Marking its centennial in the community, the Santa Monica Airport received approval from the Santa Monica City Council in January 2023 for a public visioning process to decide its future. Spanning 227 acres, the airport constitutes nearly 5% of the city's land area. Apart from providing aviation services, the airport currently hosts a variety of businesses such as art studios, office spaces, event venues, and a restaurant. It is also home to Santa Monica College’s Airport Campus housing the Ceramics Program and the Mentor Arts Program.
Today's efforts are the result of an initiative in 2014 whereby Santa Monica voters overwhelmingly (60.45%) approved a ballot initiative to cease aviation and development activities and essentially close the airport permanently in 2028. Since that vote 10 years ago Santa Monica residents have been advocating for a project that can be utilized by the entire community and create much needed green space to become a fully functioning park with both unprogrammed outdoor areas and multi-purpose recreational facilities.
The primary objective of this project is to align with community goals and priorities that address needs for both present and future generations. Sasaki & Associates is leading technical and design aspects of the project while The Robert Group (TRG) is leading public outreach and community engagement activities.
In early 2025, the team commenced outreach efforts and a strategy aimed at supporting and motivating public and community engagement for the City of Santa Monica. TRG and Sasaki addressed potential challenges, proposed approaches to overcome these challenges, and facilitated community input at various public events throughout the City.
TRG established project milestones to guide outreach efforts. In order to appropriately serve such a dynamic project, emphasis will be placed on leveraging successful virtual and in-person outreach approaches. TRG’s outreach aimed to effectively notify, educate, and engage Santa Monica residents and stakeholders as well as to solicit and collect feedback utilizing a variety of feedback tools and exercises. TRG also supported website and survey development for the project, assisted with walking tours of the project site, and co-lead community events, workshops, pop-up events, and focus groups.
TRG has helped the Santa Monica Airport Conversion Project collect vital data from the broadest range of participants so that subsequent phases reflect a project demonstrating Santa Monica's best possible future.
Since the initial two years of public outreach and engagement, a Framework Diagram was drafted to provide residents with the first real look at what a park would look like. Currently, Phase 3B (Defining the Future of Place: Framework Diagram) has begun on March 30, 2026 with the launch of a survey. This survey will last until April 26, 2026 and allows residents to submit feedback on the project so far.
