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Once again, Mayor Bobby Shriver and his  City Council colleagues  divided  sharply on fundamental issues.

During a discussion of a proposed development agreement with Agensys, a biotech company,  at last Tuesday’s Council  meeting,  Shriver criticized both the staff report and company officials’ answers to several questions, and  subsequently cast the sole vote against approving the agreement.

Agensys, which currently has three separate facilities in Santa Monica, wants to consolidate its operations in a 153,000 sq. ft. building to be located at 1800 Stewart Street, just south of Olympic. The site is owned by the City, and leased to Lionstone, a Texas real estate investment firm. Agensys is buying Lionstone’s 20-year lease.

Shriver said it was impossible to accurately assess the long-term value of   the parcel to the City, and asked Agensys   attorney Dale Goldsmith what the company was paying  Lionstone for the 20-year lease.

Goldsmith said, “I’m not at liberty to say.”

Agensys’ response to Shriver’s questions about jobs for residents was equally vague. Officials wouldn’t commit to hiring even one resident, suggesting that  even janitors would need advanced degrees, Neither would the company commit to holding periodic job fairs, though officials did agree to setting up student intern programs.

As with all development agreements, Agensys was required to provide substantial “public benefits” to the City.  Among the benefits Agensys proposed were a “pedestrian path, pedestrian café (lunch only), 5,100-square-foot public open space, widened sidewalk on Stewart Street, a traffic demand management program, sculpture garden, a job fair and an internship program.” It also offered a $90,000 grant for “bicycle path infrastructure” and “analysis,” but refused to allow a bike path through its property.

Shriver criticized City staff for failing to provide details of the Agensys-Lionstone transaction, as well as not incorporating all of the Council’s requests in the agreement.

He also criticized Agensys for expecting special handling. “With all due respect to that laudable goal, I don’t think it’s fair to come to your partner in the deal, which is what we are since we own the land, and say, ‘Because we’re curing cancer and you’re not, you should give us all the money, which is effectively what is being said to us.”

A number of bicycle advocates, who had pushed for the bike path, as a vital link in a bike path network, accused the City of talking about the need for such a network, but not doing anything.
The Council’s leading bike path advocate, Kevin McKeown said it was a “good compromise.”
Ignoring the cyclists, other Council members rushed to put as much distance as they could between  themselves and Shriver – without leaving the dias.

Richard Bloom said this “world class” company would bring prestige to Santa Monica and the region. Other communities would be fighting and “falling over one another” to attract this sort of company.
While Gleam Davis said Agensys could spark the addition of other biotechnology companies, adding another strand to “our diverse economy.”

The development agreement will have its second reading at next Tuesday’s Council meeting.