City Council
Report
City Council Meeting: September 8, 2026
Agenda Item: 4.K
1 of 8
To: Mayor and City Council
From: Oliver Chi, City Manager, Office of Economic Development Subject: Authorization to enter into Concession Agreement with Santa Monica Trapeze School for Concessionaire and Recreation Services at Clover Park Recommended Action
Staff recommends that City Council:
1. Adopt finding of categorical exemption pursuant to Sections 15303, 15332, and 15061(b)(3) of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines.
2. Authorize the City Manager to execute a Concession Agreement with Santa Monica Trapeze School (SMTS) to provide concession and recreation services at Clover Park for five years, with one additional five-year renewal option.
Summary
On January 27, 2026, City Council adopted the City’s 2025 Parks and Recreation Vision Plan (“Vision Plan”), which provides a long-term framework for enhancing Santa Monica’s parks through expanded recreational programming, amenities, social connection, and creative approaches to activating the City’s open space network. Action
1.4.2 of the Vision Plan calls for identifying opportunities to integrate food and beverage concessions within parks.
Consistent with this direction, the proposed incorporation of the Santa Monica Trapeze School at Clover Park would introduce a distinctive recreational service while creating an opportunity for complementary concessionaire services offering drinks and snacks to park users. Together, these uses would support the Vision Plan’s goals of fostering an inclusive, active, and socially connected park system by expanding recreational 2 of 8
opportunities, enhancing visitor-serving amenities, and improving the overall experience for park users.
The City is also pursuing complementary concession opportunities at other park and beach facilities, including a planned revitalization of the Camera Obscura in Palisades Park for conversion to a park concession, anticipated to open by summer 2027, along with additional concession offerings at the Annenberg Community Beach Club.
Discussion
The City’s 2025 Parks and Recreation Vision Plan is intended to:
• Respond to current physical conditions, community needs, values, and opportunities.
• Advance the overarching "City as Habitat" vision, which views parks and open space as places that support people, recreation, arts, nature, climate resilience, and community well-being.
• Identify actions and strategies for improving existing parks, expanding recreational opportunities, increasing access and amenities, strengthening social connections, and improving environmental sustainability and resilience. • Establish a framework for how the City's park network can evolve and adapt over time, rather than prescribing specific projects that must occur. • Guide long-term investment in the City’s parks and recreation system over the next 20 years.
Located at 2600 Ocean Park Boulevard, Clover Park is one of the City's largest neighborhood parks, encompassing approximately 18 acres in the Sunset Park neighborhood. The park serves as a recreational destination for residents and visitors of all ages. Existing facilities include lighted baseball and softball fields, soccer fields, tennis courts (with striped pickleball courts), a basketball court, sand volleyball court, two children's playgrounds, a par fitness course, expansive open lawn areas, walking paths, reservable picnic and barbecue areas, public restrooms, and a surface parking 3 of 8
lot. The park also hosts community events, youth sports, fitness classes, and other organized recreational programming throughout the year.
The park’s amenities do not include a café, snack bar, concession stand, or other permanent food service operation where park users can purchase refreshments or light meals. As a result, visitors participating in youth sports, community events, fitness programs, or extended recreational activities must leave the park to obtain food and beverages or bring their own. The absence of an on-site concessionaire represents a gap in the park's amenities and an opportunity to enhance the overall visitor experience by providing convenient food and beverage services that complement the park's existing recreational uses.
The relocation of the Santa Monica Trapeze School (“SMTS”) to Clover Park presents a unique opportunity to advance the Parks and Recreation Vision Plan by introducing a distinctive recreational amenity accompanied by ancillary food and beverage services, thereby enriching the park’s overall functionality and visitor experience. The proposed concession agreement does not sell or transfer any portion of Clover Park. The City is adding an amenity, not removing the park from public use.
The Operator
The SMTS, winner of the “Most Loved Santa Monica Business” award, is a popular community attraction with a long history in Santa Monica. Operating for nearly two decades, the school offers aerial arts instruction, youth programming, camps, birthday parties, corporate team-building events, and community performances that attract both residents and visitors. Its presence introduces a new recreational use that broadens the park's programming while generating additional park activity throughout the week. This increased visitation creates a strong foundation for complementary concessionaire activations, such as a café, coffee kiosk, healthy grab-and-go food vendor, or seasonal concession stand, that would serve trapeze school participants, families attending youth sporting events, park users, and spectators alike.
Together, these uses have the potential to transform Clover Park into a more active, family-oriented destination by enhancing visitor amenities, encouraging longer stays, and creating a more complete park experience without altering the park's primary recreational character.
4 of 8
As the City continues to implement the broader vision for the Santa Monica Airport conversion, the combination of the SMTS and future concessionaire opportunities at Clover Park can serve as a catalyst for activating this portion of the Airport Campus.
These complementary uses support the City's goals of expanding recreational programming, increasing public enjoyment of park facilities, and providing convenient visitor-serving amenities while preserving Clover Park as an accessible, communityfocused recreational asset.
Relocation to Clover Park
Since 2008, the Trapeze School operated at the Santa Monica Pier as a well-regarded recreational attraction and unique component of the Pier's mix of uses. Recognizing the Trapeze School's nearly two decades of service to the community and its value as a unique recreational amenity, Pier stakeholders and City leadership provided staff with the following direction:
• On March 18, 2024, the Pier Corporation Board requested the City’s Economic Development Division actively work with the SMTS to identify potential relocation sites within the City.
