Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

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e e e are we ready wait are you on it's now 605 okay I'd like to call to order the uh January 15th meeting of the Planning Commission of the city of Santa Monica Planning Commission of the city of Santa Monica let's have a pledge of

allegiance States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liy and justice for all let's have the roll call give her a moment commissioner Cho here commissioner Fresco here commissioner Hamilton here commissioner Landis here commissioner Reese here and chair tolken here planning director's report waiting for the slide welcome by the way yes your new role congratulations planning director brief acting planning director getting you have to get used to answering now uh first and foremost I hope everybody is um safe and your family and friends are safe um you know in this past week it's been uh very trying for everybody so really glad to see all of you here um just uh regarding upcoming Planning Commission um so we actually I think after looking at it we're probably going to be moving those items from the February 5th meeting to the 19th so febrary 5th will be a cancelled meeting um it's a bit of a light agenda and we're trying to avoid thanks coming you having you come here for six minutes so um so those items you see will move to the February 19th meeting they will not be a February 5th meeting um at the ARB um the last meeting on January the 6 they uh reviewed a housing project at 601 Colorado Boulevard that was continued with comments um the landmarks commission meeting uh this past Monday uh was canceled um and the next meeting will be February 10th where um the commission will be reviewing two

uh uh nominations for designation one is at 26 Arcadia Terrace and the other one at 1958 20th Street uh recent count Council actions um there was a special meeting of the city council last Friday January the 10th where they ratified um uh the proclamation of an emergency and uh an emergency uh order um and just to give you there's several Provisions to it but highlights um that the might be of interest to the commission um uh enforcement of short-term rentals and residential leasing regulations have been temporarily suspended um there was actually a revised order that was just issued yesterday um and that adds back in that the rentals must be to Natural persons um that are displaced because of the fire and you cannot rent more than one unit um in Santa Monica but um given the emergency and the need um there is a temporary suspension of those provisions of the municipal code we are temporary allowing hotel stays for more than 30 days and there's also a temporary suspension of building permits within evacuation warning and uh order areas which um really is just North of San B at this point terms of warning areas um the January 28th is the upcoming city council meeting um there'll be a study session on the uh I'm sorry it's not on the equity plan that's a mistake um there is the airport conversion project draft guiding principles um the safety element update so the adoption of that document and then um extending the IO this is allowing um City authorized uses pursuant to a declared emergency without a temporary use permit um that's the report any happy to take your questions I just a quick quick question if possible when you say building permits were temporarily suspended that's the processing of building permits no no it's it's actually permits that have been issued so it's actually um not explaining that well it's construction activity so the permits

have been issued and construction activity is prohibited um in those areas okay thank you how long does that last for um it's until the so it lasts for as long as the proclamation the Declaration of the emergency but obviously if the um evacuation warning areas are fully lifted you know then those construction uh those prohibitions on construction activity would also um lift um while we are temporarily suspending short-term rentals and the requirements understandably um as well as the hotel hotel stays are we collaborating with the County District Attorney to fight price gouging yes absolutely um they it is being monitored and is being actively enforced um and we have messaging out you know to community if um you want to report price gouging to report it to our consumer protection unit so um we're aware you know where that occurs um it is being addressed okay and then with respect to um if I'm not mistaken people who are employees in Santa Monica this is way outside our lane but I'm going to ask it anyway um people who are employees in Santa Monica who may have lost their homes um qualify for if they're affordable if they qualify for below market rate housing that is one of the things that puts them to the top of the list am I right in the same just like being Ellis or there's a disaster provision if you're employed for more than 25 hours a week in Santa Monica yeah I mean I I not the expert on the okay the priority yeah the b list yeah I think it's worth noting that that's that's available to folks chair could we do a little agenda management could we move the have

questions oh I'm sorry I apologize you have um I had a question which is you know we have a a Prohibition on condo conversions if we go below 5% vacancy rate which we never do but it seems like there's so much demand for housing that could happen and maybe we should do something to protect people in rent control units in that case if I just am concerned with so many evacuees looking for places to live in this vicinity so yeah I mean the suspension of both the short-term rental and the leasing regulations doesn't mean that you know the um tenant protections just cause um evictions like all all of those protections are still in place none of those have been uh removed uh if you will so they couldn't con because my understanding maybe I don't un am not remembering it right I didn't go back and read the code um but my recollection was that the code says that uh if we go below 5% vacancy that owners can convert units to oh so yeah the vacancy is not like just a moment in time it's I'm it to remembering it's like over a past it's like over a time period so okay yeah yeah I just got worried you know sitting in my Dusty home thinking about all the bad things that could happen sorry I think we're going to I think we're going to see a lot of people from Palisades coming to move into those empty units whatever whatever it's nothing we can do anything about well they're empty well we want them to move want to right we just don't want owners to take advantage what I was

