RIFT Fails; Santa Monica Offers New Circulation Framework

The election results are in and Santa Monica has voted down the Resident's Initiative to Fight Traffic (RIFT). What was the significance of that vote? What have you learned from the election? What might residents expect from the Planning Department as a result?

First of all, we had worked with thousands of residents on a draft framework-we call it a framework because the draft plan is not completely finalized-for the city's Land Use and Circulation Element (LUCE). The framework lays out a proactive set of strategies to address transportation. If you look at the location of our city in the region, over 90 percent of the traffic on the Pacific Coast Highway is "pass-through" traffic. We came to realize that we could not confront traffic simply by controlling development within our borders. We needed to have a much more comprehensive approach, which is embodied in the LUCE. The transportation strategy aims to achieve "no net new trips," locating future development where there is transit, and putting in place "transit demand management strategies" to address both existing and new commercial development. That was the approach that came out of the dozens of workshops, the City Council, and the Planning Commission prior to the election.

The RIFT initiative, Measure T, identified many of the same concerns: people want to retain their quality of life and find a way to limit traffic. The issue was that RIFT and LUCE represent a very different approach in terms of how to address those concerns. Measure T addressed it by putting a cap on commercial development. The defeat of Measure T doesn't mean that people don't have a concern about traffic. People want traffic managed and reduced. We will proceed by aggressively trying to put into place the mechanisms that the City Council and the community have endorsed in the LUCE. We want to get to a place where we reduce trips by shifting ridership, shortening travel times, and implementing transit-serving areas at Bergamot Station, downtown, and Memorial Park. We are moving full steam ahead to put the transportation strategy in place. The LUCE Framework includes provisions to monitor progress on a regular basis and "apply the brakes" if necessary.

Last month's issue of TPR carried a Westside Urban Forum discussion between former and current Santa Monica planning commissioners, during which they shared some telling statistics: approximately 90,000 people live in Santa Monica, 55,000 of those people work, and of those 55,000 about 80 percent leave the city to get to their jobs. It seems that you have a city that struggles to control impacts of traffic congestion and population growth. As the planner of a city of 90,000, how does your department effectively exercise control over the trips on your city streets?

We have a website that might be helpful to your readers: www.shapethefuture2025.net. If you go to the website you'll see a very concise layout of the entire LUCE strategy. With respect to transportation, the strategy is to shift the investment pressures away from neighborhoods, toward a few specific areas that already have transit or are prepared for transit. We've put a major emphasis on what we call a "conservation plan": limiting the type of development that can take place in or near neighborhoods. Then, we identify the areas around the transit stations and a couple of the transit corridors where changes would be allowed.

The LUCE also structured those changes to provide "public benefit." Above a base height, projects would go through a public process and would have to meet a range of traffic mitigation requirements including transit service.

We're also preparing a nexus study to put in place traffic impact fees as well as strategies to reduce employee trips. We've seen the greatest success with the RAND Corporation, which reduces commuter trips by 50 percent. They did this through transportation demand management programs, where they identified commuter trends for their workers and put in place a carpool/shuttle program using parking and parking fees as one tool to disincentivize driving. Experience has shown that financial incentives are effective in reducing the number of auto trips, particularly for commercial projects and their employees. This program will be applied to the city's commercial areas.

Can the city of Santa Monica realistically manage public streets? Do we not have to go to a sub-regional or regional planning compact to get to the heart and soul of the traffic problems that frustrate many of Santa Monica's residents?

As we've discussed, the city is focused on successfully managing our own traffic. With that said, pass-through and regional traffic are large sources of the city's congestion. Traffic on the 10 Freeway and the Pacific Coast Highway generate more than 40 percent of this pass-through traffic. These issues require regional solutions. The city has played an active roll in bringing the Exposition Light Rail line to Santa Monica, and there is much progress being made on the line. This light rail line will provide a viable east-west alternative to the Santa Monica Freeway. The city has also been working actively with the other Westside Cities and Metro on sub-regional improvements. The city is currently designing and constructing signal priority along the four regional Rapid Bus lines that operate through the city, continuing the system that was developed by our neighboring city of Los Angeles.

In Santa Monica, your department has the luxury of being responsible for both transportation and land use, unlike the city of L.A. With the passing of L.A. County's Measure R, what does the promise of a "Subway to the Sea" mean to you?

We are pleased with the passage of Measure R as it will help to bring much needed transit facilities to the region at a faster pace. With regard to the "Subway to the Sea," it's realistic that it will be some time before a subway can be extended all the way to Santa Monica, even with the passage of Measure R. That being said, the LUCE sets up the goals and framework to integrate the opportunities at transit stations with land use policies for those areas, particularly within walking distance from the stations.

What opportunities remain in a built-out city like Santa Monica to positively affect the city's jobs-housing balance?

We have to look at the area where the transit stations are going to be located, what is now our industrial area-Bergamot and possibly Memorial Park. The industrial area provides jobs-housing balance opportunities right along transit lines. There is currently a large creative arts community in that area. What we have done is to move away from the hard manufacturing, maintain an emphasis on the creative arts, and create neighborhoods. We have identified areas within 1000 feet to 1500 feet of transit stations that would have jobs, housing and neighborhood-serving uses. We would incentivize workforce housing and affordable housing to be mixed with the creative arts. In other words, if someone is coming in with a post-production development, they would provide two floors for workforce/affordable housing, thereby creating a jobs-housing balance. We have analyzed this approach in several projects to ensure the feasibility of having creative arts, workforce housing, and some neighborhood uses to further reduce trips in projects within 1000-1300 feet of transit.

The city has always been committed to affordable housing and is now including workforce housing into an area where a real community can be created. Proposed for this area is a system of bike trails, open space, and neighborhood-serving uses with a transportation demand-management program within walking distance to transit. That's where we have seen our biggest opportunities to address the jobs-housing balance.

In your TPR interview two years ago, you spoke about the Santa Monica Mall. What has happened over the last two years? Where does the development stand now?

The revitalization of Santa Monica Place has been an incredible opportunity for the city. The proposed renovations to Santa Monica Place, the mall, have been approved. Right now, if you come into town, you will see that the main part of the mall has been torn down and is being converted into an open-air shopping environment. There will be a change in tenants as Nordstrom's is going into the old Robinsons May building and Bloomingdales will replace Macy's.

We're now working with Bloomingdale's on the urban design to ensure that it will be more pedestrian orientated than the original building, which faces into the mall putting its back on the street. This conversion to Bloomingdale's is an opportunity on that major corner of Colorado and 4th to create a pedestrian environment with an inviting streetscape.

Lastly, it's been two years since you've assumed leadership of the Santa Monica planning department. What's been the biggest surprise, and what's been the biggest satisfaction you have had in this job?

The biggest satisfaction has been working with thousands of community members during the Land Use and Circulation Element process. We've had a dozen workshops and many more community meetings. There has been a real enthusiasm from people wanting to finally see a vision for Santa Monica's future come to fruition. People are excited about integrating transportation with land use, getting real public benefit from future developments, and creating a sustainable environment. While it sounds visionary, the community is very serious, committed, and involved in making it happen. We've gotten a tremendous amount of support, which has been my greatest reward since arriving here.

I understood that Santa Monica was a community where people cared greatly and wanted to be involved. I've learned that the huge outreach effort that we've already undertaken on the LUCE is just the beginning. The city must have an ongoing dialogue with the community at large on a wide range of issues so that people can really start to see and believe that their efforts will make a difference. The community needs to have confidence that the LUCE will become a reality. The challenge is to start to implement aspects of the LUCE so the community can experience the improved quality of life when transportation issues are being addressed.