the ability for community input, a public hearing, you know, still taking into account um you know, how we mitigate impacts um from a larger scale use. Well, in the spirit of uh economic recoveries, um moving forward then with the staff recommendation, we have a second.

I'll second. Great. Um, do people still want to make Okay, Council Member Hall, then Raskin, then Zwick, then Zern Sky. Okay, Hall, are you in? Yes. Thank you. Uh, thank you, Mayor. Um, and thank you, Council Member Negrete, for the motion. Uh, okay. Look, on the pawn shop issue, I'm willing to admit when I'm wrong, and I appreciate the additional background and history, uh, that I've learned since our last vote on this. So, thank you for that. Um, I will keep it very brief. you know, when we talk about a renaissance agenda for our city, the community development department is leading it. So, thank you for that. Um, this is a great uh embodiment of what we're trying to do here and what we're trying to achieve. So, thank you. Um, and I'll be supporting the most obviously

Raskin. Yeah, I echo the thanks. Uh, fantastic work all around. Um I I don't think it was covered in the four questions that were teed up here, but so as far as I understand it, the original idea for bars was to downgrade that to an MUP and the planning commission said no, we're going to keep the COP on that. Uh and that's what's before us tonight. Um I'd be curious to hear what my colleagues say. I I'm inclined to go with staff's original recommendation for MUPs for that uh because it can still be appealed to the planning commission if folks have concerns. So, if folks were in favor of that, I'

I think I I think I spoke to that a little in my questions. My only concern is if it would delay this first reading in any way because I I agree that I'd like to see that change. I just want to make sure that we can pass this tonight. Yeah, those would be pretty easy changes that we'd be able to make. So, so they could be passed tonight as a Yeah. the way that the zoning ordinance. Well, yeah, the way the zoning ordinance is drafted, it would not be a difficult change. We could make it this evening. It would be brought back with that change for second reading.

Uh, great. Is that it?

Oh, I was me. Sorry. Um, I just wanted to just echo my colleagues. Uh, really excited about this. I think we are, you know, really leading the way and becoming uh a city that's open for business and and I I think uh as my colleague said, um community development is really um uh leading a a culture change in the city that we're really excited about. Uh beyond that, um I think uh you spoke uh council member Raskin spoke to one of the questions around the MUP process for bars. um uh the only other one that I wanted to pull up here. Excuse me. Uh was just uh and I think you indicated it was already underway, but I'd like to just ask if we could include direction uh as well that we when we come back, I think perhaps in June or whenever it is that we were planning with the next um perhaps set of revisions that we look at the office campus restrictions and uh the trash room question, which I believe is already in process, but that was my only quitional comment. Great.

That's amendable to the the makers. Yes. Yes. And then to include this amendment that we just mentioned in the motion. Yes. Thank you. Council member um Zernoskaya. Sorry. Before council member Zernay goes, um city attorney, would you mind uh restating the specific amendment? Yes. So the specific amendment would be to um require not a CUP but an MUP for bars in all locations. where where bars are permitted. That is friendly to the secretary.

So, I just wanted to make sure I'm also understanding this. So, policy question number four was, should non-conforming bar establishments in the um in the neighborhood commercial main street district be allowed to reopen if the establishment has been closed for more than 12 months? Does that mean that uh non-conforming bar establishments in other areas that have been closed for more than 12 months would also be allowed to open under an MUP or is that would that be something they Yeah. Well, I guess under this direction they would just follow the typical process. This is very targeted to just NC Street. Got it. So this is this is a separate thing than bars to MUP in places where it is already in to districts where it is already allowed.

Right. So that's just kind of globally across the city where bars are allowed. Instead of going to a cup, the direction is now amendment to make it a MUP. And to clarify, bars are allowed, I assume. And where are they allowed? Yeah, like pretty much all of our commercial districts. So downtown the boulevards, Bergammont area, uh, office campus, the IC, I think even in the hospital districts maybe. Um, so pretty much all of our commercial boulevards, just not in any of the residential districts.

