From flip-off to lawsuit

After being denied by the City’s Planning Commission, and after public verbal spats at equally unsuccessful appeals at City Council meetings where one or two Council Members spoke to homeowners in a way that made them so defensive that one of their leaders flipped his middle finger to the Council, a group of residents in the Highland Homeowners Association has taken their case to the courts.

Since they could not get their way in stopping the razing of two homes on big lots – a 74 year-old home at 29 E. Orange Grove Avenue and a 59 year-old domicile at 1600 Highland Oaks Drive — that would be replaced with two homes of  two-to-three times the size built by Robert Tong and Bowden Development, now the residents calling themselves by a group called Save the Arcadia Highlands are trying another angle: a class-action lawsuit filed March 12 against the City of Arcadia claiming that the new homes should not be built because they would be environmentally unfriendly.

About the time the hearings were beginning in front of the Planning Commission and then the City Council late last year and early this year that resulted in the denying of appeals by HHOA residents to try to stop the building of the homes (the Council did agree to stop development of one proposed home the residents also didn’t want), some residents formed a group called Save the Arcadia Highlands, and started a web site and Facebook page (in November 2014) where postings reiterate all their concerns and issues with certain Council members and offer additional comments and links to related articles in local media. There were 443 residents who signed a petition by the HHOA during the appeals process. There are 51 “Likes” on the Facebook page so far.

Although some of the residents complained during the public hearings in front of the City Council that new mansions being built in Arcadia are left vacant by owners who supposedly buy them as investments, the suit takes the polar opposite position that the so-called mansions would be filled with so many additional residents that the resulting effect would “directly affect their health and living environment.” Among the impacts cited in the suit are:

1. additional water runoff that would create “significant water quality impacts”

2. “significant cumulative impact on greenhouse gas generation”

The suit prepared by attorney John G. McClendon of Laguna Hills on behalf of the Save the Arcadia Highlands group — the only individual named in the suit is David Arvizu — also reiterates allegations of conflict-of-interest brought out in the public hearings that Robert Tong and other developers of large homes in the Highlands including Mur-Sol and the Grohs Family have made “substantial campaign contribution to certain members of the (City) Council.”

Interestingly, the lawsuit also notes that HHOA residents began fighting this battle against the perceived “mansion-ization” of their neighborhood more than 20 years ago, but the war continues to escalate.

The Save the Arcadia Highlands web site, which lists three people as “Our Team” — Carolyn Papp, Shelly Chu, and Tim Burch — says they are “beginning to take the necessary steps to recall” Mayor John Wuo and Council Member Roger Chandler and “any other members that we discover have ties to real estate developers or investors in Arcadia.” The site goes on to cite some facts about a real estate company owned by Wuo and campaign contributions received by Chandler from development and real estate companies. It also does the same with Council Member Sho Tay before proceeding to make personal and credibility attacks against all three.

In a city that is considered so prosperous and with some of the highest property values in a region that ranks amongst the nation’s highest – so high that State Treasurer John Chiang said last Friday that he could not afford to live in Arcadia and has to settle for South Bay — it’s ironic that on a website created by residences living in an area long considered the wealthiest part of town, the most prominent feature is a bright red button at the top center asking for donations.

— By Scott Hettrick