July 10, 2014 -- The
Santa Monica City Council members struggled Tuesday to craft a ballot
measure regarding the future of Santa Monica Airport that would avoid
tying the hands of City leaders while also appealing to a voting public
wanting a say on land-use decisions for the 277-acre City-owned
property.
City Attorney Marsha
Moutrie is expected to return to the council in two weeks with a “menu”
of options for a measure that will appear on the November ballot.
The City’s measure would
compete with a possible rival referendum backed by the Aircraft Owners
and Pilots Association calling for a requirement of voter approval to
make any changes at the airport, including closure. Whichever measure
receives more votes would pass, Moutrie said.
It is not certain the
AOPA measure will reach the ballot. County officials have until July 23
to determine if supporters collected enough valid signatures from Santa
Monica registered voters for qualification. Proponents say they have
more than enough signatures.
The council will vote on
its measure July 22, but could delay the decision to the next day so it
could see if a City measure is needed.
Council members told
Moutrie they wanted a measure that would include voters having a voice
on what kind of development would go onto the airport property after a
potential closure, although they differed on how this would work.
A concern for council
members is that the AOPA measure has the appealing feature of giving
residents the right to vote on nearly all airport issues. But they say
it would also have a detrimental effect of tying the hands of the
council and keeping the status quo at the facility.
“We have to be cognizant
of the fact that the AOPA initiative presents this tantalizing
opportunity for the voters to empower themselves,” Councilmember Ted
Winterer said.
Winterer proposed Moutrie
come up with a measure that would allow residents to vote on a Specific
Plan for the property. Moutrie favors requiring a Specific Plan before
any development can be built on the property, but said there are
consequences of requiring voter approval to implement the plan.
Councilmember Gleam Davis agreed with Moutrie
“My concern is that a
Specific Plan is very specific, and the problem is people might say,
‘well I like this part, but I don’t like this part, so I’m going to vote
no,’” Davis said. “And we could get into almost an endless loop of
developing Specific Plans, trying to find one that could get us over the
hump.”
Several public speakers
disagreed with Davis. Among them was Jonathan Stein, who is part of a
group that has sued the people behind the AOPA measure and the City to
prevent it from going forward.
Stein noted City
officials say even without a vote, residents would still be involved in
creating the Specific Plan because there would be a public process,
including meetings where ideas are gathered. But, Stein said, there
would be no incentive for City staff to take the public's opinions into
consideration before presenting a final document to the council for
approval.
“If we have a [public]
vote on a Specific Plan, you can bet that the pieces will fall in place
and the Specific Plan will in fact bend over backwards to reflect what
people actually want,” Stein said.
Other ideas proposed
included one from Councilmember Kevin McKeown that residents be allowed
to vote on a conceptual plan for the property “early on” in the process.
Davis suggested a measure allowing residents to vote on any “expansion
or intensification” of the site.
The council heard from
John Jerabek, a Santa Monica resident who represents the people behind
the AOPA measure. He reiterated the concept that the measure is an
anti-development proposal.
“Redevelopment of 227
acres of low-density land would be by far the most dramatic land-use
event in Santa Monica history, by far,” Jerabek said. “That cannot in my
opinion be left solely to politicians, lobbyists [and] activists that
typically dominate the land-use process.”
City officials and other
airport opponents have said the characterization of the AOPA measure as
anti-development proposal is misleading and disingenuous. They say its
purpose it to keep the status quo at the airport.
Those speaking against
the AOPA measure include the newly formed Committee for Local Control of
Santa Monica Airport Land, which will lead the campaign against it. The
committee members told the council requiring voter approval for a
Specific Plan should be part of a City measure.
Less inclined to worry
about specific details of a City measure and the attempt to appeal to
voters through specific language was Councilmember Bob Holbrook, who has
sat on the dais for 24 years.
“I’ve been around a long
time in Santa Monica politics,” he said. “I don’t think you need to do
any of this. Just put it on the ballot because if Santa Monicans for
Renters’ Rights, the Chamber [of Commerce], the neighborhood
organizations … say ‘please vote [yes], it’s the right thing to do,’
that’s the one that is going to [win]. It’s really simple.”
Source Article: http://www.surfsantamonica.com
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