At the Santa Monica City Council’s budget workshop earlier this month, council members expressed a desire for the city to take a more active role in supporting economic opportunity and growth. This was one of the three budget priorities adopted that day.
Unmaintained vacant properties, especially ground-floor properties in commercial districts and corridors, create a nuisance and a drag on street life and the vitality of neighboring businesses. While Santa Monica was once a leader in managing such drags, the city has struggled to address this issue systematically since the Pandemic. However, it can look to other cities in California for established models of effective programs to curb the effect of unmaintained vacant properties on blight and quality of life.
In a report on vacant properties, researchers at the International City/County Management Association note how vacant properties can contribute to a perception of disorder in public space. The “Broken Windows Theory,” a literal term for neglected vacant properties, explains how visible signs of neglect, like broken windows and untended properties, can signal to the community that no one cares. This can lead to a cycle of decline, where residents feel unsafe, businesses are reluctant to invest, and the community deteriorates. All while long-time commercial property owners reap tax breaks.
Santa Monica’s Laws for Property Neglect
Santa Monica has, and used to more actively enforce, several ordinances to address this cycle of decline:
| Code Section | Violation and Fines |
| Section 5.08.070 (Failure to Clean Adjacent Sidewalk) | Neglecting to keep the sidewalk in front of a house, place of business, or premises in a clean and wholesome condition. The fine per violation is $250. |
| Section 5.08.080 (Failure to Maintain Clean Premise) | This section states that no person owning, leasing, acting as agent for, or occupying any premises shall permit any accumulation of manure, garbage, offal, rubbish, stagnant water, or filthy or offensive matter of any kind to be or remain upon such premises. They must keep the premises in a clean and wholesome condition. The fine per violation is $500. |
| Section 5.08.300 | This section specifically addresses vacant buildings. It states that all vacant buildings shall be kept clean and secure to not create a fire hazard or a menace to public health, safety, or welfare. All openings to such buildings must be kept closed and secured against entry. No fine is specified for violations of this section. |
| Section 5.08.700 (Maintenance of private property) | This section requires that all private property, including buildings and grounds, be maintained clean, safe, sanitary, and orderly. This includes but is not limited to, the maintenance of exterior walls, roofs, foundations, sidewalks, driveways, parking areas, fences, and landscaping. No fine is specified for violations of this section. |
| Section 9.61.180 | Prohibits off-premises signs and miscellaneous signs and posters affixed to the wall of a building and visible from a public right of way. The fine per violation is $250. |
| Section 1.09 (Administrative Citations and Penalties) | This chapter outlines the procedures for issuing administrative citations for violations of the Municipal Code. If a vacant retail property is not maintained according to the standards set in sections like 5.08.080, 5.08.300, or 5.08.700, the City could issue citations to the property owner. Section 1.09.150 also states that the property owner who has received a citation cannot sell or transfer the property until the citation is complied with or the new owner acknowledges the responsibility for the required corrections. |
| Section 2.28.010 | This section indicates that the City Manager is responsible for enforcing City ordinances and may delegate this authority. This means various city departments could be involved in enforcing the maintenance standards for vacant retail properties. |
Despite the many vacant properties around town that are unmaintained or have unclean sidewalks, Santa Monica is not raking in fines. My column on the lack of resolution for my own 311 requests illustrates that, from personal experience, the city is either overwhelmed, unwilling, or unable to enforce many of these sections.
The City of Santa Monica reports that in 2023-24, it opened 1,942 code enforcement cases and closed 1,676. Code enforcement cases include property neglect and dozens of other types of violations, including a business using plastic straws, keeping goats without a permit, or driving a Cybertruck on city streets. However, I could not find data from previous years to understand trends in code enforcement.
While the city does not publish historical data on code enforcement cases and their resolution, the city budget does list revenues from fines that result from code enforcement activities. Many years of data are missing because of changes in how the city reported financial data in the early years of COVID-19.
| Actual | Budgeted | |
| 2024-25 | $237,946 | |
| 2023-24 | $220,320 | |
| 2022-23 | $204,000 | |
| 2021-22 | $137,275 | $186,000 |
| 2020-21 | $137,339 | $240,000 |
| 2019-20 | $217,986 | |
| 2018-19 | $309,338 | $256,989 |
| 2017-18 | $255,057 | |
| 2016-17 | $250,000 | |
| 2015-16 | $314,569 | $360,000 |
| 2014-15 | $196,810 | $251,414 |
| 2013-14 | $238,593 | $240,000 |
| 2012-13 | $219,168 | $159,100 |
| 2011-12 | $92,228 | $159,000 |
| 2010-11 | $160,878 | $130,000 |
| 2009-10 | $165,149 | $95,000 |
| 2008-09 | $131,613 | $171,000 |
A Model for Santa Monica: West Hollywood and San Diego
Santa Monica can go a few miles east on Santa Monica Boulevard to find an example of a program designed to make vacancies less of a drag on the city. West Hollywood has a vacant property registration program, which includes an escalating fee scale for properties that are not code-compliant. Upon registration, West Hollywood code enforcement officers and law enforcement officers inspect vacant properties and assign each property one of four designations based on the degree of maintenance and level of nuisance: stable, at-risk, problematic, and failed. A stable property pays $740 per year in fees. At-risk properties pay $4,440 per year in fees. Problematic properties pay $8,800 per year in fees. Failed properties pay the highest amount, $26,640 per year in fees.
For 2024-25, West Hollywood budgeted $3.7M for their Neighborhood and Business Safety office, which includes code enforcement officers. West Hollywood has 12 FTE positions with code enforcement in their title. West Hollywood includes performance measures in their budget and is planning 9,000 requests for code enforcement services, with 50% responded to within 24 hours. It expects to open 1,100 code enforcement cases due to noncompliance and an additional 250 vacant property service requests.
For 2024-25, Santa Monica budgeted $4.6 million for code enforcement and has 17 FTE positions with code enforcement in the title. The city expects all code enforcement activities to generate $509,869 in annual revenues, which includes transfers from beach parking fees to fund one code enforcement officer assigned to the beach. However, the city does not publish targets for response to requests for code enforcement.
For more complex cases, the City Attorney’s office may become involved. The City of San Diego has established a highly regarded Nuisance Abatement Unit (NAU) within the City Attorney’s Office. This unit has an explicit focus on quality-of-life issues. It addresses a wide range of issues, including public nuisances that negatively impact neighborhoods (such as drug activity, prostitution, and transient populations), housing violations, building code violations, zoning violations, and problems associated with abandoned and vacant structures.
The most effective policy is one that encourages the occupancy of vacant commercial property, particularly retail spaces. However, some landlords would rather wait for higher rents than do this, and a vacancy registration program with escalating fees creates an additional cost for these landlords. In correcting these violations, Santa Monica could contract with a non-profit like Chrysalis Enterprises that employs people experiencing homelessness or returning to the workforce from incarceration.
Some readers will have expected me to bring up the disorder of people living on Santa Monica’s streets in this column. While many people living on the street aren’t violating any codes, the solutions for cleaning up multi-million dollar commercial properties are much more straightforward than any intervention for someone whose living situation is primarily due to poverty.
