Santa Monica : Zoning Loophole Corrected

Planning Commission decisions appealed to the City Council will remain in effect even if the council locks in a tie vote or fails to muster four votes to back the commission.

The City Council last week voted 6 to 1, with Councilman Ken Genser voting no, to correct an inadvertent glitch in city zoning laws that would have allowed commission and board decisions to be overturned if at least four council members did not back the decisions.

The glitch was discovered by City Atty. Robert M. Myers after the council tied 3 to 3 on an appeal opposing a condominium project. Myers ruled in August that the vote meant victory for the appellants because, under the law, not enough votes were cast to affirm the Planning Commission’s decision to let the project go ahead.

Concerned that their project was dead, the condominium developer challenged Myers’ opinion, prompting the council to consider correcting the rule.

Myers said the four-vote rule was inadvertently written into a major revision of city zoning laws in 1988.