Arcadia Council OKs Effort to Educate Residents on Real Estate Development

-Photo by Terry Miller

By Joe Taglieri

The Arcadia City Council initiated an effort Tuesday to educate residents on real estate development standards.

Following Mayor Pro Tem Roger Chandler’s suggestion at the Aug. 4 council meeting, members unanimously directed staff to develop material aimed at educating the public on local real estate issues.

The move comes amid a spate of controversy surrounding residential development that in recent years has seen square footage steadily increasing for new homes built throughout the city. This has caused a significant number of residents – several of whom formed yet another chorus of discontent during the meeting’s public comments segment – to feel that officials are ignoring their interests in order to maximize profits for developers and real estate investors while adding higher property tax revenue.

Jason Kruckeberg, assistant city manager and director of the Development Services Department, will spearhead the education effort that likely will feature public workshops as well as print and online fact sheets, FAQs, and a written survey gauging public opinion.

“It is envisioned that this effort will provide details on the City’s current standards and how they work, include definitions of terms that are commonly … and provide answers to commonly asked questions so that when the community begins its deliberations on the Zoning Code Update, it will be working from a common base of knowledge,” Kruckeberg wrote in a memo to council members.

“The intent would be an apolitical effort to make sure the residents of this community understand what our current development standards are [and] what other communities are doing in this arena,” City Manager Dominic Lazzaretto said. “We all know it’s a very popular topic right now, and there’s a lot of three-quarter truths and misinformation and misunderstandings.”

-Photo by Terry Miller

In May the council shelved plans for a residential zoning code update and a committee of residents tasked with assessing the impacts of development. A 3-2 majority – Chandler and members John Wuo and Sho Tay – reasoned that a lawsuit filed in March by residents of the Highlands neighborhood aimed at blocking council-approved construction projects could hinder changes to development rules and leave the city vulnerable to litigation.

“A lot of people don’t even know that there’s serious talk and consideration about changing the zoning codes,” Chandler said. “This is a significant issue not only to the city as a whole but to individual property owners.”

Citing advice from several attorneys, Tay has explained publicly on several occasions that he prefers to wait until the Highlands lawsuit is resolved before moving forward with a code revamp, which he reiterated Tuesday.

This has “perplexed” Mayor Gary Kovacic and Council Member Tom Beck, both of whom are lawyers.

The mayor asked City Attorney Stephen Deitsch if he could guarantee public education effort would not harm the city’s case in the pending Highlands lawsuit.

Deitsch said he could not guarantee a “zero percent chance” the city’s defense would be unaffected and acknowledged there was a slight chance the outreach effort could bolster the plaintiffs’ case.

“I just don’t understand the inconsistency that somebody would not support what was going on for nine months that cost us well over $100,000 because there’s a small chance that it could impact the lawsuit, but now we’re endorsing something that has the same small chance of impacting the lawsuit,” Kovacic said.

“Our zoning code update has come to a grinding halt because one of our members thinks it would have a small impact on a lawsuit,” he added, referring to Tay. “We’re now being asked to vote on something that has the same small impact.”

Tay noted what he sees as a distinction between the educational nature of the outreach effort and policy advice that might come from a residents committee.

To illustrate his position, Tay referred to the development term floor-area ratio, which indicates the total amount of a building’s square footage.

“If you ask people to vote on the FAR, lots of people do not know what is an FAR,” he said. “They just think it sounds good. So this is more educational, teaching people what is right and wrong.”

Kovacic then pressed Tay on the apparent inconsistency regarding the likelihood of incurring a lawsuit.

“If people are going to sue you, they’re going to use any excuse they can,” Tay replied. “I just don’t want to give them more than is necessary.”

“I don’t understand your response,” Kovacic said. “I just find it kind of inconsistent.”

Beck pointed out the contrast between the postponed residents committee and the forthcoming educational workshops.

“[The committee was] a dialog, where people were telling us what they want or what the problems were,” he said. “What [Chandler is] proposing is an education process where it’s one-way. … There’s no input from the citizens. They’re being educated, but they’re not going to have an opportunity to voice an opinion as to what they want done with the exception being that we’ll give them a questionnaire at the end of the program to fill out.”

In the end the council minority offered brief explanations just prior to casting affirmative votes on the matter.

“I believe in public education,” Beck said.

“Something is better than nothing,” said Kovacic.

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