Yeah. Which that that tracks, right? I don't think we want anybody to to have a bar in their garage. Um, at least not open to the public. Um, sorry, there was something. Oh, um, on that first question of the making it easier to have larger establishments. I'm super excited about that because I just saw that there is an IKEA that's going to be opening in Culver City and I would really

it's Yeah, it's like the Costco is technically in Marina Delray, not Yeah, that one's a weird one. So, I would love to have some sort of um you know, larger store like IKEA or Costco that's specific to Santa Monica. That that would be fabulous. And hopefully this will make it more uh more easy to do. Um, yeah. No, I'm I'm just so excited. Thank you so much for for all the work on this and um yeah, look forward to what's next.

Okay, I just want to say two second two things, but I know we're we're ready to go to close session. Um, I am so proud to be part of the city. You guys are totally stepping up in every way and I just want to say major major thank you. Um, killing it. really just appreciate you all so much. I just had to say that. Um, super excited about this. I I mentioned at the beginning I think economic recovery requires stability and predictability and also we have to be competitive with our other amongst our other cities in the region. Um, and I I do acknowledge the comments about cost. I think you know the next 16 item is is hopefully dealing with some of that. We we obviously want to reduce the cost of doing business here, but in terms of streamlining um you know, time is money. Super appreciate you guys creatively coming up with these options. Um and I think we're trying to send a clear signal tonight to the entire region. Santa Monica is open for business. Period. We are trying to remove every single artificial barrier that we can. Period. Uh we want to compete regionally and we are not trying to throw up any roadblocks. So, I would just invite folks in the community, if you are seeing an issue, we want to hear about it. Uh, and I see the staff nodding. Thank you guys. I I think, you know, I um I'm not opening a business on on Main Street right now, so to the people that are, we want to hear about it. Um, and so, thank you. And this ordinance is so exciting, and I'm excited to make it permanent.

Yes. Go ahead.

I remembered the other thing I wanted to say. So, I I just wanted to acknowledge that in the past we've heard concerns from members of the public about having uh too many establishments that serve alcohol and you know the the accessibility of alcohol, but I just wanted to make sure that folks are aware that um especially nowadays, places that serve alcohol also serve a lot of non-alcoholic options because more and more people are choosing to abstain from alcohol or are choosing to uh drink less of it. Even folks who do drink alcohol will sometimes drink non-alcoholic beverages like a mocktail or non-alcoholic beer. So, we're just giving people more choices and promoting uh promoting opportunities for new businesses within our city is how I'm looking at it. So, just wanted to make sure I made that point. Thank you.

Awesome. Let's vote. Yes. Council member Council Member Mcgrete. Yes. Council member Hall. Yes. Council member Rasin. Yes. Timwick. Yes. Council member Snell. Yes. Council member Zern Zern Skaya. Yes. And Mayor Terosas. Yes. Okay.

Okay. So now we're moving on to 16A. It's request of Mayor Potim Swick and Council Member Negrete that the furtherance of the city's economic revitalization strategy. the city council direct the city manager and city attorney to analyze and present options for supporting retail to restaurant and hospitality conversations. Nobody wanted to take the lead on this.

