SANTA MONICA, CA — Santa Monica is moving forward with a counterintuitive housing strategy near the Expo/Bundy Metro station: allowing denser development on 89 single-family-zoned properties in an effort to prevent substantially greater state-mandated development standards from applying across the surrounding transit area.
The City Council voted 5-1 on Sept. 8 to introduce an ordinance increasing development standards on R1 properties in an area bounded by Interstate 10 to the south, Dorchester Avenue to the west, Exposition Boulevard to the north and Centinela Avenue to the east. Councilmember Lana Negrete opposed the measure and Councilmember Jesse Zwick was recused.
The ordinance would allow development of up to 40 dwelling units per acre on the affected properties while retaining the R1 district's existing 28-foot height limit. The reason for increasing density is Senate Bill 79, the state's new transit-oriented housing law, which took effect July 1 and establishes minimum development standards for qualifying housing projects near certain rail and bus stops.
Santa Monica cannot opt out of the law. Instead, the city is using provisions within SB 79 that allow qualifying transit areas to be temporarily excluded from its development standards while local governments prepare longer-term plans.
Under SB 79's phased implementation provisions, a transit-oriented development zone can qualify for temporary exclusion when its existing zoning provides sufficient housing capacity. Among the tests, at least 33 percent of sites within a qualifying zone must permit density and residential floor area of at least 50 percent of the standards provided by SB 79. The zone must also meet a separate overall housing-capacity requirement.
Santa Monica previously moved to temporarily exclude five of its six affected transit-oriented development zones. The area around Expo/Bundy did not meet the threshold, leaving it exposed to the state's development standards.
City Manager Oliver Chi outlined the city's proposed solution in August: increase existing development standards on 89 R1-zoned properties north of I-10 and east of Dorchester Avenue so the Expo/Bundy zone could also become eligible for temporary exclusion. Patch reported on the proposal Aug. 25, ahead of a city community meeting explaining how the proposed changes to the 89 R1 properties fit into Santa Monica's broader strategy for implementing SB 79.
California's Department of Housing and Community Development says SB 79 makes qualifying transit-oriented housing developments an allowed use on residential, mixed-use and commercial properties near specified transit stops in urban transit counties.
The standards vary according to the type of transit stop and a property's distance from it. Around qualifying Tier 2 stops such as Metro light-rail stations, the law can permit progressively greater density, height and floor area closer to transit. As Patch previously reported, qualifying development immediately adjacent to certain stops can reach 85 feet and 140 units per acre. The standards step down farther from a station, reaching 55 feet and 80 units per acre within a half-mile.
The Southern California Association of Governments is responsible for mapping qualifying stops and transit-oriented development zones across the region, while HCD reviews local SB 79 ordinances and alternative plans for compliance with state law. Against that backdrop, Santa Monica's approach around Expo/Bundy effectively trades a smaller local increase in development potential now for the opportunity to temporarily exclude the broader area from SB 79's standards.
The choice of the R1 properties has been controversial. Earlier in the process, the Planning Commission considered an approach that would have placed additional housing capacity on multifamily-zoned properties. The council subsequently directed staff to pursue an R1-based alternative, eventually focusing on the 89 properties that came back for consideration Sept. 8.
The Pico Neighborhood Association opposed the proposal, arguing in a letter submitted ahead of the vote that the city was making a significant zoning change before completing a broader local transit-oriented development plan. The association also questioned why all 89 properties were included when, according to the city's staff analysis cited in its letter, at least 52 additional parcels were needed to satisfy the temporary-exclusion test.
PNA further argued that the city should wait for guidance from the California Department of Housing and Community Development on how the exclusion calculation should work when a transit zone crosses jurisdictional boundaries, as Expo/Bundy does between Santa Monica and Los Angeles.
The official Sept. 8 council agenda describes the purpose of the ordinance as increasing development standards on the R1 properties specifically to allow certain sites within a half-mile of Expo/Bundy to be excluded from SB 79 implementation.
Even if Santa Monica's strategy succeeds, it does not permanently remove the Expo/Bundy area from SB 79. State law allows qualifying sites to remain excluded until one year after adoption of the city's seventh-cycle Housing Element. Santa Monica's next Housing Element will cover 2029-37.
Meanwhile, the city can pursue a longer-term Transit-Oriented Development Alternative Plan. Under Santa Monica's implementation framework, such a plan could redistribute housing density among affected transit areas, but it must preserve the overall housing capacity required under state law.
The Sept. 8 action was the ordinance's first reading, meaning the zoning change is not yet final and must return to the council for adoption.
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