Pacific Landing Provides Energy-Efficient Affordable Housing in Santa Monica, California

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Pacific Landing Provides Energy-Efficient Affordable Housing in Santa Monica, California

 

Pacific Landing is a 37-unit affordable housing development in Santa Monica, California, approximately 13 miles west of downtown Los Angeles. Developed in 2022 by the Community Corporation of Santa Monica (Community Corp.) as part of the organization’s ongoing effort to create affordable housing in this high-end market, Pacific Landing’s sustainable features and energy-efficient design earned the development Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). In 2024, Pacific Landing also received an American Institute of Architects COTE Top Ten Award for excellence in sustainable design.

Local Development Context

Santa Monica, like much of Los Angeles County, has a shortage of affordable housing for low- and moderate-income residents — the city’s average monthly rent is approximately $3,200. More than one-half of Los Angeles County households spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing costs. Since its inception in 1982, Community Corp. has supported the construction or rehabilitation of more than 2,000 affordable housing units throughout the city. In 2018, Community Corp. used city funds to acquire a former gas station site near downtown to develop Pacific Landing. There were no leaky tanks and only a small amount of contaminated soil on the site, requiring minor environmental remediation.

Construction began in March 2020 but was quickly interrupted by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to limiting the construction team’s ability to work onsite, the pandemic significantly reduced tourism-dependent Santa Monica’s tax revenues, leading to a furlough of many city employees. The shortage of building inspectors and other municipal staff further delayed the development process. Pacific Landing finally opened in the summer of 2022.

Pacific Landing

Pacific Landing’s 37 apartments serve households earning between 30 and 80 percent of the area median income. Residents who already live or work in Santa Monica are given preference for these apartments. Ten of the units have three bedrooms, and eight have two bedrooms. The units have windows facing a central communal courtyard. Other amenities include a rooftop terrace, a children’s playground, and underground parking spaces.

In addition, a ground-level coffeeshop is slated to open in 2025. According to Tara Barauskas, the executive director of the Community Corp., including the coffeeshop helped satisfy neighborhood residents who initially opposed the development. Community Corp. is leasing the space to the coffeeshop at below-market rates. Barauskas explained that this arrangement both adds an asset to the community and supports a small, minority-owned business.

Pacific Landing is centrally located on Lincoln Boulevard, near restaurants, grocery stores, drugstores, parks, and schools. The development is approximately a mile from downtown Santa Monica and its many shops and restaurants as well as the beach and Santa Monica Pier. The nearby Metro E Line light rail station offers frequent service to downtown Los Angeles.

A Sustainable Development

Because of its innovative design and energy-efficient features, Pacific Landing received LEED Platinum certification from USGBC, the organization’s highest designation for green building practices. The all-electric project features a demand-activated central water-heating pump and a high-efficiency split system for heating and cooling. The rooftop solar photovoltaic system offsets approximately 37 percent of the site’s electrical demand.

In addition, the structure’s highly insulated building envelope reduces demand for cooling and heating, and its high-performing windows prevent thermal transfer, which also keeps the building cooler. The insulation includes some recycled content, and all the aggregate for the concrete and the foundation was locally sourced, reducing transportation-related carbon emissions. The roof, which has been certified by the Cool Roof Rating Council, has a high rate of solar reflectance, meaning that it reflects solar energy back into the atmosphere efficiently. This design significantly reduces the urban heat island effect.

Similar to other buildings with LEED Platinum-certification, Pacific Landing includes water-conserving features such as low-flow showers, sinks, and toilets as well as ENERGY STAR®-qualified washing machines.

The development’s compact design and proximity to services, transit, and open park space allow residents to make many of their daily trips without a car. Walk Score brands Pacific Landing as a "walker’s paradise" and a "biker’s paradise," with walking and biking scores of 91 and 92 out of 100, respectively. Collectively, these features are expected to result in the property requiring roughly 44 percent less energy than an otherwise similar code-compliant building.

Funding

The city of Santa Monica supplied a significant portion of the approximately $33 million development cost for Pacific Landing (table 1). In addition to covering the purchase of the land, the city gave Community Corp. a low-interest loan from its Housing Trust Fund. This fund, capitalized by developer impact and in-lieu fees, supports the acquisition, construction, and rehabilitation costs for housing affordable to households earning no more than 60 percent of the area median income. Additional funding came from low-income housing tax credit equity and a bank loan.

Moving Forward With Sustainable Affordable Housing

"Community Corp. measures success by whether our residents are happy," Barauskas said. "In speaking with residents at Pacific Landing, they are thrilled to live in a new, high quality, beautifully designed building in Santa Monica." Since Pacific Landing’s opening, Community Corp. has constructed other sustainable affordable housing developments nearby. Furthermore, as of October 2024, the company is developing several similar projects in the city, including a project using modular construction methods. Collectively, these proposed developments will have more than 150 units. The city continues to support Community Corp. and other affordable housing developers through its Housing Trust Fund and the use of city-owned land. In addition to providing needed affordable housing, these projects are helping the city reach its 2030 goal of reducing carbon emissions in the community by 80 percent of 1990 levels.