March 29, 2024 Breaking News, Latest News, and Videos

SMRR Steering Committee Opposes Hines Development At 1681 26th Street:

Editor’s Note: This is an open letter written by Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights co-chairs Patricia Hoffman and Richard Tahvildaran-Jesswein regarding the Hines Project up for discussion and a possible vote on Tuesday, Jan. 28 at Santa Monica City Council.

The Steering Committee of Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights (SMRR) recently discussed and concluded that the proposed Development Agreement with Hines Development at 1681 26th St. was not acceptable to our community and should be rejected by the City Council. 

The vote of the Steering Committee was unanimous among those present and voting.

As Councilmembers are well aware, severe traffic congestion is one of the most serious issues plaguing our community. 

Nowhere is that burden more severe than on Olympic Blvd particularly during the after work early (and often late) evening commute. 

It regularly takes drivers an hour or more to leave the City of Santa Monica and make it to the 405. These conditions have spread as well to other east-west arterials. These conditions have become so severe that they are the subject of widespread irritation in the community and throughout the region.

The proposed Hines development will clearly aggravate this already severe burden. 

The approximately 400,000 sq. ft. of commercial office space included in the project will be a major new traffic generator.

The burden will be especially great because the drive cycle of the employees in the office space will be to arrive in the morning and leave in the evening, contributing directly to the worst of the traffic. (By contrast the housing in the project will not only generate much less traffic overall, the drive cycle for these residents will be in the opposite directions of the most severe traffic).  

SMRR does not believe that the benefits the Hines Development Agreement proposes are remotely sufficient to merit accepting this severe traffic burden.  Nor do we have confidence that the measures intended to mitigate this traffic will be more than modestly effective or reliable over the long term.

It is true that the Exposition Light Rail project will contribute to a reduction in current traffic and will mitigate some of the new traffic from this project, but neither we nor our community have confidence that this relief will by itself be enough to make this project’s burden tolerable.

As we move forward we urge the Council to commit itself to restraint on major developments that generate significant traffic until our community can adjust to Expo LRT and gauge what capacity remains. We also urge Council to develop more aggressive community-wide trip reduction strategies so the burdens our community now bears can be reduced.

We urge City Councilmembers to vote NO on the proposed Hines DA. The alternative of use of the current facility is preferable to the proposed Development Agreement.

Patricia Hoffman

Richard Tahvildaran-Jesswein

Co-Chairs – Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights

in Opinion
Related Posts

ARB Courage (Part 1 of 2)

March 24, 2024

March 24, 2024

On March 4, 2024, your ARB (Architectural Review Board) ruled in favor of the 521-unit Gelson’s Project at Ocean Park...

SM.a.r.t Column: Can California ARBs Balance Affordable Housing with Community Character in the Face of New Housing Laws?

March 17, 2024

March 17, 2024

By suggestion, I attended the March 4th ARB (Architectural Review Board) meeting that addressed the Gelson Lincoln Boulevard Project.  After...

S.M.a.r.t Column: On the Need for Safety

March 10, 2024

March 10, 2024

Earlier this week, in the dark pre-dawn hours, a pair of thugs covered in masks and hoodies burst into the...

Film Review: The Oscar Landscape 2024

March 7, 2024

March 7, 2024

FILM REVIEWTHE OSCAR LANDSCAPE 2024A Look at the Choices – Academy Awards – March 10, 2024, at 5:00 p.m. on...

S.M.a.r.t Column: Five Saving Historic Santa Monica

March 3, 2024

March 3, 2024

Our beloved City is surrounded by many threats, from sea level rise to homelessness, to housing affordability, to cancerous overdevelopment,...

S.M.a.r.t Column: Gelson’s Looms Large

February 22, 2024

February 22, 2024

Our guest column this week is by SMCLC (the Santa Monica Coalition for a Livable City). SMCLC is a well-established...

S.M.a.r.t Column: Top Toady Town

February 18, 2024

February 18, 2024

Throughout history, from the ancient Romans and Assyrians to Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, siege warfare has served as an...

S.M.a.r.t Column: The Sunset of Home Ownership

February 11, 2024

February 11, 2024

We are watching the sunset of our historical and cultural American dream of home ownership as we now are crossing...

SMa.r.t. Column: B(U)Y RIGHT

February 4, 2024

February 4, 2024

“By Right” state housing laws that give developers, in certain projects, the ability to ignore codes ‘by right.’ Well, that...

S.M.a.r.t  Column: Serf City

January 28, 2024

January 28, 2024

Homelessness is a problem in California, and nowhere is this more evident than in our fair city, where the unhoused...

S.M.a.r.t  Column: Bond Fatigue

January 22, 2024

January 22, 2024

Last week’s SMart article,  described two critical problems faced by our Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD): the declining...

S.M.a.r.t Column: Peace on Earth

December 27, 2023

December 27, 2023

We are all, by now, saturated with jingles, holiday cards, “ho ho ho’s,” countless commercial advertisements, and exhortations to feel...

S.M.a.r.t Column: On the Clock with Mayor Brock

December 17, 2023

December 17, 2023

I became Santa Monica’s Mayor on Tuesday, December 12, 2023, following a simple “switch of the chairs” transition with outgoing...

S.M.a.r.t Column: SANTA MONICA CITY COUNCIL 2024

December 10, 2023

December 10, 2023

Position:Seeking Santa Monica City Council Candidate(s) Introduction:Exciting opportunity for the right candidate(s) to work with like-minded Council members committed to...

S.M.a.r.t Column: ARB (NOT Ready to Build!)

December 3, 2023

December 3, 2023

Santa Monica City’s Architectural Review Board (ARB), established in 1974, acts “…to preserve existing areas of natural beauty, cultural importance...