concerned was if the vacancy rate goes down occupied units people could be moved out for so-called condo conversions which would uh uh make that's that's what I was worried about but they're saying that they don't think that'll happen because of other kinds of protections yeah I mean even if it just the process of you know if if it ever got to that point you that it is not allowed to just like you know evict tenants to convert it and vacate it so just you know I understand that okay I I just got worried I think we've been under 5% for quite some time in terms of Apartment occupancy I mean usually the reports I see in Santa Monica are you know two to 2 to 3% vacancy rate in apartment so so the vacancy rate actually needs to exceed 5% in order for there's there are many conditions in order to get a a condo conversion um to qualify for a condo conversion one of them is that the vacancy rate exceeds 5% exceed does so we're actually going in the other direction possibly n said sorry you have something else to say no I was going to go for the same thing Sean was Sean well I don't want to get ahead of Pi sorry Nina um I wanted to make a motion that we move the um that we move the Wilshire uh Dr and stoa up before the study session on the legislation consent calendar I'm sorry can we just put it to the consent calendar I that would make even more sense but I don't know if staff has changes because there are um there's at least one Ty second that can I second that you can but do we yeah we can move it I second your motion to move it to consent okay okay can we take a vote do we have to we have to take a vote wait well we have to get to consent calendar first

yeah you you can do that as a Voice vote all those yes all those in favor I I I that was all eyes I that was all eyes have a feeling that there's nobody out there so I'm not going to announce all the requirements for yes [Music] anything so let's go right to planning commissioner announc are we going to go right to the no you have commissioner announ planning commissioner announcements number five yeah I know I I'm I'm just saying I don't think there's anybody out in the audience going to speak or but that's different we're asking for planning commissioner announcements okay if the planning Commissioners have any announcements okay okay now sorry s right okay so we don't have any announcements let's go to so let's pass through public comment because there's no other public somebody could show up okay I don't have any public input so [Music] and there's nothing on the consent calendar yeah there is we just put it there something consent calendar so bring up the consent calendar let's vote on it we just added the the Wilshire project yeah so let's let's go directly to the 1901 and get a presentation no no no there's no presentation we just put it on the consent calendar okay I believe staff might have a couple of scribers Errors for us and we can vote on it you'll want to have your ex partake oh disclosures again no okay exporte no okay no who is it where is it

again I I did go to the I did stand on 19th in Wilshire but that's about as expart head as I can give you I believe this this year has already been like 11 months long so all right do we have to take three votes or can we vote one no you can vote in one one whole motion um so I moved I moved the consent calendar there's a typo in the stoa did we fix the sto there is a typo can include that in your whatever motion you make yeah okay I'm gonna move is it all right Jim there's a there's I'll just say it for the record that the typo is in the um waiver on page five of the sto of page five of the stoa in waiver finding b there's a typo that says complies will instead of complies with so I'm moving the ENT calendar with the correction to the stoa I'll second that nice memory well done you know which word it was in the sentence okay which page number was it page five of the sto yeah he knew which it was impressive okay so we have a we have a first and a second yep C commissioner Cho yes commissioner Fresco yes commissioner Hamilton yes commissioner and yes commissioner Rees yes and chair tolken yes okay all right so done that

I guess we the Commissioners have any they want to say about the fires I have something no we have an item what do we have we have a session on the legislative updates for 2025 do we not or do those get moved no it's on eight yeah item eight hold on that should have been your that should have been your Planning Commission announcement what you should have had a Planning Commission announcement if you want to talk about the fires and we can go back to that agenda item if you okay say that again Jim so we I think if you wanted to speak about the fires you should have made a comment in planning commissioner announcements which we passed but we can go back to it you can no that's okay I'll okay I mean maybe it's enough said so do you want to call Item 8A yeah chair could we call please call Item 8A upate and discussion regarding highlights of 2024 State housing legislation where are you item 8A right here M are you here I think Rachel's ready it's all right sir right there the study session yes let's have the presentation have presentation hello hello hope you your people are all your people are safe yes um doing our best but yes I thankfully my family and I are safe and I'm hope that all of your friends and family are safe too as well as James said it's certainly trying times and goes to show you you know just you know even it through throughout these difficult times I'm glad that

we're all together here and we showed the best of the community you know so um so I'm here tonight to present uh the an legislative update on the 2024 California legislative session um as you all know there's been a number of bills passed about 30 bills that just addresses housing and homelessness Alone um a lot of them address um these topic issues uh as I have listed here which is the Reena and the housing elements housing element eprs the annual progress reports um Al Als Al touches on the housing accountability act and enforcement provisions of um the housing accountability act including Builder remedy um there's also some amendments to density bonus and Adu laws as well as some new legislation that addresses housing entitlement and streamlining these housing projects um a there's also a lot of new uh legislation that addresses fees particularly for housing projects as well as hcd enforement uh enforcement as well as squa um unless otherwise noted all of these bills went into effect January 1st 2025 there's only one bill that goes into effect July in which I will talk about later and I just want to note that since there's so many new legislation we are City staff is still reviewing these bills and so we don't have all the answers for you but we will get back to you you know and we are still reviewing some of these um State legislation and how they really in integrate with our Santa Monica city code and how it affects our PR uh entitlement process um so and in other cases we're waiting on hcd to provide some guidance um so this session tonight is provide some summary overview of the key legislation so the first category of State legislation addresses Reena and housing elements AB 3093 modifies housing element law highlight of this is

