City Council Continues Housing Element Process
Apr. 05, 2021 at 6:00 am
A divided city council advanced plans for the City’s housing element last week after discussions about meeting state mandates expanded to cover possible solutions to questions of historic racial injustice.
Santa Monica must pass a housing element update that accounts for mandates to increase the city’s housing stock by about 9,000 units. The discussion last week centered on options for densifying existing neighborhoods as a way to acknowledge the impact past discriminatory practices have had on housing development.
“At the beginning of tonight’s meeting, from Planning Commissioner Nina Fresco, we saw a very comprehensive presentation about the history of zoning and exclusion in the City of Santa Monica. And I don’t want anybody who lives here now to be taking it personal, but the truth is if you live in an exclusive neighborhood, you have to look at the history and think about who got excluded,” C