Arcadia Council Approves Highlands Land Development Projects

A home under construction on Santa Anita, near Highland Oaks – Photos by Terry Miller

By Joe Taglieri

The Arcadia City Council on Tuesday voted to approve two controversial land development projects in the Highlands neighborhood.

Members voted 4-1 and 3-2 respectively for the construction of larger single-family homes at 29 E. Orange Grove Ave. and 1600 Highland Oaks Drive that will replace existing homes built in the mid-20th century. Mayor Pro Tem Gary Kovacic dissented twice, and Council Member Tom Beck joined him in voting against the Highland Oaks Drive project.

Though a tad less emotionally charged than the council’s last meeting on this issue Jan. 20, Tuesday’s public hearing was equally packed with residents who aired their views about the city’s priorities regarding residential land development.

As the familiar theme for real estate debates in Arcadia and nationwide goes, the primary bone of contention came down to whether or not property owners’ rights to maximize their investment and exercise freedom to build as they see fit should prevail over homeowner associations and residents concerned with maintaining a neighborhood’s traditional aesthetic character while protecting neighboring properties’ scenic views and privacy. This shaped the character of council members’ remarks as they explained the reasoning behind their votes.

“I see the structure at 1600 [Highland Oaks Drive] completely differently from 29 Orange Grove,” said Beck, who referred to the home as a “historic treasure” and great example of renowned architect John Galbraith’s work.

Conversely, “29 Orange Grove, if anyone’s gone to look at it, is begging to be torn down and rebuilt,” Beck said.

In November the Arcadia Highlands Homeowners Association rejected plans for new structures that will both be about three times the size of the current 1,855-square-foot home on Orange Grove Avenue and the 2,624-square-foot residence on Highland Oaks Drive.

Developers Mur-Sol Construction Inc. and Bowden Development Inc. filed appeals with the city’s Planning Commission, which in December unanimously approved the revised home designs. April Verlato, member of the homeowner association’s Architectural Review Board, or ARB, then in turn appealed to the city council.

The ARB’s main gripe was the sizable square footage and compliance with loosely worded city building regulations aimed at maintaining a neighborhood’s architectural harmony and compatibility.

As was the case at the last council meeting, many residents voiced concerns over developers’ short-term profit motives and the larger-scale developments’ possible long-term effects – both aesthetic and material in the form of decreased property value for neighboring properties and an assortment of risks associated with properties controlled by investors rather than homeowners.

“I am not against development, but I am for reasonable development, responsible development, development with a plan [and] purpose,” Verlato said. “Right now it feels like we are just all over the place.”

Neighborhood resident Tim Burch described the “typical” Highlands home as a single-family ranch-style house that is 2,600 square feet on a roughly 15,000-square-foot lot.

Highland Oaks area home – Photo by Terry Miller

“All of the projects that are being approved by you over the last three years are over 5,000 square feet,” Burch told the council. “You have to understand … the cumulative impact and the permanent change that is ongoing. You won’t be able to reverse it – it will be there for the next 50 years.”

Deborah Lewis, who lives a few houses down from the Orange Grove Avenue property and described herself as a 50-year Arcadia resident, expressed support for the demolition and new construction project.

“The Highlands … is an exclusive neighborhood – the problem, though, is it’s a very, very old neighborhood,” Lewis said. “You can take a house from 1940, you can add square footage to it, but you still have an old house with small rooms [and] weird hallways. That’s not what the market wants anymore.”

Lewis added that discouraging new homes from going up could diminish the neighborhood’s desirability and upscale character.

“I do not want to see the Highlands dry up and become one of the lesser neighborhoods of Arcadia,” she said.

“We used to be called a city of homes, not a city of mansions,” Roy McNeen countered. “We are not Bel Air, we’re Arcadia.”

A chief reason council members extended the public hearing on the Highlands projects was to allow more time for City Attorney Stephen Deitsch to respond to legal arguments against the developments based on California law that were presented in a Jan. 14 letter from an attorney representing Verlato and the homeowners association.

The arguments focused on possible negative cumulative effects such as “increased population density, aesthetics, traffic generation, noise and other environmental topics because these homes have ‘footprints that are two to three times the surface area of existing home footprints’ and are ‘meant to serve multiple or extended families,'” Deitsch wrote under the letterhead of Best Best & Krieger, the law firm he works for.

The city attorney’s rebuttal hinged on what he described as a lack of “substantial evidence” provided by the appellant to underscore their cumulative effects argument.

“City Council has overstepped its authority, showing no deference to these ARB decisions. Denial of this and previous appeals has the appearance of deference to minority constituents and special interests,” ARB Chairman John Uniack said. “The overwhelming majority of the Highlands homeowners have voiced their opinion and concern about these projects. It is apparent that you … have failed to listen.”

Contentiousness re-emerged toward the meeting’s end when Council Member Roger Chandler directed remarks at Uniack.

“You have a president who comes up here and flippantly says ‘I’m the scofflaw, I’m the guy who’s been cited twice by the city,'” Chandler said. “The guy has no driveway, parks his car on the front lawn, the house is not ranch style. So it seems ironic to me that of all the people that are making decisions about millions and millions of dollars’ worth of other people’s money – go ahead and sit down, you’re not coming up again – it’s this man who has the biggest issues.”

According to Mayor John Wuo and confirmed by several city officials and residents in attendance, instead of returning to his seat Uniack made an obscene hand gesture toward the dais as he exited the Council Chamber.

“Last time at the council meeting you guys picked on me and … Roger, and this guy, John Uniack, flipped the finger at the council and walked out,” the mayor said. “That’s the Highlands … Homeowners Association? That’s the Highland Oaks residents? That’s how you behave?”

Another home under construction in Highland Oaks area – Photo by Terry Miller

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