that requires us the city to provide in our annual progress reports the progress how and include in our aprs how we are meeting arena for the sixth cycle and the previous housing element cycles and in starting in the seventh cycle which is the next cycle um it adds two income categories which is acutely lwi income and extremely low income um in the arena so as you may recall our old ah um HPP Ordnance included an extremely lwi income category we've eliminated that as part of the sixth cycle um since dinen didn't call for the extremely low income and so now they're adding it back in and then this law also requires that any LCP amendments uh local Coastal plan amendments be done alongside the resoning and we would have no later than three years to do this after the adoption of the housing element this law also requires us to analyze preservation historic preservation practices and how it affects Arena um how it affects our ability to meet the arena um also uh the law requires that Scag um and other Council of governments address homelessness how this translates into our seventh cycle we don't know yet however it does say that homelessness shall be addressed in uh the housing element law next bill is the sp7 and this is more of a procedural um changes to how the arena arena is done um basically removes the appeal process for cities and counties without a coun governments um this doesn't affect us and also refs Provisions that the hcd use an alternative process to determine the arena um again this is just procedural that affects Scag it does not affect us um also ab1 1886 um this addresses um basically what happened after in the last cycle which

is a lot of cities trying to self-certify their e um this basically says you cannot self-certify or not your e yet housing element this basically says that you cannot self-certify that your housing element is not compliant with State housing element law until hcd says so and so this just makes that clarification and then AB 2023 um extends the housing element resoning period to either one year or 3 years and 90 days if the jurisdiction meets certain criteria um also it creates a rebuttable presumption of um invalidity in any legal action challenging uh City's action or failure to act if htd says that you're are not in compliant with housing element law uh so this is all legal legal stuff but basically the gist of this is to ensure that states and or cities and counties are complying with housing element law AB 2597 um reduces the appeal period of the draft Rena to 30 days again procedural um this is has to do with scags drafting of the arena and it revises the Council of government's timelines for determining theena and also this is an important one for us is it extends the housing element due dat for all of Los Angeles County and C in Imperial County jurisdictions by six months so instead of 18 months we have 24 months from the adoption of the regional transportation plan and we'll take it AB 2580 um requires local agencies to provide in its uh annual progress report um any information regarding historic desinations um and whether or not these historic designations affects uh the housing development project again our annual progress reports is usually due April 1st and so this would require us to report on any historic designations this is to ensure that cities don't use historic designation as a way to block

housing essentially AB 2667 is uh addresses AFF firmly furthering fair housing and it makes us again with the APR report on our progress in affirm furthering fair housing so we have to include in our APR now um the number of units that was approved and disapproved within an opportunity area by the income level and then um hcd is also under this law HDD has to review adaptive reuse ordinances and notify the city if it is not in compliant on or before January 1st 2025 and then also this uh this new requires that starting in the seventh cycle a city publishes sites inventory for the housing element um online and that we would have to send a notification to all those requesting a copy of this s's inventory at least 90 days before we adopt the housing element um this is all procedural stuff um affects in terms of how it affects Santa Monica affects the way that we do our annual progress reports at the staff level and then starting in the seventh cycle we would have to do a little little B more noticing and publish publication of the sit's inventory which we already have our sites inventory online but um this would require additional noticing AB 2904 um this affects um noticing again again this is a procedural requirement it requires us to notice at least 20 days if there is a change in the zoning ordinance or an amendment to the zoning ordinance that affects the permitted uses of a property ab1 1893 this is an important one which does affect um our Municipal Co or zoning ordinance and because it revises the definition of a housing project in the haa as you may recall in the housing accountability act if you meet the

definition of a housing project you are protected by the haa and the city cannot deny or make INF feasible haa protected project unless we make certain public health and safety findings so before it used to include 2/3 new or or converted square footage is residential however now they've added the second and the third bullet here which is at least 50% of the new or converted square footage is residential and it's at least 500 units and no portion of that project is designated as hotel motel and transient lodging so this would mean as an example if you have a 500 unit project half of that is office and the other half is 500 units that is a protected project under the haa so 250,000 Square ft of office 250,000 square feet of residential and 500 units that is now an haa protected project um and so the similarly the 50% applies to if you're doing a conversion of course and so um that similarly that's the third bullet and then also they added Farm worker housing as a protected housing project um 18 93 Al also modifies Builder remedy Provisions um this one means that if you are a builder remedy projects that was submitted before January 1st of this year you are by you are vested however add some new Provisions in the Builder remedy Provisions which is establishes density limits affordability levels and so forth um for what Builder remedy projects would are allowed to request and actually sorry I just want to note that because of the new definition of housing project we would be looking to amend the zoning ordinance um and the definition of housing project in section

