Nevermind that the City spent $800,000 – $1 million and countless man hours developing the first 25-year General Plan for the City since 1996, or that 13 citizens, including myself, spent dozens of hours over 2 1/2 years volunteering on a committee to help shape the massive document, not to mention all the public meetings and presentations, as well as the hearings held by the Planning Commission and the City Council who had vehemently opposed the first pass a couple years ago.
by Scott Hettrick
When it came to a final vote of the Council Tuesday, there was barely a dissenting comment among the Council who approved it unanimously, and only one person in the audience who chose to offer a comment — Henry Nunez, a member of our committee — and he mostly praised the City staff but then threw in some barbs at the Council and specifically Bob Harbicht for not being as forward-thinking as he would prefer with creating a more aggressive and specific vision for developing the Downtown area around the planned Gold Line station and creating more housing flexibility to plan ahead for certain continued population growth. (He’s right about that — like it or not population growth is an inevitable reality and has climbed steadily for the past century — a whopping 257% from 1940 to 1950 alone, then another 78% by 1960 to 41,000. And it’s grown nearly 40% more in the past 50 years to about 57,000. Officials project the possibility of another 12% increase — or 7,000 more residents — in the next 20 years.) These were not new criticisms from Nunez, and the Council, particularly Harbicht, basically dismissed him, with Harbicht reiterating that he won his election to the Council earlier this year on the platform of no change and being a proponent of discouraging population growth in Arcadia.
More relevant to me than the Nunez comments, was the fact that he was the lone person to take enough interest in the plan to develop a strong opinion. It’s been pretty much the same every step of the way. As Harbicht has said, unless it’s about peacocks, or, lately, coyotes, very few people seem to care enough about something as important as planning the future of Arcadia to show up to have their voice heard.
Perhaps it’s human nature, but it is still discouraging to be reminded how disengaged people can be. Even business owners with a vested interest in the changes that could affect their shops seemed to be largely unaware of the General Plan process despite the considerable public outreach by the City.
In any case, I would like to applaud the Councilmen for ultimately approving something that, even at the end, still included more progressive housing elements than some of them were completely comfortable with. I’d also like to commend the City staff once again, in particular Jason Kruckeberg and Lisa Flores, as well as my fellow GPAC committee members for successfully tackling such a mammoth project with so many moving parts such as trying to predict and protect the best possible scenarios for any eventual future of Santa Anita Park for horse racing and retail development, as well as the Gold Line and surrounding areas, not to mention the challenging Live Oak Avenue district. And there was so much more, from parks and bike paths to environmental considerations.
One other relatively low-key element that I think is worth sharing is the cultural and, specifically, the historical aspect of the document. The City consistently gets a failing grade for its lack of any ordinances or city staff dedicated to the preservation or even archiving of historical assets in Arcadia. Although it doesn’t have a lot of teeth, I hope this Council and future Councils and city staff will follow-up on the Plan’s words of encouragement, including the following selected points:
PR-9.1: Encourage the maintenance and preservation of historically, culturally, and/or architecturally significant structures and sites in the community.
PR-9.2: Explore partnerships with local community organizations such as Arcadia Historical Society to continue the preservation of historic and cultural resources.
PR-9.3: Collect, preserve, and celebrate Arcadia’s heritage with quality exhibits and programs.
PR-9.4: Preserve Santa Anita Park’s use as a live horse racing venue, and preserve and maintain iconic structures at the racetrack such as the grandstand.
PR-9.5: Identify historic sites, structures, neighborhoods, and other resources through a Historic Resource Inventory.
PR-9.6: Explore the establishment of a Cultural Heritage Ordinance.
PR-9.7: Develop incentives that promote preservation and rehabilitation of historic structures, sites, and other resources.
Here’s hoping that one day these suggestions will become reality so that we will not continue to see iconic structures more than a few decades old be regularly destroyed and lost forever.
— By Scott Hettrick