Dear Culver City: Jubilo Village, The Bottomless Pit

EDITOR'S NOTE: This piece was submitted by a source unaffiliated with Culver Crescent and should not be interpreted as reflecting or confirming the opinion of The Crescent or its writers. Click here to view the full Dear Culver City disclaimer

By Gary Zeiss

When the Jubilo Village project was authorized, there was a commitment made by Community Corporation of Santa Monica (CCSM) not to seek additional funding. I was suspicious at the time and filed a public records request in June and recently received the response. 

Unsurprisingly, additional monies were being sought by CCSM, blaming the Culver-Palms YMCA for their troubles. Apparently, CCSM failed to consult with the YMCA, instead assuming that the parking was CCSM's for the taking. On March 6, 2026, Ms. Barauskas stated the following (in an email to former Planning and Development Director Mark Muenzer and City Manager Odis Jones):

"I also just wanted to share, that due to issues with the YMCA (some of which I mentioned to each of you), there is now an additional funding gap of between $1.7-4 million. I just want to throw that out there. I mentioned this issue to Odis yesterday, and happy to explain further, in case the City may want to use that money to help remedy the situation created by the Y"

In a later email to Mr. Muenzer and Mr. Jones, dated March 12, 2026, Ms. Barauskas stated:

"We still have a serious issue that is the burden of Community Corp. due to the demand to give up our resident parking for the Y (to the tune of $1.7 million for parking and another $2.4 due to construction term parking). I would welcome any ideas either of you have that could free our parking back up for our residents, where it belongs. Some ideas could be designating street parking on Sepulveda for the Y, a signalized crosswalk across Sepulveda, city helping the Y find another parking lot nearby to use, etc.

We are open to any ideas that could help make this right for both the low-income residents as well as Community Corp."

CCSM's attempt to blame the Culver-Palms YMCA for their financial shortfall is shocking. The YMCA is their neighbor and serves the entire Culver City community and beyond. CCSM's assertion that visitors to the YMCA can "just park across the street" or that the City can otherwise just "find another parking lot nearby" is indicative of their continued hubris with regard to this project. Maybe CCSM should look for that other parking lot nearby and stop trying to push costs onto the people of Culver City.

I also have to wonder why 93 units of low income and very low income housing needs 169 parking spaces. The gun store site is planned to have over 40 units, absolutely no on-site parking, and it is intended to serve people with actual jobs — teachers, first responders, etc.

Ultimately, this appears to be an effort from CCSM to pull more money from the city under a policy argument not supported by the current council majority. While I have no evidence that the city has provided additional funding to this point, the council must clearly and emphatically say "no" to this and any other CCSM request for additional funds. CCSM committed publicly not to ask the city for more money... we need to keep them to their word.

Gary Zeiss is an attorney and Culver City resident since 2011.

EDITOR'S NOTE: A previous version of this story claimed Jubilo Village has 71 parking spaces. At the request of the author, the number has been changed to reflect the correct information.