9.52 before you can you just talk about the bullet that's that you didn't talk about oh sorry disapprove or condition because I think that could apply to us oh this just means that if we let me read this again did not oh that just means that if a project is we didn't have a housing element that was in compliance but they're not proposing a builder remedy project we can we can deny that project it has to be proposed as a builder remedy project we could deny that project if it's not consistent with our sorry with our objective development standards our general plan and a zoning ordinance so the only way that they could that we can deny it is if it's not consistent with those with our general plan and Zoning ordance does that that makes sense so if it's a project that doesn't meet the Builder's remedy requirements correct we can and does not and does not comply with our general plan yeah SP 393 um this is just procedural it basically the gist of it is that it placed the burden of proving an economic hardship on the plaintiff that is suing a housing project before it used to be the defendant that had to show a proof of economic burden now it's saying if you're suing a housing project a low or moderate income housing project then the burden is on the person who's suing and so this makes it harder harder for people to challenge a low or moderate income housing project um again procedural legal procedures um doesn't really affect us AB 1413 um establishes timelines in the ha for local agencies to consider objections and any kind of comments on determining whether or not an haa protected project is exempt for squa what this means is if someone's proposing a haa protected project and

they're saying hey I'm exempt from squa and they provide us notice we have certain timelines City staff has certain timelines to adhere to which is we have to post the applicants written notice within five days then we have to consider it and then we have to make a determination the city has to make a determination at least 60 days after that initial notice is given so it places the burden on City staff to make sure we are responding to an applicant's declaration that they're exempt from squa SP 1037 um it basically gives a little more teeth to hcd and and proceeding with housing enforce housing element law or housing law enforcement and increases the penalties to 10,000 per month um not exceeding 50,000 and increases civil penalties up to 50 ,000 per month for each violation General plan updates um moving away from housing this General plan updates uh requires an update to the conservation element on or after January 1st to analyze um the movement of Wildlife and habitat connectivity um you are allowed to incorporate by reference a certified local Coastal plan into the conser reservation element if it meets those requirements AB 2684 requires an update to the safety element to extreme heat to address extreme heat on or after January 1st 2028 um the city is already as Jing had mentioned this city has already um prepared a safety element update which already addresses extreme heat and that's scheduled for adoption on January 20 uh 28th in terms of density bonus law revisions made include AB 2694 which just adds a expands a

definition of what a shared housing unit is um this does require a code Amendment we're just going to copy and paste literally from state law what this new definition is it doesn't really change much um AB 3116 also defines a state what a state housing development project is because before it didn't include that and it amends the density bonus law to provide certain density bonuses based on the percentages of lower income units provided again just a straight copy and paste um amendment to our code to reflect state law adus so this is a very important one um this sb121 increases the number of detached accessory dwelling units on a lot with an existing or proposed multif family dwelling from two which is what it current what it used to be before but now it is now eight detached adus on a multif family lot um so long as that number does not exceed the number of existing units on a lot so if you have a five you have a parcel with five multif family dwelling units they could build five if they have six they could build six um so but if they have eight they could go as high as eight but no more than eight and then if you are a proposed multif family it's no more than two and so a code change would be required um to our Adu ordinance of course to implement this AB 2533 is procedural change to um require that if we that if there is um that we are not allowed to deny an unpermitted Adu or Jadu constructed before 2020 unless we find that there is a violation of a building standard and if there is a violation of building standard we have to provide them a checklist of what it would take to to bring it up to standard

and so we would have to include a local program to include published information such as an inspection checklist s SP 1077 requires the costom commission um to work with hcd to develop guidance to ensure that um LCP amendments are facilitated and simplify the process for adus in the coastal zone um as you know the coastal zone the California Coastal commission has its own separate requirements in the for adus s sp123 so if you recall from last year 2023 legislative session there was a law called SP 684 that says that we the city has to ministerially approve subdivisions of 10 units or less so this SB 1123 modifies that prior law and says that expands eligibilities to Parcels Zone to allow multif family residential uses before it said zoned for multifam now it says zon to allow multif family which means commercial zones that allow multi family would now be covered um this also importantly adds vacant single family Zone Parcels of no larger than 1.5 acres to the list of eligible Parcels um and you can see here vacant means that it hasn't been occupied by housing within the last five five years hasn't been it's not a rent controlled house housing it has no uh affordable housing as well um also adds lot Frontage to the list of standards that um that this type of project doesn't need to comply with um as I mentioned before this is the one law that becomes effective J July 1st 2025 and applies to all cities including Charter cities um we City staff is still evaluating this one this one is a little hairy um we've asked hcd guidance about

