City Council Talks Trucks, Night Clubs And Old Houses 

   At its meeting last night, in a matter of minutes the Santa Monica City Council authorized the purchase of several trucks, adopted a Youth Employment Plan for projects funded under the Los Angeles County Safe Neighborhood Parks Propositions of 1992 and 1996, and authorized the City Manager to negotiate a multi-year with Harris and Company in the amount of $175,000 for construction mitigation, public outreach and liaison services in conjunction with the Transit Mall, Fourth Street improvements and Street Resurfacing construction projects. It then moved on to more complex issues. 
   After a two-hour discussion of Yankee Doodles' appeal of a Planning Commission denial of a Conditional Use Permit to allow it to create a nightclub with a bar and dance floor, the Council voted to remand the question to the Planning Commission.
   The Council then took up the fate of the 600-square-foot shotgun house at 2712 Second Street -- which has been at issue since February, 1999. Built about 100 years ago, the house is a landmark of a kind as it is one of the few remaining 19th century beach cottages in Ocean Park. 
   The owner of the property wants to raze it or move it in order to build a larger, more suitable house for his family on the lot. City staff recommended that the Council certify the final Environmental Impact Report and adopt a Statement of Overriding Considerations for the demolition of the structure. Ocean Park Community Organization (OPCO) and the Church at Ocean Park both appealed the staff recommendation as they want old house preserved. Rick Laudati, co-chair of OPCO, was critical of the staff's handling of the matter, alleging that there were several people who might be willing to buy the house and several sites to which it might be moved and preserved as a landmark, but that staff failed to fully explore the matter. 
   After an extended discussion, during which Mayor Ken Genser and Council member Richard Bloom supported the notion of the City's moving the house to another site or storing it until a site and use could be found for it, the Council voted, 5 to 2, to deny the appeals and accept the staff recommendation that the house be demolished -- with the proviso that demolition be delayed 45 days so that the house could be photographed and documented. 
   The Council also voted 4 to 2 to adopt an ordinance suspending Santa Monica's ordinance controlling ATM surcharges until the City's appeal of a court ruling invalidating the ordinance is heard. 
When the Mirror went to press, the Council was still talking.