Local News in Brief : Drive Seeks to Ban Beach Construction

A group of Santa Monica slow-growth activists launched an initiative drive Thursday to ban the construction of hotels, motels and large restaurants on Santa Monica Beach.

Representatives of the newly formed “Save Our Beach Committee� said they hope to gather 10,000 signatures to put the initiative on the ballot in a special election later this year.

Sharon Gilpin, a veteran of previous slow-growth campaigns, said she and a handful of activists began the drive because of a “flood� of hotel and motel construction in her beach neighborhood in the last two years.

The proposed initiative would target a zone from Santa Monica’s northern border along Ocean Avenue and Nielson Way to the city’s southern border, with the exception of Santa Monica Pier.