To the Editor:

There is a controversy brewing that may be illuminated at the Landmark Commission meeting at 7:00 PM Monday January 12 at City Hall. The Commission will decide whether to designate the 47 unit apartment complex at 301 Ocean Avenue as a city landmark amid complaints of abusive and possibly illegal gag orders on the part of a developer that wants to demolish the structure that was the home of Clo Hoover, Santa Monica’s first woman mayor, and replace it with 29 luxury condominiums. A larger question that may come to light is whether Santa Monica is now going to shift directions because of the monetary influence of well-financed out-of-state developers and become the West Coast version of Miami Beach as is envisioned by some developers, and whether they can block the transparency of public affairs by deterring public participation in meetings and hearings.

The Commission initiated the landmark application in June 2008. The structure was built in 1952 by Clo Hoover who became Santa Monica’s first woman mayor and second woman councilperson and was her residence from 1952 until her death in 1997. The application first became controversial with many residents of the North of Montana neighborhood who believe that the new development will be out of scale and out of character with the rest of the neighborhood. Texas-based developer Trammel-Crow has verbally announced their plan to build 29 luxury condominiums in the $5 Million to $7 Million price range but has not yet filed any actual plans with Planning Commission.

Trammel-Crow is evicting tenants using the California Ellis Act with the justification that the landlord is removing the units from the rental market. Trammel-Crow became involved in April 2007 when a Delaware corporation named 301 Ocean Development, LLC bought the property from San Vicente LLP who had purchased it from the Hoover’s 301 Ocean Avenue Corporation in 2002. The details of ownership in 301 Ocean Development, LLC are murky. Trammel-Crow is fighting the landmark designation and has employed tactics that outraged much of the community. In January of 2008, they and the Planning Commission co-hosted a “design review” meeting at the Ken Edwards Senior Center. The location of that meeting is ironic because the tenants suffering the most hardship in the evictions are seniors. Community members in attendance report that Trammel-Crow representatives arrogantly asserted that the project was going ahead and that opposition was futile. They circulated “enhanced move-out” offers with a clause preventing the tenant from participating in any public hearings or engaging in any activities in opposition of the development at 301 Ocean Avenue or any other development the owner has in the city. Deputy City Attorney Gary Rhoades has reviewed the document and in December 2008 wrote to Trammel-Crow that the gag order may be in violation of the Civil Code and the Business and Professions Code and expressed other concerns about the developer’s activities to discourage public participation in city meetings and hearings.

Grassroots sentiment in favor the landmark designation has grown throughout the neighborhood with residents of the apartments on San Vicente Boulevard from Ocean Avenue and Seventh Street being especially active. They are concerned that if developers get their way San Vicente Boulevard will be developed with a series of high rise apartments similar to Wilshire Boulevard in Westwood.

Clo Hoover became prominent in Santa Monica politics in the early 1950’s when she used her popularity as a volunteer in numerous health and welfare oriented causes including Red Cross, American Hospital Association Council, Cancer Society, Heart Association and March of Dimes to vocally oppose plans to drill for oil in Santa Monica Bay and in the City of Santa Monica. That platform got her elected to Santa Monica City Council in 1961 becoming the second woman to serve in that capacity. During the 1960’s and 1970’s there were a series of circumstances that have been the foundation of modern Santa Monica history and Clo Hoover was the public guardian widely credited with preventing some man-made ecological and environmental tragedies. For example, she began as the sole opposition to the destruction of Santa Monica’s iconic piers and the construction of a 16 acre island in the bay and was in the minority opposing the construction of an eight mile long causeway from the Santa Monica Freeway to Malibu. If any one of these plans had materialized we would be living in a totally different city. Academic historians at several major universities have agreed that there is no doubt that Clo Hoover is an historic personage who made significant contributions to Santa Monica history and to the history of the region.

/s/ Dish Taylor
/s/ Ty Wapato