In California, as in most of the country, local government has control over most land use decisions. In Santa Monica, “development” is one of the top important political issues, along with homelessness, especially because agitated residents often mention development and traffic in the same breath. As for myself, I first became involved in Santa Monica politics when I wrote a memorandum to the Planning Department about the proposed redevelopment of the Santa Monica Civic Center in 1993. I later received quite an education in planning issues during my four years on the Planning Commission.
I have probably written more columns about planning and development issues than any other subject. My perspective is always as an “urbanista,” someone who loves cities, if not everything about them. Below are links to some of my columns, as well to other writings of mine on the subjects of urbanism, architecture, and planning.
Contemporary Architecture and New Urbanism
In 2006 I published my first article about planning issues outside of Santa Monica. It was about the conflict between Contemporary Architecture and New Urbanism, and it was published in the Spring 2006 issue of the Journal of the Architectural Foundation of Los Angeles. The title was “Two Dogmas of Design: New Urbanism vs. Contemporary Architecture. To download a PDF of the article, click here.
The Santa Monica Civic Center
As mentioned above, I first became involved in Santa Monica politics, and first wrote on urbanist issues, in connection with the City’s plans to redevelop its civic center, a 43-acre area bounded by the Santa Monica Freeway and Pico Boulevard, respectively on the north and south, and Ocean Avenue and Fourth Street on the west and east. It is a prime location. At the time about a third was owned and occupied by the RAND Corporation, and there were three large municipal buildings: City Hall, the County Courthouse, and the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. Surface parking lots covered much of the area. At the end of 1992 a joint public-private task force, that had labored for five years, published suggested guidelines for what kind of development, and how much of it, should be allowed in the civic center area (including the privately owned properties). The City asked for public comment. What struck me, was that nowhere in the task force's report was there any mention of urban design. In February 1993 I wrote a memo I called “Piazza Santa Monica” and addressed it to the mayor and the city council. This was my first writing on urbanism. To see the memo as a PDF, click here.
