Resident accuses Santa Monica Mayor Caroline Torosis and City Manager Chi of closed-door Public land deals

A Santa Monica resident is accusing Mayor Caroline Torosis and City Manager Oliver Chi of creating a closed process for disposing of city land, including the airport site after it closes. Public records confirm several closed-door lease talks and surplus-land steps on city property, but they do not show an entity empowered to control all city real estate transactions, and city officials have said Bergamot Station is not being sold.

In a letter submitted to the Santa Monica Observer, resident Harriet Epstein wrote that Torosis and Chi "are setting up a mechanism for Santa Monica to sell off its valuable land holdings without any residents' knowledge or participation." She named Bergamot Station, several parking garages, and the airport as properties at issue, and said a longstanding city rule requiring public hearings and comment on land sales had been replaced by an entity headed by Chi that could buy and sell property and take on debt behind closed doors. She also said the proposal was placed on the consent calendar, which she wrote is reserved for non-controversial items, and urged voters not to re-elect Torosis.

The Observer could not independently confirm creation of such an entity, a repeal of the city's land-sale hearing rules, or placement of that change on a consent calendar. City staff and the mayor were not quoted in the letter.

What is on the public record is narrower.

The City Council on Feb. 25, 2025, declared Bergamot Station Arts Center, the 4th/5th and Arizona sites, and Parking Structure 1 surplus land under the state Surplus Land Act and authorized the city manager to issue notices of availability tied to the city's housing element. The motion, made by then-Mayor Pro Tem Torosis, called for artist housing, a right of return, and relocation help at Bergamot. On Sept. 8, 2026, the council met in closed session with developers over the roughly 5.6-acre Bergamot site. Afterward, City Attorney Heidi von Tongeln said the city was negotiating a long-term lease, not a sale, and that the session continued the 2025 surplus-land process. The Los Angeles Times reported the city has sought proposals that could include more than 700 affordable homes, with gallery space and a right of return for existing tenants.

Separately, a Sept. 22, 2026, special council agenda listed a closed-session conference with a real estate negotiator under Government Code section 54956.8. The city property was listed as 2900 and 3000 Airport Avenue, 3011 Airport Avenue, and 3021 Airport Avenue. Oliver Chi was named city negotiator; the other parties were Larry Serota of Transwestern and Tim Katt of Gradient Holdings. The subject was "price and terms of payment of lease."

The airport itself is scheduled to close at midnight on Dec. 31, 2028, under a 2017 consent decree with the Federal Aviation Administration and City Council Resolution 11026. The city attorney has said no further council vote is required to authorize that closure. The site is about 192 acres, not 215. Measure LC, approved by voters in 2014, limits new development on airport land closed to aviation to parks, public open space, public recreation, and maintenance or replacement of existing cultural, arts, and education uses, unless voters approve other uses. In July 2025 the council directed staff to study a Measure LC-compliant park scenario that does not include housing. In her July 2026 State of the City, Torosis described the post-closure land as a chance for a large public park and said residents would help shape it. A proposed ballot measure that would have allowed up to 3,000 housing units on no more than 25 percent of the site will not appear on the November 2026 ballot.

Chi's October 2025 realignment plan, approved unanimously by the council, also identified possible development of four downtown city properties - the Kiss-and-Ride lot, Parking Structure 1, old Fire Station 1, and 4th/5th/Arizona - as a source of an estimated $100 million to $200 million. That plan was heard as a regular council item, not as a consent-calendar sale of the airport.

Santa Monica's municipal election is Nov. 3, 2026. Torosis is mayor; Chi has been city manager since July 14, 2025.