Dear Editor,
The City of Santa Monica has committed 6.7 million dollars to the Fame Senior Housing Project which is of a questionable nature. It will be our Senior Gulag.
This application of “Senior Group Housing” has wide implications for every neighborhood in Santa Monica. If this project is approved and built as currently envisioned, it will be used as a legal precedent and every neighborhood in Santa Monica will be impacted with high density projects having inadequate infrastructure, insufficient parking and the dehumanizing of our seniors by warehousing them.
Fame Senior Housing is a proposal for a 49 unit development located on 3 sites in the Pico Neighborhood. The sites would contain 7, 18 & 24 unit buildings in an R2 zone. The allowable density in R2 with allowances for low-income & senior housing is 7 units per lot.
1924-1930 Euclid St – 24 on 2 lots (Senior Group Housing) low income – a 72% increase in density.
1753 18th St – 18 units on a single lot (Senior Group Housing) low income – a 258% increase in density.
1754 19th St – 7 units on a single lot (Senior Low-Income Apts.)
These projects are being masqueraded as Senior Group Housing so as to get the increased density that Senior Group Housing allows. I say masqueraded because these projects do not meet the qualifying definitions of the Santa Monica Municipal Code 9.04.02.030.765. They are in fact Senior Low Income Apartments and should be limited in density to 7 units per lot as to code.
The key determining factor for Senior Group Housing is a Central kitchen where the residents eat their meals. This project does not provide a Central kitchen/dining area but pretends to meet code with a small clubhouse kitchen for parties and small group gatherings.
There have been zero projects built under the Santa Monica municipal code for Senior Group Housing. This project is a classic “bait and switch”. Senior group housing as proposed does not exist in this form anywhere in the US. Instead of assisted living with a central group kitchen/dining area, seniors will be told to call Meals on Wheels for a nutritious meal. We can do better than this for our Seniors.
Don’t allow the City of Santa Monica to ignore it’s own laws, rules and regulations. This affects all of us.
Linas Baskauskas
Santa Monica, 90404