• On May 28, 2025, Councilmembers emphasized the importance of preserving the SMTS in Santa Monica and directed staff to proactively work with the operator to secure a suitable new location on city-owned property. The School is currently operating under a short-term license agreement at Santa Monica Airport.
Concession Agreement for Clover Park
The anticipated concession agreement with SMTS will propose the following terms and conditions.
• Premises: The license area where SMTS will operate is contemplated to be where the City’s former Public Works office trailers reside.
5 of 8
It is necessary to remove the trailers as they cannot be rehabilitated due to significant moisture intrusion issues. The opportunity to relocate the SMTS to this location is ideal because the site improvements are nominal. The school would be responsible for obtaining all necessary permits and preparing the site for its requirements.
• Site Improvements and Equipment: The site improvements would include a smallscale, mobile or temporary concession equipment, such as a food or beverage cart, kiosk, trailer, or similar facility, to provide drinks, snacks, and other refreshments to park users. The proposed equipment and infrastructure improvements associated with the SMTS would include specialized trapeze and aerial arts equipment, including freestanding aerial rigs, trapeze platforms, aerial apparatus, safety nets, and associated rigging and safety equipment. Ancillary improvements may include lighting, shade structures, fencing, storage, and other minor improvements necessary to support the SMTS’s operations. SMTS would be responsible for obtaining all required permits and approvals and for preparing the site to accommodate its equipment and operational requirements. Any permanent or semi- 6 of 8
permanent improvements associated with the concession operation would be limited in scale and subject to the City's applicable permitting and approval requirements. • Terms:
o 5-yr Term plus one option to extend by an additional 5 years o $4,000 monthly base license fee
o $5,000 security deposit
o 8% Percentage Sales share of concession sales (beverage, snacks and merchandise sales)
o $170,000 investment for startup costs
o Hours of operation: 8am – 10pm
• Community Benefit: SMTS will leverage existing relationships with schools, community groups, and after school programs to offer exclusive discounts for organizations that serve the youth. As an initial community benefit, SMTS has committed to offering one free class each month as a community open house, open to all ages with a focus on youth, and serving up to 35 participants per class.
Environmental Review
The proposed concession agreement is exempt from California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to Section 15303 (New Construction or Conversion of Small Structures), Section 15332 (Infill Projects), and Section 15061(b)(3) (Common Sense Exemption) of the CEQA Guidelines. Section 15303 exempts the construction and location of limited numbers of new, small facilities or structures; installation of small new equipment and facilities in small structures; and the conversion of existing small structures from one use to another where only minor modifications are made in the exterior of the structure. The agreement would allow for the construction of the trapeze and rigging system, which are small structures consistent with Section 15303.
Therefore, the agreement for the trapeze school is exempt pursuant to Section 15303.
Section 15332 exempts projects characterized as in-fill development so long as the meet the following conditions:
7 of 8
• Project is consistent with the applicable general plan designation and all applicable general plan policies as well as with applicable zoning designation and regulations. • Proposed development occurs within city limits on a project site of no more than five acres substantially surrounded by urban uses.
• Project site has no value as habitat for endangered, rare or threatened species. • Approval of the project would not result in any significant effects relating to traffic, noise, air quality, or water quality.
• Site can be adequately served by all required utilities and public services.
The trapeze school is consistent with applicable general plan policies and zoning designations and regulations. Additionally, the site is within Santa Monica city limits, less than five acres in size, surrounded by urban uses, has no value as habitat for endangered, rare or threatened species. The site can be adequately served by all required utilities and public services, and given the nature of the trapeze school use, there would be no significant impacts to traffic, noise, air quality, or water quality.
Accordingly, the agreement for the trapeze school is exempt pursuant to Section 15332.
Lastly, the agreement with SMTS is exempt from CEQA pursuant to Section 15061(b)(3) which states that CEQA does not apply, “where it can be seen with certainty that there is no possibility that the activity in question may have a significant effect on the environment.” The Trapeze School already operates in Santa Monica previously at the Santa Monica Pier, and its relocation to Clover Park would not result in significant physical changes to the environment given its size, location, and scope.
Therefore, it can be seen with certainty that the agreement would not result in a direct or reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change to the environment, and as such, is exempt from CEQA.
Past Council Actions
Meeting Date Description
8 of 8
Attachment A Adoption of 2025 Parks and Recreation Vision Plan (1/27/2026)
Attachment B Approval of License Agreement with Santa Monica Amusement for 370 Santa Monica Pier (5/28/2024)
Financial Impacts and Budget Actions
The recommended action is estimated to result in an increase of $48,000 in base concession fees, annually to the General Fund. If approved, the revenue adjustments will be included in the FY 2026-27 midyear budget adjustment that will be proposed for adoption in the fall.
Prepared By: Nia Tang, Economic Development Administrator Approved Forwarded to Council
Attachments:
A. Attachment A: Adoption of 2025 Parks and Recreation Vision Plan (Web Link) B. Attachment B: Approval of License Agreement with Santa Monica Amusement for 370 Santa Monica Pier (Web Link)
C. Levine Act Disclosure Form (SMTS)
D. Oaks Initiative Form (SMTS)
E. Written Comments