ACTION Apartment Association

Transitioning to Electricity Could Cost Property Owners Up to $1 Billion

03/07/2023 8:41 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

The "Electrification Roadmap," which has not yet been approved, proposes a plan to reduce carbon emissions by requiring property owners to transition from gas to electric before they can rent, sell or make major renovations.

The plan would impact 70 percent of Santa Monica's 13,138 single and multi-family residential buildings, which "use natural gas as their primary fuel type."

Garbage rates could increase by about 11 percent

03/06/2023 12:00 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

“While everything costs more these days in 2023, we're still charging 2019 rates and your trash rates have remained exactly the same for the last few years,” Young said. “Ultimately, we had to dip into reserves to sustain our operation. At this rate RRR is projected to deplete its reserves and completely run out of money by next summer without an immediate rate increase.”

SMa.r.t. Column: The Urgency to Retrofit Earthquake-Deficient Buildings

03/06/2023 9:50 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

A large portion of the buildings identified as vulnerable–most of them two-story apartment buildings–must have their retrofits completed by 2025. The staff report suggests that the department will need to increase staffing to ensure that the city can enforce compliance with the law. Our own, informal, experience suggests that staffing is currently so short that new projects may be experiencing significant delays in obtaining permits. This is causing problems for applicants and staff members alike, and the ripple effects may be spreading into the earthquake-retrofit program. In a SMa.r.t. article from January, 2017 (https://tinyurl.com/3z8h7kxs) we discussed the enormous workload that would fall on city staff’s shoulders once the flood of seismic upgrade permits began. These predictions seem to be coming true.

Construction of Nearly 700 Housing Units Kicks Off

03/03/2023 2:59 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Tishman Speyer broke ground Monday on a senior building that launches the initial phase of the "Santa Monica Collection" development, which in total will add 677 housing units at eight Downtown sites.

Outlawing Natural Gas in Santa Monica Buildings Won't Impact Global Climate

03/02/2023 10:19 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

by Houman David Hemmati MD PhD

Today, I am writing to urge you NOT to move forward with a plan to issue a mandate banning all gas appliances within the city of Santa Monica and forcing property owners to replace all gas appliances with electric.

You also forget, as noted above, that in California, a massive proportion of all electricity production comes from burning of natural gas, and much comes from coal and oil, with the total non-renewable proportion amounting to 2/3 of all power consumed. By shifting to electric, you're only really reducing non--renewable energy use by 1/3, not 100%. And when you boast you purchase power from the so-called "Clean Power Alliance," doing so only means other electrical customers will be purchasing more non-renewable power; it's not as if they'll magically shut down natural gas and coal plants because Santa Monica decided its electrons will come from solar or wind power.

Council Provides Direction on Housing Element Implementation

03/01/2023 4:34 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

To support implementation, City Council considered proposed amendments to Santa Monica’s Land Use and Circulation Element (LUCE), Downtown Community Plan (DCP), Bergamot Area Plan (BAP), and Zoning Ordinance for consistency with Santa Monica’s certified Housing Element and for compliance with State law.

Don't Defend Revenue-Losing Measure GS

03/01/2023 9:23 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

by Houman David Hemmati MD PhD

An open letter to the Santa Monica City Council explains how sellers can avoid the huge tax increase on property sales.

As I predicted to you earlier, the impact of GS is already being seen. In the last 2 days, we have seen rapid real estate closures of at least three homes in N of Montana valued at $33,941,000, depriving the city of over $1,900,000 in Himmelrich tax for you to squander on consultants and real estate developer friends of yours.

New building on West LA VA campus to house 59

03/01/2023 9:13 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

lmost 60 formerly homeless veterans will receiving housing at the West Los Angeles Veteran’s Affairs (VA) campus just east of Santa Monica in Brentwood with the opening of the newly renovated Building 207 to serve veterans 62 and older who were formerly homeless or are considered at-risk.

Developed in partnership by The Veterans Collective, Century Housing, Thomas Safran and Associates and U.S. VETS, Building 207 is the first of 20 veteran housing and supportive services buildings planned for the West LA VA North Campus.

Santa Monica Rents Drop for 6th Straight Month

03/01/2023 9:08 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Santa Monica rents dipped by -0.7 percent in February, marking the sixth straight monthly drop, with the median rent now standing at $2,157, according to a report released by Apartment List on Tuesday.

The dry spell reflects a national trend that saw rents decline by 3.4 percent from August to January, marking "the sharpest dip in the national median rent over any five-month period in the history of our estimates," the report said.

Despite the monthly decreases, Santa Monica rents have risen by 5 percent over the past year and continue to outpace the average rent growth of 1.6 percent for California and 3 percent for the nation.

Santa Monica Releases 'Roadmap' for Existing Buildings to Go All Electric

02/28/2023 8:24 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Santa Monica on Monday published an "Electrification Roadmap" that will eventually require property owners to transition from gas to electric before they can rent, sell or make major renovations to existing buildings.