To: Richard Bloom, Robert Holbrook, Bobby Shriver, Kevin McKeown, Gleam Davis, Terry O’Day, Pam O’Connor, Rod Gould, David Martin, Jing Yeo
From: Gloria E. Garvin, PhD
Re: 7/24/12 Council agenda item 7-E – Village Trailer Park

(1) I’ve lived in Santa Monica on and off my entire adult life and my family has been here since 1903. I own my own home, have rental property and am also an active member of SMRR. I value the sense of community that comes from growing up in Santa Monica. Whatever else it is, it’s home. Yesterday evening at sunset I took a walk through the Village Trailer Park. I love the feeling there because it’s old Santa Monica – the way we were before all the rampant, unbridled development began. To me, it represents the very heart and soul of Santa Monica – there’s a deep sense of sweetness and nostalgia, a friendliness and ease there – it’s the old Santa Monica that attracted my grandparents to come here from Maine at the turn of the last century – the Santa Monica that I want my children and grandchildren to know.

(2) In and of itself, there is great beauty in the Village Trailer Park – it’s historic, irreplaceable, nostalgic, lovely and fragile. Sort of like a very valuable antique. The City Council would be remiss if they were to allow this little community to be bulldozed so that another large development could be constructed. With all the corporate moneyed interests going up all around it, the Village Trailer Park deserves to be preserved with its little homes and its gardens of roses and jasmine, vegetables and flowering vines. If it has to be changed at all, it should be renovated – new trailers should be allowed to come in to occupy the empty pads and additional landscaping and amenities should be added.

(3) As far as I can see there is no obligation whatsoever on the part of the Santa Monica City Council to approve the closure of the Village Trailer Park and allow the proposed development. There is, however, an obligation on the part of the City Council to review alternative options to the proposed development. My understanding is that the developer has not presented a viable alternative to his proposal, and yet the residents of the trailer park have. The City needs to carefully review this alternative plan proposed by the residents of the Village Trailer Park.

(4) The City is not under any obligation to make changes to the zoning code of the Village Trailer Park from residential to an interim status to mixed-use zoning. Under the residential zoning code, the trailer park would stay and the proposed development would not be allowed. If the City Council decides that it is not feasible legally, ethically, morally or in any other way to alter the zoning code in this area, then the heart and soul of old Santa Monica would remain intact and the developer would have to find another swath of land to build on.

(5) Finally, the City Council must know that legally, ethically and morally it is simply not right to take away a person’s home, especially if that person is a senior as I understand is the case with many residents of the Village Trailer Park. The spotlight is on you. National media is paying attention. So please – do the right thing. Don’t close your eyes to the needs of old time Santa Monicans. Don’t close down the trailer park! Keep the Village Trailer Park open and allow it to exist as the heart and soul of old Santa Monica. It makes us all more human.

Gloria Garvin