um implementation of this law they've indicated that they are in the midst of producing a guidance on this law and how to implement it so we are evaluating possible code changes as we speak pending further guidance from hcd SP 450 just amends s sp9 s sp9 as you all know allows duplexes and lot splits in a single family zoned parcel um so sp450 is just a cleanup law it removes the de prior demolition Thresh of 25% um and then also says that we cannot impose objective standards unless those uh standards apply uniformly within the zone and also clarifies that sb9 applies to all cities including Charter cities AB 2243 um this modified um a couple laws which is basically uh a I should say AB 2011 AB 2011 and sp6 those two laws if you can't remember basically says housing projects are by right uses in commercial zoned corridors and so um of course this law hasn't really doesn't hasn't really been um utilized in Santa Monica because there's a lumber of eligibility requirements attached to this law like they have to pay prevailing wages they have to participate in the apprenticeship program however this uh AB 224 3 modifies those two prior laws and says before the the acreage limit was 20 acres now it's 100 L acres and also removes the prohibition that projects cannot be within 100 feet of a freeway and again I don't think this affects Santa Monica because um there's a number of criterias attached to this including which is the biggest which is the prevailing wages in the

apprenticeship program and the labor standards ab27 29 um so this is another important one for projects that have um had uh existing entitlements that were issued before January 1st um 2024 and is set to expire by 20 by December 31st 2025 this would extend those house entitlements by 18 months AB 3122 makes minor amendments to S sp35 I know this is a lot of numbers but s sp35 if you can't remember was the Buri projects if your jurisdiction was not meeting your Arena targets and it was like if you didn't meet your lower income then you were subject to buite um this buite process and so they 3122 modifies certain provisions of s sp35 and allows the project to be modified post entitlement and retain the processing um but modification means up to 15% increase in construction square footage or the total residential units decreases by 15% or more and it requires local governments to respond within 30 days um when they've provided revisions to address feedback provided by the government ab1 1801 expands by approval for Supportive Housing projects to include Administrative Office Space this is a very minor one to say that if the Supportive Housing project has some office space in it it still qualifies as the byright housing Pro Supportive Housing project just a cleanup item there um the next section has to do with fees and the overarching theme of all these uh bills that address fees is they're trying to lower the cost um for housing projects particularly um this SP 937 is delaying the collection of fees for housing

projects so that the city cannot re uh collect these fees until the date of the final inspection or the date of the certificate of occupancy is issued whichever is uh whichever occurs first unless you know expenditures have been made like they've already connected to the sewer line and they're receiving then we can collect those fees um so also payment of fees for designated residential development projects shall not occur until the certificate of occupancy or the first certificate of occupancy is issued unless certain conditions are made and so all of this is to say that we cannot collect fees it's delaying the fees until the project has been built or there's been a certificate of occupancy issued so it's it basically delays the cost incurred by a housing project AB 2430 Pro um has to do with affordable housing monitoring fees um it prohibits the city from charging a monitoring fee for a 100% affordable housing development um if it's using State density bonus law and if it's subject to um a monit regulatory monitor monitoring agreement um like such as you know Tac funds and so we don't actually I've checked with our housing division we don't charge a monitoring fee um already on this so we are in compliance with this law um so I I don't think any changes need to be made here AB 2663 requires that by January 1st 2026 um cities and counties must collect inclusionary housing local agencies that collect inclusionary inl fees we have to post that online to show the public how much we spent and um and how much they were uh sorry say how much we've collected and how much of it have was spent and how they were spent so it's basically disclosure

purposes to show what we've done with the inclusionary fees 1210 um requires utility agencies on January 1st 2026 to post on online are schedule fees for service connections for each housing type and the estimated timelines for completion completing connections again this is to show to make sure that housing projects had no upfront um what their estimated cost would be in terms of utility connections and then the next two bills 1820 and 312 says that the uh each City must um create an online fee estimate tool by July 1 first um for us it would be July 1st 2032 since we are less than 500,000 people um and that we would have to give them a plinary fee estimate within 30 days if they uh SP 330 application so um this would this doesn't come into effect as as I said we wouldn't have to do this until July 1st 2032 so so we have some time to get this online fee calculator up um the next match of uh bills addresses renter protections um so this one says um if you're a landlord you cannot deduct um the cost of carpet cleaning for example from your deposit if it's related to RAR and hair and so this just to ensure that like renters are not being absurdly charged for you know normal wear and tear that the Lander would have had to replace anyways for the car for example like for the carpet AB 2747 says that on or after 2025 a landlord of a residential property with more than 15 units must give tenants the option of having their full ontime rent

payments reported to at least one consumer reporting agency so just to show credit that they could have credit and then s sp61 prohibits certain fees from being charged by landlords and also provides some additional protections um to um military service members in connection with security charges um the next one this is another important one uh 2553 um so if you recall the definition of a major Transit stop has particular um has great relevance in terms of parking and squa um for example under current law if you're within a half mile of a major Transit stop you don't have to provide parking now now AB 2553 revises the definition of a major Transit stop to um say that if you're an intersection of two or more bus lines with 20 minutes intervals or less then you're considered a major Transit stop before it used to say 15 minutes so now it's 20 minutes um and so you'll see on this slide here the old the old map is on the left which is that big blue area that's the major Transit stop area which is the transit priority area these are all the blue areas is uh are areas that don't require parking for example um it extended all the way to Wilshire now with the new definition of a major Transit stop that blue blob has gotten bigger it's expanded over to Montana and also now covers um most of the north uh sorry the southeast portion of the city near the airport um so you'll see that change there however it does I always want to know it does exclude um the part of Lincoln Boulevard that is to the

