A new specific area plan process in Santa Monica is kicking off next Monday for what is being called the Memorial Park Neighborhood Plan, encompassing the area immediately adjacent Memorial Park and the future Metro station at 17th, with a few extended areas of consideration on connecting corridors. Following the Bergamot Plan and the still debated Downtown Specific Plan, this will be the 3rd area plan to focus around a future rail station.
This area is smaller in scope than the Bergamot Area Plan was, but it’s an important point for future connectivity to the 17th St. Expo station, Memorial Park, Santa Monica College, and the potential Michigan Ave. Neighborhood Greenway corridor. The plan scope also offers potential opportunities to bridge north/south divides in the Pico Neighborhood that remain from the legacy of the freeway build out era. Financing is no certainty for something so ambitious, but a long talked about potential freeway cap from 17th to 14th, extending open space while creating a new way to cross the freeway, is among the considerations, along with smaller projects like new bike and pedestrian bridge access to the Memorial Park, or widening existing bridges to improve such access.
This Monday, 6:30-9:00pm at the Crossroads Community Room, 1715 Olympic Blvd. Santa Monica, CA 90404, is the first workshop (event flyer pdf), and a survey soliciting feedback for what the community would like to see for the plan and the area is live now.
