Development Agreements for major projects are high-stakes negotiations.  Representing our community well requires as much information as possible.

The Hines project, originally almost a million square feet astride one of Santa Monica’s worst traffic bottlenecks, is the perfect case in point.

My Council colleagues, in a six to one vote, let this project go forward without even a DRAFT environmental impact report.  Here, I make the case to wait until we have more information.

This was not the first time this project caused controversy.  When it first surfaced, there were accusations that the developer’s generous campaign contributions -- over $50,000 to five of my colleagues’ political campaigns -- had undue influence.  You can see more on that here.

The “master plan” I mention in the video is a federally-funded study, with support from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Transportation.  It’s supposed  to assess the cumulative impacts of multiple developments in the Bergamot area.  Why are we moving forward BEFORE we know the results of the federal study?