Santa Monica City Council was blasted Tuesday night for fast-tracking a plan to drop a for-profit trapeze school into the middle of Clover Park.
Karen Melick, vice chair of the city’s Recreation and Parks Commission, warned that the sweetheart five-year deal — greenlit Sept. 8 before her panel could weigh in — may be too tall for park zoning, too commercial for public land and too cheap for a private business getting prime city real estate.
“The process for lease and licensing of public property was not followed,” Melick told the dais, urging an immediate review by the City Attorney.
Among the red flags she raised:
- The 40-foot rig: Melick said the trapeze setup would rise roughly 40 feet, while city zoning rules appear to limit structures in public parks to 20 feet.
- The commercial-use question: She said city rules generally prohibit commercial businesses and food sales on parkland, except for limited arrangements such as full-service restaurants or theaters.
- The bargain-basement lease: The school will pay $4,000 a month, plus 8% of concession sales, while the city will contribute up to $170,000 for relocation. Melick noted that residents can pay as much as $30 an hour to reserve a picnic area, while the trapeze school’s base deal may work out to under $10 an hour for a far larger footprint.
- The space mismatch: The existing trailer area is about 80 feet wide, Milik said, while the trapeze setup may need at least 120 feet of clearance.
- The no-bid concern: Melick questioned why City Hall did not seek competing proposals or first determine fair-market value for a long-term commercial lease on public parkland.
Former Recreation and Parks Commissioner John C. Smith then took the podium and accused the council of shutting out the advisory body charged with reviewing the city’s parks.
“You should give the current commissioners the respect they deserve and vet these ideas before you pass them into law,” said Smith, who served on the commission for 12 years.
How we got here
Santa Monica Trapeze School opened on the Pier in 2008, but its long run ended in early 2025 when the city decided to lease the school’s space to Pacific Park.
The business then moved to Santa Monica Airport — and almost immediately ran into complaints from Mar Vista neighbors over noise and privacy.
City staff pitched Clover Park as the school’s next landing spot, calling the area near old Public Works trailers underused land that could be activated and provide the business with a longer-term home.
But before the council voted Sept. 8, Recreation and Parks Commission Chair Steven Johnson pleaded with members to wait.
Johnson said his commission meets only once a month and had not been given a meaningful chance to study a deal that could turn public parkland over to a private operator for as long as a decade.
“Granting a five to 10-year lease to a commercial enterprise in a public park, without public review, goes against the spirit of our parks,” Johnson told the council.
“Any commitment of public park space to a private entity deserves both deeper and wider consideration.”
The council ignored him and approved the agreement roughly 10 minutes later.
What happens next
School owner Kenna Stevens has maintained that residents are frustrated with City Hall’s handling of the lease — not necessarily with the trapeze school itself.
“I didn’t speak to anybody who was actively against the trapeze school,” Stevens previously told The Sun. “The thing they seemed upset about was the process. We are just an activation of an underutilized space.”
Council members offered no response Tuesday night to Melick’s request for a City Attorney review.
It remains unclear whether the agreement will be revisited, whether the Recreation and Parks Commission will receive a formal opportunity to review it, or whether the trapeze school will be allowed to move forward as planned.
For now, the trapeze school has a landing spot. The City Council may still be flying without a net.
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