July 5, 2025 Breaking News, Latest News, and Videos

SMa.r.t. Column: The Future Of Santa Monica Airport (SMO)

On January 1, 2029, the City Council will be given the legal right to vote on whether to maintain the airport or demolish it. There will be no middle ground. Currently, the City’s staff is in the process of evaluating the qualifications of consultants to identify and propose the best uses for the land, which should include maintaining it as an airport. As I indicated in a Planning Commission meeting where the process was being discussed, the choice of consultants can often predetermine the results. If you hire a firm that specializes in park design to do the evaluation, you are likely to see a recommendation for a park.

We must think of the future beyond 2028. The identity of this city is as tied to the existence of the airport as it is to the beach, and its demise will mean the diminishing of that identity as it would if the city were to propose the destruction of the Santa Monica Pier. Unlike the airport, of course, the Pier is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places. It is therefore protected from demolition. But the airport, although not on the National Registry, does actually create significant income for the city as well as being an asset to businesses that may want or are already located here. According to a Daily Press staff report in 2011, the airport generated the sum of 275.2 million per year, which, adjusted for 2023, is 363.6 million. It would be quite a loss to our cash-strapped town.

By 2028 there will be hybrid and all-electric aircraft that will to a great extent, quash the issues concerning noise and pollution. There are other equally environmentally friendly aviation-related uses that are being developed, which would enhance the airport’s potential as a civic asset of importance. Simply the airport has always been in the DNA or identity of this City. Like the Santa Monica Pier, we need the airport. We are identified as a city by it. Without it, there is little left to distinguish our city from any other seaside extension of the City of Los Angeles.

Also, let’s not forget although the airport itself may not be registered in the national registry, the rotating beacon is landmarked, and the airport’s history is etched in the history of aviation.

Now for those, including perhaps some of our city’s staff, who wish that the City Council votes to close the airport and build a regional park, be careful what you wish for. The airport, should it be closed, will face the obvious development pressure that has been evident throughout our city over the last ten-plus years, resulting in such recent proposed projects as the incredibly dense Gelson’s submittal for 521 units on less than 5 acres with virtually no open space, and a recent applied for 15 story 2000 unit tower. Per the staff presentation to the council in January, it was acknowledged that there are no funds to, in fact, create a regional park. 

Even if the City were to find the funds, would it not be more advantageous and make better planning sense to build many smaller pedestrian-accessible parks in the neighborhoods where, by all estimates, there is and will continue to be enormous residential growth? This is especially true in the downtown, where an urban park is urgently needed, and along the Lincoln Boulevard corridor, where significant development is in process. Unless by 2028 there is an effective national response to homelessness, a park at the airport site might become, unfortunately, a regional encampment site.

Small parks, properly designed with amenities for all ages in our many neighborhoods.  will, I believe, promote family-oriented life in our town, as well as help assure that with affordable housing, there will be a balance in the social economic makeup of our population. Some money might better be used to update the facilities at existing parks.

For those who adamantly believe that a regional park is the highest and best use for the airport property after 2028, I must reiterate, “BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR.”

Samuel Tolkin, Architect & Planning Commissioner

For SMa.r.t.

Santa Monica Architects for a Responsible Tomorrow

Dan Jansenson, Architect, Building & Fire-Life Safety Commissioner; Thane Roberts, Architect; Robert H. Taylor, Architect AIA; Mario Fonda-Bonardi, Architect AIA Planning Commissioner; Sam Tolkin, Architect, Planning Commissioner; Michael Jolly, ARECRE

For previous articles, see www.santamonicaarch.wordpress.com/writing

<>Related Posts

Michael Madsen, Star of Reservoir Dogs and Kill Bill, Dies at 67 in Malibu

July 4, 2025

July 4, 2025

Actor Remembered for His Intense Performances and as a Poet  Actor Michael Madsen, known for his distinctive gravelly voice and...

SM.a.r.t.Column: Happy Fourth of July 

July 2, 2025

July 2, 2025

SMart (Santa Monica Architects for a Responsible Tomorrow) hopes you are enjoying a great 3-day weekend as part of your...

Pentagon Orders Troop Drawdown in LA: 150 National Guard Members Reassigned to Wildfire Duty

July 2, 2025

July 2, 2025

Federal Forces Begin Partial Withdrawal From Protest Response as California Leaders Push Back U.S. Northern Command announced Tuesday that 150 National Guard...

Letter to the Editor: Santa Monica’s Great Park: It’s Time to Deliver on 100 Years of Promise

June 30, 2025

June 30, 2025

Santa Monica stands at the edge of history. For nearly a century, residents have consistently supported turning the airport land...

Three-Bed Palisades Highlands Townhouse Hits Market for $1.7M

June 30, 2025

June 30, 2025

The Mediterranean-style property, located at 1529 Michael Lane, is part of a 71-unit community A remodeled 1,919-square-foot townhouse in the...

Six-Bed Mar Vista Hilltop Home Under Construction Lists for $5.3M

June 30, 2025

June 30, 2025

The private backyard is complete with a pool, spa, fire pit, built-in BBQ, and areas for outdoor dining A stunning...

SM.a.r.t Column: Cities That Never Shut Up – The Roaring Cost of Urban Noise

June 26, 2025

June 26, 2025

In today’s cities, silence isn’t golden—it’s extinct. From sunrise to insomnia, we’re trapped in a nonstop symphony of shrieking car...

Planning Commission Approves 18-Story Residential Tower on 6th Street, Rejects Environmental Appeal

June 23, 2025

June 23, 2025

The 194-foot-tall building exceeds local height limits by 109 feet under California’s Density Bonus Law The Santa Monica Planning Commission...

Downtown Santa Monica Landmark Faces Uncertainty as Loan Misses Maturity Deadline

June 23, 2025

June 23, 2025

$26.7M Santa Monica Office Loan Moves to Special Servicing Amid Cash Flow Shortfall Morningstar Credit reported that the loan tied...

SM.a.r.t Column: Santa Monica Needs to See the Light

June 19, 2025

June 19, 2025

How Santa Monica’s Growing Light Pollution Is Eroding Human Health, Safety, and Sanity There was a time when our coastal...

Renovated Riviera Estate Hits Market for $25M

June 16, 2025

June 16, 2025

Inside, floor-to-ceiling windows flood the home with natural light, with nearly every room opening to a private deck or patio...

California Offers Mortgage Relief to Homeowners Displaced by Wildfires, Floods

June 15, 2025

June 15, 2025

CalAssist Mortgage Fund Provides up to $20,000 in Grants for Mortgage Payments California has opened applications for the CalAssist Mortgage...

SM.a.r.t Column: California’s Transit Death Spiral: How Housing Mandates Are Backfiring

June 15, 2025

June 15, 2025

California’s ambitious housing mandates were supposed to solve the affordability crisis. Instead, they’re creating a vicious cycle that’s killing public...

ICE Detentions Confirmed in Culver City and Westchester Car Washes Amid Federal Raids

June 11, 2025

June 11, 2025

Families Say Loved Ones Taken Without Warning; Viral Video Shows Teen Screaming  While the focus has been on cities such...

Opinion: The Great Park of Santa Monica—And How We Can Afford It

June 10, 2025

June 10, 2025

By Alan Levenson In 2014, Santa Monica voters overwhelmingly passed Measure LC to close the airport and build a park....