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View Winners → Arcadia Council Upholds Delay of Zoning Revamp, Exclusion of Highlands from Historical Preservation Survey
Arcadia Weekly Jun 17, 2015
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Councilmember Roger Chandler said, “If we react here to Save the Highland Oaks while we’re being sued and being threatened with another suit for allegedly violating the Brown Act … we would be devaluing the property values of virtually every property owner in the city of Arcadia.” – File Photo by Terry Miller
By Joe Taglieri
A divided Arcadia City Council on Tuesday repeated actions taken last month to shelve plans for a citywide zoning code update and residents committee to offer policy recommendations. The council also maintained its stance on moving forward with a historical preservation survey that excludes the Highlands neighborhood.
The main sticking point between the majority – council members John Wuo, Sho Tay and Mayor Pro Tem Roger Chandler – versus the dissenting views of Mayor Gary Kovacic and Council Member Tom Beck was whether to proceed with the policy-making procedures while the city is embroiled in a lawsuit filed by Highlands residents.
In March after the council and Planning Commission overruled a Highlands Homeowners Association decision to deny two construction projects that will replace mid-20th century ranch-style homes with much larger houses, a group of residents called Save the Arcadia Highlands filed a lawsuit seeking to derail developers’ plans that won officials’ approval.
Two months later the council once again riled residents when members voted in a nonpublic closed session to suspend the zoning revamp and its corresponding advisory committee and exclude the Highlands from a citywide historical preservation survey.
This prompted Save the Highlands head David Arvizu to announce his intention to file another lawsuit based on what he claimed was the council’s violation of the Ralph M. Brown Act, a state law that outlines procedures for publicly transparent policy decisions at the local level.
City Manager Dominic Lazzaretto recommended the council rescind its closed-session actions and instead hold a public hearing, which took place Tuesday before a large audience populated heavily by residents at odds with the council majority.
After voting unanimously to rescind, council members then proceeded to publicly state their individual stances and repeated the 3-2 split recorded May 5.
“If we react here to Save the Highland Oaks while we’re being sued and being threatened with another suit for allegedly violating the Brown Act … we would be devaluing the property values of virtually every property owner in the city of Arcadia,” said Chandler, who described himself as a “property rights person” committed to upholding property owners’ prerogative to build as they see fit as long as it adheres to the city’s building code.
“We were elected on the city council … to be proactive, not reactive,” Kovacic countered. “Coming to a complete halt and in essence imposing a moratorium on our own zoning code update, we’re reacting.
“A professional, comprehensive and moderately paced process to review our zoning and land-use issues based on public hearings and input is much better than being reactive to single-issue politics, one-size-fits-all proposals, individual lawsuits,” the mayor added.
Council Member John Wuo acknowledged the need to study the zoning code with input from Arcadia stakeholders and urged that residents pressure Arvizu’s group to drop its lawsuit against the city.
“If you can help the council, the city, to convince this petitioner to drop their lawsuit, I would be the first one to vote to continue this,” Wuo said.
“Because we determined that this lawsuit is a frivolous lawsuit … and costs the city money and staff time, I hope … that everybody can work together to come up with the correct zoning code changes so that we can protect our individual property rights and maintain our home prices and build harmony in our neighborhoods,” Wuo said.
Beck and Kovacic also opined that the Highlands lawsuit has no merit, but unlike the council majority they contended for that reason the city should proceed with the zoning update.
“It’s clear to me that a supermajority of the residents of Arcadia want zoning code updates,” Beck said. “People want us to do something, it’s clear there’s a problem that needs to be fixed.”
Tay explained his vote to suspend the zoning update due to the litigation.
“We don’t want to complicate things, so we stopped,” he said, noting a lawsuit court date scheduled for Feb. 3.
Tay also explained his other May 5 vote, which was in accordance with Kovacic and Beck, to conduct a historical preservation survey excluding the Highlands.
“Historical landmarks, there’s an urgency there,” he said. “Once you tear down the building it’s gone, it’s too late to preserve.”
Regarding the Highlands, Tay said “we need to do a separate study because right now that is under litigation.”
Changing course from their previous closed-session votes, Beck and Kovacic proposed moving forward with historical preservation that includes the Highlands.
However, Chandler, backed by Wuo and Tay, moved to proceed with the historical preservation survey excluding the Highlands until the litigation is complete. In the May 5 closed session Wuo and Chandler voted against the historical preservation survey.
Arvizu and a number of other Arcadia residents voiced opposition to the council’s decisions and chided members for what some characterized as taking “punitive” action in response to the Highlands lawsuit.
“Nowhere in our lawsuit is there mention of a complaint against the city zoning code, nowhere is there any mention of historical preservation or historical studies,” Arvizu said, challenging the council majority’s assertion that his suit – which he said hinges on the claim that the construction projects’ “cumulative impacts” violate state environmental regulations – is grounds to suspend the zoning update and exclude the Highlands from historical preservation efforts.
Scott Hettrick, Arcadia Chamber of Commerce CEO, requested the council approve a zoning update for commercial properties.
Hettrick said the update is “critical to making some much needed changes” in areas such as downtown Arcadia and commercial corridors such as Baldwin Avenue, Live Oak Avenue and Duarte Road.
“We were elected on the city council … to be proactive, not reactive,” Gary Kovacic said. – Photo by Terry Miller
