ACTION Apartment Association

Eight story hotel sandwiched between apartments heads for Planning Commission

02/21/2023 10:35 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

The project at 516 Colorado would pack 74 guest rooms, a ground floor restaurant, outdoor seating area, lobby, guest drop-off area, rooftop bar and two subterranean levels with a fitness area and business center into an eight-story building on the 41.75 ft wide former site of Angels Attic dollhouse museum.

Santa Monica City Council Targets Montana Avenue for Effective Transformation and Destruction.

02/21/2023 10:30 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Letter to the Editor from Houman David Hemmati, M.D., Ph.D.

I join thousands of my neighbors and fellow Santa Monica citizens and residents to say that I am absolutely outraged by the proposal to change the zoning on Montana Avenue and other quiet, beautiful, pedestrian-friendly avenues in our iconic, seaside city, to allow five and six-story buildings.

SMa.r.t. Column: Santa Monica City Council – Planners, Politicians, or Developers?

02/20/2023 9:48 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

It’s truly unbelievable that our city council next Tuesday is voting to increase existing heights from 1, 2, & 3 story development on the four neighborhood boulevards and avenues to 5 stories. Replacing 1, 2, & 3 stories with 5 stories is very visible in the transformation of Lincoln Boulevard. It’s stunning to realize city council is considering changing neighborhood commercial into the density, character, and height of downtown boulevards –affecting demand on public transportation, school safety, parking, and other social, ecological, and economic systems.

Column: The Fantasy World of California Housing Policy

02/20/2023 9:44 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Some of that housing is needed, but there’s no hard evidence backing the state’s claims that 1.8 million new units must be built by the end of 2030 both to avert a disastrous rise in homelessness and fill the needs of first-time home buyers looking for something they can afford.

In fact, the state auditor last April reported that estimates of need from the state Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) are unreliable because they’re based on information inputted to state computers by workers who never vetted it at all. Devastating as this report should have been, it was completely ignored by both lawmakers and Gov. Gavin Newsom; no one in any office that deals with housing said a single public word about it.

Definitely not too late - by Charles Andrews

02/16/2023 11:00 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

For those of you who have despaired of politicians ever making things better, you won’t like my answer. But – corrupt politcians got us into this mess, and ones who will put the interests of residents first will get us out.

North of Montana 7th Most Expensive Zip Code in U.S.

02/16/2023 10:59 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

North of Montana was the 7th priciest zip code in the U.S. last year with a median home sale price of $4.378 million, according to a ranking released this week by PropertyShark.com.

Rent control denies economic reality

02/16/2023 10:57 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Rent control in fact makes affordable housing less available. It raises rent for everyone who isn’t in rent-controlled housing. And if a community imposes rent control on most or all rentals, construction will grind to a halt. The rental properties that exist, meanwhile, will decay as landlords no longer can afford to keep them up.

LA County Approves Record Breaking Budget to Combat Homelessness

02/16/2023 10:41 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

According to the Board’s announcement, this budget will help fund a heightened focus on three key missions for the County in collaboration with cities and other local partners in these key areas:

Reducing encampments to bring unsheltered people indoors
Increasing interim and permanent housing placements
Ramping up mental health and substance use disorder services for people experiencing homelessness

Council Votes to Declare Homelessness Emergency

02/16/2023 9:52 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

The City Council Tuesday night unanimously voted to declare a Local Emergency on Homelessness that will boost funding and speed up hiring to address a worsening crisis.

The move will make it easier to receive help -- including funding -- from County, State and Federal governments and "remove barriers to building affordable housing," City officials said.

No Reliable Data to Support Key Housing Number

02/15/2023 10:27 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

How many of Santa Monica's nearly 27,500 rent control households pay more than 50 percent of their income in rent, making them "severely rent-burdened"?

Although the number is used to approve City policies, establish financial support programs and pass tax measures, the answer ranges wildly:

From less than 500 (the number who qualify for rent relief under a new City program) to more than 6,000 (the number used to support former mayor Sue Himmelrich's transfer tax hike) to more than 10,000 (the number the City uses to approve policies).