Commissioner Shawn Landres said that the City should be streamlining the approval of housing projects and encouraging developers to build in Santa Monica. However, he said that with the administrative review process it is essential to set very precise guidelines on the type of housing allowed in each area of the City.

“I think at times we have not provided as much certainty to housing developers, affordable or not, as we could have,” said Landres. “Once we’ve actually defined the terms, set the rules of the game, it should be very clear to anybody coming in that if they design a project that meets the standards that we as a community have established, that they know they’re going to be able to build it.”

Commissioner Shawn Landres suggested adding recommendations to the community benefits agreement that would ensure that PSJ’s behavioral health grants be utilized as effectively as possible. Commissioners voted and approved the recommendations, which were as follows:

1. PSJ shall consult with subject matter experts, community stakeholders, and co-funders in the grantmaking process. Ensure a robust system for funding data-driven innovation that does not unfairly advantage prior grantees over promising new ones.

2. Focus the behavioral health funding on infrastructure and gap funding for mental health outpatient care, with attention to measurable ways that the program can divert from, wrap around, and prevent readmission to inpatient psychiatric care.

3. Limit in-kind funding to clearly measurable capital and operational contributions.

Commissioner Shawn Landres began raising concerns over the proximity of the two dispensaries, suggesting that selecting a location on Santa Monica Boulevard east of 23rd Street would extend service to another neighborhood that was “far, far away — within the context of what ‘far’ means in Santa Monica.”

Landres suggested that grouping the two dispensaries so closely together could cause a “geographic inequity,” since city codes dictate there can be only two dispensaries licensed to operate at any time.

…“I am just not comfortable with loading up one part of town with both dispensaries for a wide variety of reasons,” he said.

“I would like to incentivize both the applicant and the neighbors to kind of work it out, but what I don’t want to do is hold new business hostage to prior business in a given industrial zone,” said Commissioner Shawn Landres.

To add accountability, Landres suggested adding a condition to the permit approval requiring that after a year Wag Hotels must provide a report to the Planning Commission demonstrating compliance with all terms of its permit, including noise mitigation, in order to retain it.

“I want to say very clearly, as we saw in the staff report, Council explicitly exempted applications that were in the pipeline as of a certain date when it moved to restrict the production of commercial uses on unavailable properties,” said Commissioner Shawn Landres. “So I too wish this was housing, it is a great site for housing. But I don’t feel in the context of a quasi-judicial hearing that we can refuse to certify the EIR or refuse to approve a project given the council has clearly made policy on this matter.”

Commissioner Shawn Landres was momentarily worried that schools and daycares would be excluded from opening up on Wilshire. However, while Santa Monica’s zoning ordinance says that a dispensary can’t open 500 feet from a school, daycare or church, these businesses can open 500 feet from an existing dispensary.

Commission Chair Shawn Landres said that he’d like to see the city approve a law that would allow three similarly sized units one lot.

“So I think we need to find a way over the next year or so to develop that ordinance that we started talking about earlier tonight. It’s clear that we’re not going to get there by June 15 for Council,” he said, “but I think the work needs to start now.”

…Landres said it’s important to distinguish between equity and access and affordability.

“I’m not trying to solve an affordability problem. I want to be really clear about that … I’m talking about providing a pathway to multiple units on current single-family zoned sites but I’m not ready to do it for June 15,” Landres said. “We’re not there yet, but I don’t think we can leave this untouched. I think history demands that we start this conversation.”