Put a Little LUVE in Your Heart

Residocracy, the group behind signature gathering for the Land Use Voter Empowerment Initiative, has announced that they believe they have enough signatures from qualified local voters, to qualify for the November 2016 ballot.

Enough signatures is about 6,500, and is based on a percentage of the number of registered voters in Santa Monica at any one time.

Led by Laura Wilson, the group feels that City Hall has been too quick to grant large developers with massive projects, variances or Conditional Use Permits. It would require a vote of the electorate, for any Developer agreements in the future.

LUVE's supporters say the it will require voter approval for major developments, and for Developer Agreements. The City of Santa Monica is famous for signing Developer agreements that promise parks, schools, funding for programs, low income housing, even ice skating rinks-and then the agreements are completely ignored and forgotten by City Hall.

The measure also promises to keep traffic from getting even worse, "protect renters by stopping the gentrification of existing neighborhoods," and eliminate the City's incentive for developers to combine lots, tear down smaller buildings and replace them with larger ones.

"You, as a Santa Monica resident, hold the power to stop the overdevelopment of Santa Monica through the LUVE ballot initiative," said the group in a press release. "While our elected officials have chosen to ignore you as a resident, Residocracy has not. We listened to our Community Network of Residents and heard you when you said that your number one concern is traffic and the overdevelopment of Santa Monica. And as a result, Residocracy is launching the LUVE Ballot Initiative Petition to empower residents to take control of major land use decisions in Santa Monica."