About 40 people turned out for the monthly meeting of the Wilshire-Montana Neighborhood Coalition (WILMONT) on Monday night at the Ken Edwards Center.

Two candidates for the open City Council seats in the November election – Robert Seldon, a lawyer, and John Smith, a television news producer – also attended the meeting.

Coalition members discussed various ways and means of resolving the questions raised by the annual election in June for seats on the board, and then-board chair Valerie Griffin’s refusal to acknowledge the vote or the results, but came to no conclusion.

Griffin attended the meeting, but spent much of the evening sitting in the hall.

Most of the meeting was devoted to a discussion of the City policies, projects and plans that Wilmont residents believe should be heard and addressed by the City Council and staff in this election season.

Among the problems that are on the minds of the people who inhabit the most densely populated residential neighborhood in Santa Monica are: preserving the main Post Office at Fifth and Arizona, which the Postal Service wants to close; traffic congestion and bicycle access; the impact on residents of the proposed expansion of the landmark office building at Seventh Street and Wilshire into a hotel with
nearly 300 rooms; and the chronic parking shortage in the neighborhood caused by restaurant and store employees monopolizing street parking, leaving little space for residents and their visitors.

They also had some colorful things to say about the new “smart” parking meters.

Like many other residents, the Wilmont residents have serious questions about the City’s planning process and goals. They fear that the proposed Miramar expansion with its two massive condo towers on Ocean Avenue will be the “tipping point” for large high rise developments along the shoreline, that willturn their cherished beach town into Miami.

They also believe that before the LUCE is translated into the zoning code it should be refined and modified by residents, and, in the belief that Development Agreements routinely promise “benefits” they never deliver, as with St. John’s unbuilt underground parking garage, they would like to inject some muscle into the process. And they would like the City to be far more forthcoming about its budget – the sources and uses of revenue.

Finally, in concert with residents all over Santa Monica, the Wilmont residents would like the City to fully inform them about local and city events, and they want to work with city leaders on Wilmont issues.