Marisol Greir delivers public comments to the Alhambra Planning Commission advocating the city designate a Specific Plan to develop the East Main Street Corridor into an Old Town Alhambra and for 30 feet max height limits adjacent to the residential zones north and south of Main Street. (Photo – Ari G Arambula)
Residents Strongly Oppose “Over-The-Top” Height Limits and Rezoning Near Residential Zones.
By Ari Gutierrez Arambula
Alhambra residents showed up at the August 21, 2023, Planning Commission meeting at City Hall to protest the current draft of the city’s Housing Element. The Council Chamber was at its maximum capacity with community members who wore red to show solidarity against the city’s proposed rezoning plan for the East Main Street Corridor.
Specifically, the current version of the Housing Element, which is the policy portion of the city’s General Plan and will become the guide for the impending zoning code, includes a rewrite to rezone East Main Street – from Chapel to Granada – to be part of the Central Business District.
City Staff Pushes for Higher Limits Citywide
As part of its overall plan to meet the state’s requirements for more housing units, the city is proposing raising the height limit to 75 feet in all commercial zones along main thoroughfares in every part of Alhambra – including Valley, Garfield, Atlantic, Fremont, and Main streets. As a result of the state legislature’s recent laws, all commercial corridors are now allowed to build mixed-use buildings to include housing.
Residents note that with the implementation of new housing-friendly state laws, including bonus density in multimodal zones, the “over-the-top” height increase in the draft plan is not necessary to achieve goals for new affordable housing, as the city may have presumed when the housing element was initially drafted during the pandemic.
Proposal Doubles Height from 5 to 10 Stories on East Main Street
The current draft of both the Housing Element and the zoning code shows the Central Business District (CBD) would be allowed to increase the height limit to 110 feet (10 stories). A sample of the type of mass building this would create is visible across from Sprouts market at Bay State and Monterey where a 5-story mixed-use building is going up along with its comparatively sized parking structure.
Residents have expressed deep concern at the immense size of the building at Bay State. They are dismayed that double the size of the already outsized building could be built on the East Main Street Corridor many times over because developers are pushing to rezone the East Main Street Corridor to be part of the CBD.
Developers Push to Extend the Central Business District East
Should the developers who are pushing for this change succeed it would yield a windfall in property values for them. Properties on Main Street including the CVS, the old Nissan dealer, the vacant lot at 801 E Main (next to Firestone), the pet shop, the funeral home, the fitness center, the church, and the old YMCA building at Chapel and Main would ALL be allowed to build up to 10 stories tall.
“Neighbors, this issue is a serious threat to the character of Alhambra as a suburban oasis!” stated Marisol Grier, a resident who advocates for an Old Town Alhambra theme development on the East Main Street Corridor as a way of revitalizing the area and adding amenities like walkability, safety and green space for current and future residents.
“Clearly, we support new housing but rezoning East Main Street to be part of the Central Business District is a nonsensical proposition – especially because some of the impacted buildings are historic and should be preserved. Surely there are other ways to increase affordable housing without ruining the quality and character of the city. Further, the area east of Almansor is surrounded by single-family homes both to the south and north of Main Street. Critically, by its own housing and zoning proposals, height limits in these residential adjacent areas should be limited to 40 feet! We say they should be limited to 30 feet!” she added.
Public Hearing Continued to September 18
Public testimony took up most of the allotted meeting time and discussion of the agenda item was continued to the next planning commission meeting, now scheduled for September 18, 2023. For more information see alhambracodeupdate.com/ and the meeting agenda.
Public comments may be submitted to the Planning Commission and the City Council in writing to: lmyles@cityofalhambra.org and luwan@cityofalhambra.org by 4:00 pm the date of the meeting.
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