To some, preserving a neighborhood might mean buildings. To others, it’s the trees. To Ayde Gonzalez, the new Neighborhood Preservation Coordinator for the City of Santa Monica, it’s the people.

“The goal of the role is really to keep Santa Monicans housed,” Gonzalez said in an interview at City Hall, “and right now I’m focusing on tenant protection programs that are in place.”

It’s a broad job with the possibility of big impact: about 70 percent of the City’s population rents. Right now, the City has no idea how many tenants are considering leaving their buildings – rent controlled or otherwise – because of issues with their landlord.

After just three weeks on the job, Gonzalez is still sifting through a complicated web of rules, tenant protections and regulations that spans at least five departments in the City. As she tries to understand what exactly she can do to help renters who feel like they’re being forced from their homes because of construction or poor management, she’s realizing the complicated picture they face.

Read More: http://smdp.com/city-hires-new-staffer-to-defend-renters-rights-and-keep-them-in-their-homes/159612

Recent storms across California were a welcome relief from five years of record low rainfall for Los Angeles, but Santa Monica’s groundwater, the City’s major supply of water, will take years to rebound from the drought.

Due to the long-term effects of drought, the City of Santa Monica will maintain its current drought restrictions including water use allowances and penalties for exceeding allowances.

Read More: http://smmirror.com/2017/02/drought-remains-despite-the-rain/

In a new case filed against Santa Monica’s biggest developer, NMS Properties, a hedge fund accuses the major Los Angeles developer of acting like a “criminal enterprise” that operates through forgeries, lies, threats and sham lawsuits.

The latest lawsuit filed by AEW alleges NMS’s CEO Neil Shekhter’s misdeeds go far beyond submitting forged documents to the court. The lawsuit claims he has sent fake contracts to banks and lenders to confuse the terms of a joint venture agreement (JVA) between the two companies worth more than half a billion dollars.

Read More: http://smdp.com/new-management-takes-over-former-nms-buildings/159620

Ordinance Number 2535 clarifies regulations governing online booking services for home sharing and vacation rentals. Internet companies that serve as hosting platforms and charge a fee for facilitating short term rental transactions, will be responsible for collecting Transient Occupancy Taxes (“TOT”) and held accountable for booking illegal rentals. 

Read More: SMDP, Feb. 3, 2017, pg. 5: http://backissues.smdp.com/020417.pdf

Owning Rent-Controlled Property in Santa Monica March 7, 2017 – 9:30am*-Noon 

Read More and Register:  http://www.smgov.net/uploadedFiles/Departments/Rent_Control/Home/Seminar%20-%20March%207,%202017.pdf

In this world of blossoming fake news and alternative facts – as recently evidenced in City staffs’ presentation of the hugely and unnecessarily costly addition to City Hall (an extra $75m in construction and financing) – how do we hold onto truth as a basic value?

What’s happening nationally is happening locally. Residents of Santa Monica, more than at any time in the past need to stay involved. 

Read More: http://smmirror.com/2017/02/smart_beautiful_day_neighborhood/

Santa Monica based Westside Rentals has been sold to the CoStar Group, operator of Apartments.com.

The sale was announced this week and the new owners said the local company will keep its Santa Monica headquarters. The company will decrease focus on its brokerage sales and leasing services to maximize its inventory of available rental properties.

Read More: http://smdp.com/apartments-com-buys-westside-rentals/159548

The at-risk list was released recently as the City Council decides on February 14 whether to follow the lead of Los Angeles and other municipalities by modifying existing law to make seismic retrofits mandatory.

If enacted, the law phases in retrofits for five types of buildings considered especially dangerous in an earthquake.

Soft-story buildings have up to six years to retrofit. Building with unreinforced masonry, found in the oldest structures, have two years. The list includes 174 such buildings.

Read More:  http://www.surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/news/News-2017/February-2017/02_02_2017_Nearly_4600_Addresses_in_Santa_Monica_At_Risk_in_Quake.html

A public hearing on the following topic will be conducted at the regular Santa Monica Rent Control Board meeting on Thursday, February 9, 2017 at 7:00 p.m. in the Council Chamber, City Hall, 1685 Main Street, Santa Monica, CA 90401. Amendments to Regulations 13002, respecting registration of rent-controlled units, and 3035, respecting compliance and its effect on general adjustments.

Read Notice on page 6: http://backissues.smdp.com/020117.pdf

SANTA MONICA, Jan. 31, 2017 — In a major victory for tenants, a court on Monday upheld a Santa Monica ordinance that bans discrimination against Section 8 voucher holders.

The anti-discrimination ordinance was passed in May 2015 after the city received multiple complaints from prospective tenants that landlords were refusing to accept their housing vouchers. This ordinance is especially important to protect low-income tenants in Santa Monica, given the high cost of housing and the difficulty many low-income tenants and voucher holders have in finding affordable apartments.

Read More: http://smdp.com/ordinance-prohibiting-discrimination-against-voucher-holders-upheld/159538