City Council Set To Approve RAND Project

Hannah Heineman
Mirror contributing writer

   The Santa Monica City Council signaled its intention to approve the RAND Corporation's proposed headquarters replacement project Tuesday night, but, at press time, Council members were still debating certain modifications in RAND's proposal and had not actually given it formal approval. 
   In order for the RAND project to go forward, the Council has pass an ordinance to approve the Development Agreement between the City and RAND which includes all the project specifications proposed by RAND and any modifications, certify the Final Environmental Report (EIR), adopt a Statement of Overriding Considerations, and amend the City Land Use and Circulation Element. 
   The signal came after Mayor Ken Genser showed photos of the Los Angeles Coliseum and said that it was comparable in height, shape and mass and only 100 feet longer than RAND's proposed structure, mass and length and then made a motion that the building be redesigned to be less obtrusive and more compatible with other elements in the Civic Center. The motion failed for lack of a second and each of the other six Council members went on to explain his or her reasons for approving the project -- with some "tweaking" to accommodate changes recommended by Planning staff and the Planning Commission. 
   Earlier in the evening, the Council heard from RAND officials and over 30 residents, almost all of whom urged the Council to approve RAND's plans. 
The proposed 308,856 square foot replacement headquarters would be located on 3.68 acres next to the Pacific Shores Hotel. RAND sold 11.3 acres of its former 15-acre site to the City earlier this year for $53 million. 
   The elliptical building has six stories, stands about 72 feet above street level. "The facility will include research and development office space, an employee cafeteria, corporate libraries, a graduate school, and meeting and conference rooms."
   RAND played a critical role in the development of the Civic Center Specific Plan (CCSP) which was approved by City Council in 1993 and ratified by voters in 1994. The plan must be modified in order to accommodate RAND's office building rather than the much larger development it had originally proposed. .
   The requisite CCSP amendments fall into two categories. The first are related to RAND's decision to locate the new headquarters on Main Street, rather than Ocean Avenue as specified in the CCSP. The second concern the design and uses that RAND has proposed for its project.
   RAND is requesting that the City "expand the type of uses that will be permitted on the [headquarters] site" beyond institutional offices so it would be able, if necessary, to lease out portions of the building to other types of businesses. It is also asking to build the project without the 5,000 square feet of ground floor retail space that was originally specified in the CCSP.
   Another change RAND wants is the elimination of two pedestrian corridors included in the CCSP that would run through the headquarters' interior courtyard to connect Main Street with the CCSP's Village Open Space area. In addition, RAND does not want its proposed 30,000 square foot courtyard to be open to the public as was specified in the CCSP.
   An amendment has been proposed to increase the 750 parking spaces specified in the CCSP to 825-1,030 spaces. RAND also wants to reduce the size of the proposed Main Street Circle from a 95-foot radius designated in the CCSP to a 65-foot radius which would shrink it in size from 0.6 acres to 0.3 acres.
   Plan modifications are also being sought because the proposed headquarters is one story more than the five specified in the CCSP and RAND wants to use tinted glass to increase the energy performance of the building. Use of tinted glass was prohibited in the CCSP.