South just so you see there so for example like the Lincoln and Ocean Park project the housing project that's now outside of that um due to the changes in transit service the next few batches relate to squa exemptions um AB 20 uh 208 five creates a ministerial approval process for Community CL clinics um this is community clinics that address like things like women's health and so um think of like you know Women's Health reproduction health clinics are now by um so we would have to amend our ordinance for that SP 1395 extends and expands on secret exemptions uh for homeless shelters that's already in place but it just extends it um AB 2057 expand an existing seet exemption for adoption of an Adu ordinance or a Jadu ordinance and then I won't go through too much in detail on all the SQL exemptions but um you could read it here routine storm water facilities um maintenance mobile home projects um Public University housing projects habitat restoration projects um certain uh residential housing projects on um infill sites in unincorporated areas um as well as uh changes of use of or like um like public access for for a for a Park area those are all now have SQL exemptions and so I know that's a lot 30 bills we tried to cram it all together it's a lot of it is procedural um but however we'll do our best to answer the questions as I said before we are still trying to digest all of this and so um we'll be we're here to answer any questions you have the Commissioners

have any uh questions of Staff yep um I saw a couple of bills on the LCP which we're still working on um that prompts a question about the extent to which any of these packages substantially disrupt your work plans um in the sense that like is something getting slowed down or is something getting made easier or do you now have to drop what you were doing in a planful way because now the state's making you focus somewhere else yeah so this specifically to the LCP no in general but LCP think of it yeah I'll address the LCP I think the biggest change that'll you know kind of change the process of the LCP will be with regards to the next housing element cycle the seventh cycle and we'd have to then update the Lup again to reflect any of those upzoning changes um but it currently doesn't have any impact on the ongoing process but we don't have our own no we're not we don't have the certified LCP yet so we're currently working on the L uh draft adoption which Council had adopted it didn't go to uh Coastal commission for certification so we're bringing that back since that's been so much time since that was reviewed um so we're in the process of updating that following that would be then the implementation plan so both of those together would be the full LCP package right okay but it's not like you have to drop what you're doing and scramble no not not for the current process that's at least there's that I mean I think to address the general issue like every time every year right as a legislature comes up with new laws I mean it it does it does impact our work because we have to take time to absorb what it is that they did and then understand if it is affecting what we're doing um especially if we're we're in

the middle of of policym or what have you you know and it's a lot to digest and especially you know laws change every year and like we haven't even quite figured out what they did last year you know before it changes again you know or no one even knows the effect of it you know and we I will say we are not the only city that is expressing that level of frustration because I think a lot of jurisdictions are catching up to things that were done even three years ago you know it's just it's a lot to take in as you see and I think you know I think I just want to highlight that the summary this is a summary it you know does not include hcd guidance yet it's just our sort of like preliminary look at it so I do want to emphasize that you know what you the information you have here you know could certainly change interpretations of it might change over time but like for something like the the the change on I mean that seems to me the biggest thing is the is the parking you relaxation with the definition of a major Transit stop and Rachel your point about Lincoln suddenly falling out where it was in before I mean it's the kind of thing where we've said we don't think there ought to be a lot of parking requirements in Santa Monica generally we've said that as a commission Council has said versions of that as well it strikes me it's like why are we going to go to the trouble of rewriting for that tiny little stretch of Lincoln to add back the parking requirements when the minute the housing that is planned there gets built and is fully occupied Big Blue Bus might just turn around and say you you know what we're going to be back to 20 minute service yeah so can are there ways that you can you know like triage the work so that we're not bouncing constantly like that one right because we're we're free to Wave parking in that part of town right right I mean I think that's my example I me I think yeah like in the policy discussions like just around parking and I think the commission and you know like you can

always sometimes it's not great to rely on state law because it can change all the time you know and and there's there's good reason you know at the local level it's like if this is something you want to pursue the city always has the authority for example to just eliminate that right and we did did we did frankly because we for all housing projects now we don't require parking so even if you're if you're a housing project even on Lincoln you yeah it doesn't matter because you're a housing project we we did that yeah the only it affects commercial projects really and so yeah Hamilton yeah I I just had a point of clarification and I agree the the state needs to get away from dabbling in minutia a lot of this seems like just so small kind of pyun and kind of detail that it's hard to keep track of but um I had a question just about on AB 3093 in the new upcoming seventh cycle of the Arena housing element they have a new designation for acutely lowincome um I was I haven't come across that before and do you know what the corresponding area median income percentage is for acutely low that can't be is that is it 15 because I know 30 is extremely low I believe it's up to Zer to 15 wow how okay that would be like that that's a new if I may that related to psh right because technically a long-term psh uh individual might have zero income right tiny little or tiny little stream it aligns with I think the overall uh pretty you know new a new requirement in the seventh cycle is to account for the housing needs of the