Can I do you mind if I introduce it? Um okay. So this is about continuing on what we were just talking about activating retail space, removing unnecessary barriers for small businesses who want to invest in Santa Monica. We've spent years talking about economic revitalization. Um, one of the clearest challenges we hear, especially downtown and along our commercial corridor, is that converting an existing retail space into a restaurant is really cost prohibitive. It's not just rent and wastewater fees. It's grease interceptors, ventilation, ADA upgrades, fire, life safety modifications, and these are legitimate requirements, but the cumulative cost can stop a project before it even begins. Um, a few years ago I explored whether we could provide wastewater fee relief to existing restaurants. And I bring that up because it was months of meeting with restaurants and hearing um the impacts of those wastewater fee uh per seat charges. And at the time we were told that it wasn't a viable option under the current structure. So this item reflects some lessons learned and instead of looking backwards, we're looking forwards conversions and new investment and asking how can we design a targeted pilot that works within our legal fiscal framework. This item simply asks staffs to analyze options for a pilot program that could wave, defer, or reduce certain fees and provide targeted support for tenant improvements that unlock these conversions. We're not eliminating standards. We're not compromising safety. We're just exploring how to strategically lower barriers so that small operators can activate storefronts. Restaurants drive foot traffic. Foot traffic drives retail and retail drives our economic recovery. And if we're serious about this economic revitalization, we definitely need to make it easier, not harder, for entrepreneurs to say yes to Santa Monica. Um, and I just want to say that I have been bringing to the city manager's office many of my own personal

contacts and colleagues coming in to look at bringing their businesses here downtown um, and in Santa Monica. And one of the biggest things is looking at turning these existing retail spaces into restaurants. And these fees create a huge roadblock. And I can tell you there are folks that aren't even in the state of California that I know tonight personally are watching this meeting pertinent to this item. So, I'm looking forward to the um analysis and discussion. There we go. Uh yeah, I'll just echo uh Council Member Negrete. Um we we did amazing work tonight um in making it easier from a zoning and permitting perspective to create the kind of vitality that we're seeing. And you know when it comes to restaurants um and other hospitality uses uh as mentioned um when you're converting a sort of blank box retail space it's it's expensive and complicated and I think we just want to be doing everything we can as a city not just to make it legal but make it feasible to have these kind of establishments. This is something I think the whole you know goal the whole council shares. I think we even talked about this as a possible direction when we talked about the sign uh program as a as a use of revenues um when it comes to facilitating these kind of uses. So I see this is just consistent with what the whole council has been pushing for and uh excited to kind of just add this to our arsenal as we really uh work to revitalize uh this area.

Council Hall. Yes. Would like to move the item. Great. Second. All those in favor? I any opposed or abstain? No. Great. Um, city attorney, do you want or sorry, city city clerk, are you reading us into close session? Oh, looking like you guys. I'm ready to get you out of here. We're ready for reading into close session and just want to confirm about

So, here's the here's the close. Let me get through them real quick. Okay. So, the first one is existing litigation and this is John Doe atala and with a sorry with a bunch of John Doe's I had this. Okay. Next we have 5B and it's an existing litigation. It's the city versus ICSOP. Next we have Edgar Espinosa versus the city. Then we have another existing litigation. It's the people of the state of California versus say Farzison. Then we have another existing litigation. It's Pavilions Motel, Inc. versus the city of Santa Monica. Then we have a significant exposure to litigation. It's one case. We have um a real estate negotiation. This is 5G. It's 256 Santa Monica Pier. And Oliver Chi is the city manager. He will be negotiator of record. We'll be negotiating with Sean Aos, sorry. Um, California Roadhouse. Then we have 5H, another real estate negotiation, and it's for 2019 and 1905 Pico Boulevard. and Oliver Chi, city manager, will be the city's negotiator with Dennis Ry Ridler and they'll be negotiating the terms and the payment for lease. Then we have another one. It's another real estate and it's 2020 14th Street Santa Monica. Again, the city manager will be negotiating on the city's behalf with the I hope I'm not messing up her last name, Capacelli. And this is um they'll be negotiating for terms for of payment of a lease. Then again we have another one. It's 5600 Rickenbacher Road Bell, California and the city and this is

Salvation Army. And then finally the last one we have is an existing litigation. It's Fley Williams versus the city attorney. So we estimate a return in 90 minutes and there may be some report outs. So we will need to reconvene for the report outs briefly. And is anyone going to recuse themselves? Yes, I have um excuse me as I pull it up. Um I will be recusing myself from item 5F due to a potential conflict of interest under government code section 871 0. Any other ones?

