Alhambra residents gather to protest developer planning a high rise on East Main Street (Photo – Emma Arambula)
Developers come to “every town” with plans of building their dream monument to their business acumen. Others, corporate developers, come to town with plans for yet another cookie cutter project like the one they built in countless other communities. Yet, others may have investment property they’ve held for years and it’s now time to build and make their long term investment pay off. Whatever their project, the bottom line is profit.
By Ari Gutierrez Arambula
The pesky city permit process promises to delay the developers’ dream enough to become frustrating and increase costs. Determined to launch their project, they secure the support of city officials with assurances that their project will be good for the city. City officials start to see the developer’s dream too and guide the project forward with justifications for inevitable growth and added tax revenues to city coffers. They even cite potential new revenue to school districts through increased student population, the decreasing trend in overall student population notwithstanding.
Reality strikes
From the standpoint of developers, worse than the pesky city permit process are the problematic residents. The public notice process, the public permit approval meetings and engaged residents from the community where they plan to build – the neighbors! Suddenly, there are concerns about increased traffic, increased density and risk of urban blight should the project not go as planned. In some cases, as in “The Villages” in Alhambra, the residents’ concerns like the release of toxic fumes during and after construction are validated with official studies.
Recently, Alhambra’s City Planning Commission nixed developer’s plans for an automated car wash at the 710 Freeway stub. Residents cited noise, traffic and lack of logic in selecting the most congested route in the city for yet another car centric business. During the developer’s permit appeal to the Alhambra City Council, the developer explained that its automated car wash would take in cars off the residential street rather than the primary street to avoid bottlenecking traffic, failing to see the flaw in their plan.
Community buy-in critical
The Alhambra City Council voted to not move forward with “The Villages” nor with the carwash proposal, citing community concerns. In her remarks to the car wash developer, Councilmember Adele Andrade-Stadler explained, “…in Alhambra, developers are wise to get the support of the community for their projects…” She noted that not one public comment in favor of the car wash was from a local resident.
The Alhambra Chamber of Commerce has taken note. With new Executive Director, John Bwarie, at the helm, the Chamber is working to support members who are developers and help them meet the neighbors who would have a direct interest in varied aspects of their project – and essentially could stand in the way of a development project if their concerns were not addressed. Mr. Bwarie was formerly with the Alhambra Main Street Alliance and is Founder/CEO of Stratiscope, a community engagement consultant firm for businesses, nonprofits and government entities.
What can residents do?
Alhambra residents are wise to pay attention and keep an ear and eye out for proposed developments in their immediate community. They should not be shy about communicating concerns with the developers directly and/or through public forums including the Design Review Committee, City Planning Commission and the City Council through public meetings and/or directly with their respective members. The real bottom line is: Residents know their communities best and know what’s best for their community.
For more information about City of Alhambra projects, sign up to receive the agenda from the Design Review Committee and the City Planning Commission.
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