unhoused um so if if you recogn you know the Reena and previously right or currently it only addresses um it I mean we talk about it in the housing element you know but you were not assigned a number you know specifically Associated yeah that's almost like transitional care for an individual who hasn't yet been able to uh access government benefits usually you're at 30% if at that that's effectively what we're understanding you know that that the state is wanting cities to include next yeah okay interesting okay thank you that's all I had I have a question do we have any indication of what the governor is talking about he's relaxing certain standards so that the rebuilding goes faster are you talking in relationship to the fires yes yeah so the governor has waved squa and um coal act yeah Co what is it Coastal act yeah Coastal act and in making sure that when people are rebuilding they won't be subject to those yeah but uh to to be clear it only applies to it has to be right now it has to be in the same location and then there's some like limits percentage limits or something I think it's 10% more something like that does it affect us because we haven't had the burn that um no that's not how we're we we read it it doesn't say relocated it says re rebuild it says substantially the same location so it would be in you know obviously areas that experienced loss of yeah y and it's still there's no public input no I was going to say and it's still in process right so there's you know he suspended the I mean I'm just looking up what I was reading about it but you know there's still a lot that's vague yeah uh the LCP Malibu has an LCP so the coastal

Act is gone but they're Bound by their LCP so you know that's a that creates legal uncertainty profish race no I don't really have any questions I I will say a comment to commissioner Hamilton you know the state has to stop medling in these minutia I mean the problem is they create these laws and then we start working with them we find these little problems and then that's why there these all these cleanup items are coming back for us there's good intentions what is the what is the saying the something about the path of good intentions that leads somewhere leads the wrong place anyways good luck with digesting all of these things and trying to keep us out of trouble before they change again it's a full-time we I realize it's a full-time job right I mean and and you guys as planning Commissioners have to you know also make sure that you know we're doing our jobs too so right all of us are in this together I can only imagine the bills that were coming down the pike in the next six months we'll see I mean if I may I think the reason that I asked about the one the the the non-b builders remedy exclusion is that we have had conversations right in this community about there has been controversy around the Builder remedy projects and there has been controversy around the projects that have come in that have been compliant or have been you know they've been compliant or they weren't quite there and then they resubmitted I think one of the things that the that creates a lot of confusion in the the community is around the rights of uh applicants to resubmit their projects and what they can do when they resubmit what's vested what's not vested so that particular element of that of that bill I think is really

important to reassure our community for example that when you know that our rules and regulations still count for something um in that particular moment right if somebody comes on just because we were out of compliance with the with the housing element for a minute right didn't open the door and clearly now it doesn't open the door for anybody to do anything anywhere at any time right the builders remedy projects had to have certain characteristics related to affordability and and other considerations and I do I do think it's important to stress that that sort of piece cuz it's not just that we're we're swimming in minutia it's that we're our PE people who you know live like people who live here people who live in California like even people who really want more housing um they also I think want certainty and they want to understand that there's a that there are that there's a there's fair play in how we get from you know how we get to the housing that we get and that people are going to be treated right and that our community is not going to going to you know that our community standards actually mean something yeah I I didn't really stress the or elaborate on the Bill's remedy Provisions but there are now arms around the Builder remedy Provisions now so there's a limit to how much you can propose there's a limit there's a certain affordability level that you have to propose to be a builder remedy project now so um yeah so it's not a free-for-all anymore which it was but now but projects that were submitted prior are still vested they're still allowed to change up to 20% and so forth but yeah now moving forward you can't just you know build to the Limit and not abide by anything anymore there are some arms around it

now there's no public input so we had open any more discussion yeah just another quick question on this slide um just to make sure I understand that so the 23 newo converted square foot residential now only applies to projects with less than 500 units is that right correct yes that's what currently is in or not currently but that was what it was in place before January 1 of this year and now we have this 500 unit threshold that says like basically to allow bigger projects yeah so I mean we've create I guess let me ask this question then um we have created a program which Council seems to be back backing because of the way that they um played with some of the rules in December of encouraging um the developments in bergamont so it strikes me that the only real place right now where this could apply in Santa Monica is bergamont at the moment realistically office campus and the oh and the and the and the office campus right um do we but we don't have a program over there and um and I live too close to there to talk about it unless we rule out some uh the Ocean Park on Ocean Park unless we rule out a couple of parcels um but on bergamont do this is not going to impact our incentive program is it uh yes it is ccil Direction in December was to remove the 1 acre threshold but outside bergamont outside bergamont right um you know between AA and Dr so that one acre threshold the direction was to remove that the second part of their Direction was to basically you know we have this

defin definition of a streamlined housing project in our zoning code and it's the uh 20 75% residential essentially and the commercial can only be on the first two floors right that is the like minimum qualification to get into the AA Route so Council gave direction to basically eliminate that and replace it with this okay yeah so it's like an alignment we will not have this special local definition of a streamline housing project it will simply be a housing project as defined by the haa now Council hasn't acted on this I'm just explaining this is their Direction and we would we are being we will bring that back to them in U April which when we bring these if I remember correctly we asked them to do when we brought them the house I mean in from the very first draft of the house element we brought them we said drop this local artisanal definition I believe we voted that way that was part of yeah um but uh but so yay right so like this is a very different definition but this is a very different definition but it's not going to I guess what I'm asking is it's not going to somehow disincentivize the open space Provisions the unit mix Provisions those things that we so carefully crafted yeah the special program and bergamont remains in terms of the 1 acre threshold but the changing of what is a housing project will apply Citywide right right so okay yeah thanks you think gr Yeah question do you think that this change was kind of like to try to convert or allow for Costco to be built with housing or convert old departments you you know big old Department FL shopping centers I mean I think you know to the extent that this applies across

