CIVIC CENTER SPECIFIC PLAN ADOPTED JUNE 28, 2005 CITY OF SANTA MONICA SANTA MONICA CIVIC CENTER SPECIFIC PLAN i TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction................................................................................ 1 Sustainability .............................................................................73 The Site....................................................................................1 General Sustainability Policies ................................................73 Background..............................................................................2 Transportation and Development Patterns..............................73 The Planning Process ...............................................................3 Open Space and Streetscape Design .......................................74 The Vision .................................................................................. 5 “Green” Building Design and Energy Conservation ...............75 The Civic Center in the Future ................................................7 Water and Wastewater Facilities..............................................76 Open Space............................................................................... 11 Conservation..........................................................................78 General Open Space Policies ..................................................13 Solid Waste Disposal ..............................................................79 The Design of Civic Center Open Spaces...............................15 Energy....................................................................................79 The Elements of the Open Space System................................17 Public Services........................................................................80 Circulation................................................................................ 29 Implementation ........................................................................ 81 General Circulation Policies ...................................................31 Regulatory Program ...............................................................81 Vehicular Circulation .............................................................31 Implementation Responsibilities ............................................82 Parking...................................................................................33 Financing Program.................................................................82 Transit....................................................................................34 Phasing Program ....................................................................84 Pedestrian Circulation ............................................................36 Consistency with the General Plan............................................ 85 Bicycle Circulation.................................................................37 Land Use and Circulation Elements .......................................85 Street Design Standards..........................................................38 Housing Element ...................................................................88 Development Standards ............................................................ 47 Conservation Element............................................................89 General Development Policies................................................48 Open Space Element ..............................................................89 The Auditorium Special Use District......................................49 Scenic Corridors Element.......................................................89 The Civic Core Special Use District .......................................56 Safety Element .......................................................................90 The Palisades Garden Walk Special Use District .....................61 Noise Element........................................................................90 The Village Special Use District..............................................63 Acknowledgements ................................................................... 91 The Colorado Avenue Special Use District .............................70 SANTA MONICA CIVIC CENTER SPECIFIC PLAN i Aerial overview of the site and surrounding context. i i ADOPTED JUNE 28, 2005 SANTA MONICA CIVIC CENTER SPECIFIC PLAN 1 INTRODUCTION The Site at the Santa Monica Place parking structure. Due to the lack of circulation through the site, the perimeter streets are overburdened Santa Monica’s Civic Center Specific Plan encompasses a number and intersections are congested. of areas that provide critical opportunities for redevelopment and rejuvenation. The Specific Plan area is bounded by Pico Within the study area, there are a number of significant and unique Boulevard on the south, Fourth Street on the east, Ocean Avenue uses. It is the principal location of city and county governmental on the west and Colorado Avenue on the north. The Specific functions, including City Hall, the City’s new Public Safety Facility, Plan area is unique in that it engages several major activity centers and the County Courthouse. The Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, – the Downtown, the Beach, Palisades Park, Santa Monica High which has hosted many citywide and regional civic and cultural School, Ocean Park and the Main Street commercial area. The events, is also located here. Furthermore, the area has long been the area offers enormous potential for redevelopment and open space location for the RAND Corporation, an institution with a uniquely improvements that can reknit the city fabric, realize strong linkages distinguished history and one of the largest employers in the between key districts and neighborhoods and create a “seam” where city. Other private land uses within the area include the recently there once was a barrier. completed office building at 1733 Ocean Avenue; and three hotels including the Viceroy Hotel, Ocean Lodge and the Holiday Inn. The area is of significant size - as large as Santa Monica’s downtown core. It is equivalent to almost ten downtown blocks and comprises The Sears Department Store, Santa Monica City Hall, and the 67 acres of land — more than two-thirds of which are in public Civic Auditorium are the most distinctive buildings within the ownership. The barrier created by the Santa Monica Freeway, specific plan area, reflecting the architectural merit of the periods in the extent of surface parking and the lack of east/west and north/ which they were built. The Sears Department Store and the City south streets give the area the appearance of an isolated service Hall both reflect a 1930’s moderne style. The Civic Auditorium is a district which separates and divides the city. The only north/ 1950’s streamlined moderne period piece. south connector through the site – Main Street – is awkwardly discontinuous and excessively wide. The street changes direction Although the site has been significantly modified over time and at the Civic Auditorium, while on the north it abruptly terminates appears relatively flat, there is a twelve-foot difference in grade from i i ADOPTED JUNE 28, 2005 SANTA MONICA CIVIC CENTER SPECIFIC PLAN 1 Fourth Street on the east to Ocean Avenue on the west. Today, the primary physiographic features that distinguish the site are the banks of the Santa Monica Freeway that recall the historic landscape and topography of the coastal bluffs and arroyos, characteristic of the Los Angeles region before most of the natural drainages were channelized. Background The purpose of this document is to establish the planning policies, and land use and development regulations related to the Civic Center Specific Plan area. This document builds upon, and supercedes, the 1993 Civic Center Specific Plan, as amended in 2000. The previous Plan established policies for public and private development. At that time, approximately half of the land within the Civic Center area was publicly owned; the remainder was predominantly owned by a single private property owner – the RAND Corporation. The Plan established the land use and development regulations for the RAND property as well as for the publicly owned land. Another privately owned parcel – 1733 Ocean Avenue – was the subject of a previously established Development Agreement. Since the 1993 Plan was adopted, several public facility improvements set forth in the Plan have been initiated, including a new City Public Safety Facility, a major public parking structure, and the extension of Olympic Drive from Fourth to Main Street. During this period, the 1733 Ocean Avenue private office building was also constructed. In 2000, the RAND Corporation sold 11.3 Numerous public workshops provided valuable input to the process. 2 ADOPTED JUNE 28, 2005 SANTA MONICA CIVIC CENTER SPECIFIC PLAN 3 acres of its property to the Santa Monica Redevelopment Agency and focused its development efforts exclusively on constructing a Key Planning Issues new headquarters facility on the remainder of its site. Later that year, the City approved a development agreement and amended • The appropriate balance between open space and housing the Specific Plan to permit the development of a new RAND • The intensity, mix and type of housing to be pursued headquarters on a 3.7-acre site opposite the Civic Auditorium. This allowed RAND to remain in their existing facilities pending • The nature and quality of the open space areas the completion of the new facility. With completion of the new