Introducing Santa Monica's New Director of Planning, Eileen Fogarty

As director of Planning and Community Development in Santa Monica you will have a staff of about 100, an annual budget of about $20 million, and your responsibilities include more than planning and zoning-they also include transportation, traffic, building permits, inspections, and historic preservations. Is this not a lot for a newcomer to get her arms around?

It is a good combination because in so many jurisdictions traffic, circulation, and parking are separate from land use. One of the aspects about the job that intrigued me is that Santa Monica has been progressive in that they have really integrated land use with transportation planning.

And they have brought all of the development functions together, starting with large-scale development applications, all the way through building permits and inspections. It's exciting that it is so integrated.

You left your former job with the city of Alexandria, Va., with a great deal of praise from the city leadership regarding your ability to build community partnerships and pull it all together with an aesthetic eye toward historic preservation. How do the challenges in Santa Monica differ from those in Alexandria?

In Alexandria, the issue was unprecedented growth, and the community was at the point where they absolutely wanted a change in what was happening in their community. They wanted development that provided public benefits. They wanted to have their voice involved. I have only been here a couple of weeks-people have processes in place where they look at the design review-I went to the Architectural Review Board last night and much of what we had to devise in Alexandria is already in place here. That's a real positive.

Both cities also have very strong and committed historic preservation boards and policies in place. Another similarity is the issue-and the general plan will provide a real opportunity here-of bringing the community into the land use, planning, and transportation process.

Santa Monica is known for intense battles between stakeholders over issues large and small, especially related to planning. And its processes are fairly complex in terms of how the public communicates with staff and the council. Is this like Alexandria, or do you have unique challenges that you are going to have to address now?

I think the challenge with a series of processes is, how do we include the community on an ongoing basis? How do we get a broad range of citizens in Santa Monica-and when I say "citizens" I am including the businesses as well as the residents-interested and enthusiastic about the general planning effort.

This participation is crucial to establish the city's future land use and transportation direction so that when development projects come forward, there is a clear expectation and certainty, for both the community and the applicant. We need a comprehensive planning process that provides the opportunity for consensus building.

In a TPR interview a few months ago, Councilman Bobby Shriver called Santa Monica's general plan a "fundamental set of documents," and said, "we need a truly terrific person to lead it." Since you obviously are terrific, have you begun that update?

A lot has been done in the past year. The staff has been out with the community, and they've identified issues, opportunities, constraints, and emerging themes.

Last spring the City Council asked the staff to go back with specific goals for the community. So, one of the things we'll be doing in the next couple of months is bringing the goals that have been to the Planning Commission back to the City Council so that the council can sign off on those goals. Then we will go back out into the community and start to talk about alternative approaches, opportunities, and benefits.

One of the greatest challenges facing Santa Monica is the jobs/housing imbalance; more than 100,000 commuters come to Santa Monica per day for work. What are the city's plans for building more housing - in a built-out city like Santa Monica?

The jobs/housing imbalance has been one of the themes that has come out of the early work on the general plan. There was a tremendous amount of growth in Santa Monica in the 1980s and '90's in the office and commercial sectors.

One of the big issues facing us in this general plan involves incentivising housing: Where do we want it, what scale do we want it to be, and how do we make sure that this housing complements the neighborhood and community and reflects appropriate transitions? The large majority of the efforts to date have been to create legislation to encourage affordable housing while we now will also be addressing jobs/housing imbalance.

This city is reviewing a few large-scale projects, including a civic center development, and the Santa Monica Mall. Where do those high-profile projects stand; and, how will you approach them?

I am giving you my very early impressions: the larger vision for the Santa Monica Mall went through a painful period a year or so ago, and now is coming back with a facelift: opening up the whole mall area so that it has a more outdoor, open feel and will visually connect the Promenade with the Civic Center.

The developers have done some preliminary work to get feedback from the community and will be submitting an application this winter. Another project that is out in the community and is being handled by the redevelopment agency is the Civic Center. Just last week there was a meeting with the community, residents, and businesses to talk about the scale for some of the new affordable housing that is anticipated for that site.

As you try to build consensus, what choices does the community face?

The city has a whole range of choices because it is such a desirable place to live. Some of the things that we will focus on through the Land Use and Circulation Element planning process include the light manufacturing studio district where there is going to be a great deal of discussion as to whether this area keeps its manufacturing, develops commercial projects, or brings more housing in-and we'll look at the trade-offs with each of those options.

Another set of choices comes as we look at strengthening and protecting the neighborhoods and ensuring vibrant commercial corridors throughout the city. What are the transitions going to be, and how can we assure that we will have the transportation choices that connect neighborhoods and services? We will also look at a variety of specific policies, such as parking–does the city want, in the long run, to reduce the ratio or change the emphasis from cars to really encouraging people to use alternative means of transportation i.e. biking, walking and transit? And what is done in the interim before the Expo Line arrives?

Even Santa Monica is not an island. The city abuts other westside cities, including Los Angeles, and a few of your neighbors also have new planning directors. Have you had the chance yet to converse with your colleagues about how best to collaborate on land use and transportation planning?

One of the first things that I did was touch base with Gail Goldberg in Los Angeles. We are planning to sit down and have that conversation. She was on my interview panel and she asked a lot of the same questions that you are asking. For me to get together with her will be something that happens very early on. And I hope to meet with the directors from other Westside jurisdictions as well.

If TPR interviews you again in a year, what will be the salient points of our discussion?

I hope we will be talking about a lot of citizen involvement and excitement for bringing the General Plan's Land Use and Circulation Element forward. I hope we will be talking about some clear direction that the community has agreed upon, where they feel that they are able to protect their neighborhoods as well as make the most of some of the opportunities that they have.