California there's a lot of those you know vacant shopping centers and the like so yeah that was probably a big part of the thinking you're in 50% of it into housing right and yeah yeah yeah yeah I think there may have been some I thought I read somewhere about some drama around like Westfield to panga and that that whole that whole area they were trying to transform including into housing and I think they ran into some regulatory barriers so this should make somewhere like a a big open site like that much easier to convert I have a question for staff in terms of I had to get back to the fires but have you been asked to do any research in terms of how it might affect future developments in terms of access out I mean we're getting rid of the airport we we you know people were stuck on the streets in pass in um the pal Palisades I mean would it affect what streets systems we develop or how we change the we've already done a lot of traffic changes to some of the existing streets is somebody being evaluating how this is going to change those change those existing changes which were made which are restricting access to certain streets yeah I mean we we are kind of just coming out of Emergency Response mode and just turning into recovery um we've not received that kind of Direction yet it doesn't mean that you know I mean Santa Monica is largely a grid system um you know with the exception of a few places the topography you know is is different right we're not on a hill or a mountain or what have you

but you know I think certainly um going forward you know u in terms of creating new Street systems and and the like I think just as as a general Mobility approach and as a circulation access approach you know generally we we try to maintain that grid system because it gives people a lot of different options just as even absent hazards you know it just gives you several different options to get from A to B you know so you're not funneling everything you know to like one one lane super highways right you have you can you know turn down four different streets and get to where you need to go so I would just to keep this on our agenda too um uh AB 2684 uh requires an update to the safety element to address extreme heat hazards um after 2028 and we talked about that a little bit when we did the safety element but to your point um when we're thinking about uh what did Lindsay call them like multi dimensional threats or what you know like the poly crisis that's what it was um right that's a right what's the KnockOn effect if we have an extreme heat event like what we had or or an extreme low humidity wind event which we might want to think about what is the you know what are those impacts I there I believe there is a order that Jing referenced um also states that Santa Monica streets are not to be used to access the evacuated areas so if you want if you want to go to the Palisades you have to go on sanen and you have to line up on San Veni uh to access um allenford and get in with permission you can't come up 26th Street you can't come up Lincoln and try to go down um uh at like um 7th Street right that's or or um you know East Channel Road you can't that's not allowed so we are controlling that a little bit and

the airport I would just note was not particularly used by anybody um it's pretty empty of planes right now everybody left but it was not used as an emergency um uh staging area and it is theoretically possible and on the list as we heard that um access back to the airport could actually allow us to open up um safe egress South on sentinella which would um provide a little bit more uh space in an emergency to get out of town if that were a need I was thinking more of of firefighting using helicopters and stuff like that they didn't use it they they staged out of Van eyes from what I understand I understand but just a matter of timing all right I will say that access issue is is a critical or egress I should say because we have too many cars for the street capacity and that's why we're trying trying to push public transit but it's kind of hard to push TR public transit in an emergency or ebikes and I don't know if any of you guys saw like people getting into Palisades after the fire we're all over the ebikes getting up there but again it's it's a real issue I don't know how we solve that problem but TR and that's why we I mean we've tried to solve traffic by public transit public transit won't work in this situation Commissioners do have any other comments um I'll go to item 10 I think it's the next there's no staff administrative items no no public hearing no resolutions no written Communications any discussion items from the planet Commissioners I just well if we're getting to adjournments can we do that or we do we have discussion

stuff I I wanted to suggest that we adjourn with um great sympathy for uh those who lost their lives in the Palisades Eaton Hurst and other fires um and their families um with uh with sympathy for those who have been displaced permanently or temporarily and uh with wishes for um a safe uh and um inclusive and Equitable recovery for all in our region as we um make our way forward over the next months years and likely decades um but also noting this is a town that recovered from the what was basically accidentally called the Northridge Earthquake um we have lived through terrible things with great deals of dis with a great deal of displacement and loss and we've built back um and uh and just want to end on that hopeful note that though terrible things have transpired um when we come together and put our minds to it and our hearts to it um we can do hard things together for the greater good you're here and ears to building back with roof sprinklers yeah they don't they don't work they don't work friend there f f fire saw the roof off neighbor property and 90 mph winds it did mess well sometimes I mean I have other examples where it saved a home so it's uh 7:13 and I meeting is a

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