Pre-Application Review

On September 26, members of the church's building committee met with representativesof various Santa Monica city departments for a pre-aplication review meeting.Each city staff member reviewed the potential issues from their department'spoint of view. It is still too early in the process to evaluate the city's potentialresponse to our proposed project, but there were some hopeful signs.

The big issue is, of course, parking. One hopeful sign is their indicationthat no new parking spaces would be required for the new classrooms since weare building the same number of classrooms we have now, even though they arelarger. So their initial take on this is that parking will be required onlyfor the increase in office space and the increase in the number of seats inthe sanctuary. They have asked for additional documentation on the exact increasewe anticipate. The committee, with the architect, will be working on this information.

The other good news is that the city staff feels we will not be required toprepare an Enviornmental Impact Report, which would have been time-consumingand expensive. The other items discussed with the city were about various buildingcode and fire department issues, all of which can probably be solved.

There was a brief discussion about the Religious Land Use and InstitutionalizedPersons Act (RLUIPA) laws and the possible effect on our project. The RLUIPApassed by Congress in 2000 benefits churches in their rights to expand facilitiesregarding local zoning restrictions. We have received nothing definitive fromthe city but have gotten some indication that this law may be beneficial inour case, and that it could help us obtain some concessions on the parking demand.

The committee is working with the architect to resolve his contract to completethe design phase through approval by the city. The architect, Ralph Mechur,was once a member of the Santa Monica planning commission and has been veryhelpful in maneuvering through City Hall. The attorney, Chris Harding, is wellknown in the development community of Santa Monica, and has been very generouswith his time in advising the building committee and attending the meeting withthe city. It will still be many months before getting to the planning commission,and knowing just how much or what we will be able to build, but everyone remainshopeful and enthusiastic.

-- David Denton