Yes. Uh, mayor and clerk, I will be recusing myself from items 5H, 5 I, and 5J due to a potential conflict of interest under government code section 871000. Great. Um, so we will be back in 90 minutes. That should be around 11:15 and we'll maybe report out. So, we're all returning back at that point. Oh, you're recusing, too? No, I'm not recusing, but I'd like to make the adjournment in public. Okay, that's a good idea. Okay, we're going to do our adjournment now before we come back. Go ahead, Barry.

Thank you, mayor. Um, I would like to adjourn this public tonight's meeting in memory of Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Senior, who passed away on February 17, 2026 at the age of 84. Reverend Jackson was one of the most consequential civil rights leader of the last half century. A close associate of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., He carried forward the fight for racial justice, voting rights and economic fairness and a political inclusion. He was one of the original authors of DEI through Operation Push and the Rainbow Coalition and through his historic presidential campaigns in 1984 and 1988. He expanded civil participation and gave voice to communities long excluded from power. His work also touched Santa Monica directly. In 1995, he visited the Santa Monica College where he spoke in defense of affirmative action and encouraged students to engage fully in civic life. And in 2003, he stood with grocery workers in Santa Monica during the bonds and food for last strike, joining UFCW members on picket lines in support of fair wages and healthc care and protection for working families. Reverend Jackson believed deeply in solidarity that students, workers, and communities all have a role in shaping more justice society. His visits here were reflected that belief. Keep hope alive. I am somebody or statements that are inspired a generation and are could currently be used today for his long for his lifelong commitment to civil rights, economic justice, and democratic participation. I ask that we adjourn tonight's open meeting in memory of Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Senior. Thank you.

Thanks so much, Barry. And we'll see everyone back in 90 minutes.

Did she get shot? place next door.

We are back. It is 11:40 and uh city attorney, would you mind uh giving us a report out of close session?

Yes. All matters were heard with the following reportable actions taken. For item 5C, the city council approved a settlement in Espinosa v. City, a personal injury case involving a claim the plaintiff was struck by a city maintenance vehicle. The city denies liability and does not admit fault, but agreed to settle for $8 million. And in exchange, plaintiff agreed to release all claims against the city um against the city. Amounts exceeding the city's $1 million self-insured retention policy will be paid by the city's excess insurer. The settlement was approved by a vote of 7 to zero. For items 5D and 5e, people varam and pavilions motel v city of Santa Monica. The city council approved a settlement of a vote of 770. The cases involve a nuisance abatement lawsuit filed by the city against the owners of Pavilion's motel for allowing drug and other nuisance activity to occur on the property and a lawsuit filed by the motel owners in a federal court challenging the city's revocation of the of the owner's business license to operate a hotel on the property. In accordance with the settlement, the property owners would agree to not reopen the motel, operate any other business at the property, or allow any occupancy of the property, maintain the property in compliance with the drug abatement law and city property maintenance, vacant property, and public nuisance code. Not own any other motel in Santa Monica for a period of 10 years. not transfer ownership of a motel of the motel on site to a new owner unless through a legitimate arms length sale by a buyer approved by the to a buyer approved by the city and a a $100,000 suspended penalty for violation of the terms of the settlement. In addition, uh the um property owner would agree to dismissal of the federal lawsuit. And finally, for item 5K, at its February 28th, 2026 meeting, the city council approved a settlement in Furley Williams v. City, a personal injury case involving a claim that Williams was injured when he was struck by a big blue bus while crossing the street. The city denies liability and

does not admit fault, but agreed to settle for 645,000. And in exchange, Williams agreed to release all claims against the city. The settlement was approved by a vote of 70. Great. Um, so that concludes our meeting and we will uh see everyone on March 10th. We are no see well we will see everyone for a special meeting on Saturday. We'll see you all for our next regularly scheduled meeting on March 10th. Thank you all so much.