By Susan Motander
Last week, a blatantly hostile group of citizens gathered to listen as the Monrovia City Council studied the proposal to swap the city’s existing community center for a refurbished and remodeled 4th Dimension building. City Manager Oliver Chi reported that the council had decreed in earlier discussions that unless all the difficulties were resolved, the city would not move ahead with the project.
He even presented a list of potential problems and whether or not these difficulties could be resolved. These included parking and traffic considerations, concerns about the design and cost of the new community center, historic preservation issues, and neighborhood compatibility of the new housing project. While he showed resolution to the parking and traffic concerns, there were no solutions to the historic preservation and neighborhood compatibility issues. He also raised other concerns including various costs to the city.
Since this was only a study session and not a meeting of the council, no concrete action could be taken, but the remarks of the city manager and the members of the council made it clear, the project will be abandoned. When this became clear to those gathered in opposition, one resident calmly announced, “Now I don’t regret leaving my pitchfork at home.”
Chi presented an overview of the project, which would include the Hale Corporation purchasing the 4th Dimension facility then subdividing it into two entities: a 3,000 square-foot brewpub (Congregational Ale was mentioned) with the remainder being remodeled into a new community center. The city would then purchase the community center portion from the corporation.
Simultaneously the city would re-zone the land upon which the current community center sits into high density residential. The city would sell this site to the Hale Corporation that would then raze the buildings and replace the center with a high-rise apartment or condominium complex. The plan called for the sale of the old center to cover the cost of purchasing the new center.
As Chi detailed the plan, he said that the city had several concerns about the change in location, including accessibility and the availability of parking for the center. There were also concerns about the traffic volume and flow in the downtown area. The city manager explained that the Hale Corporation had paid for a traffic study and had assisted the city in exploring parking alternatives, all of which he reviewed.
However, when Chi unveiled the artist’s concepts of the building Hale proposed for the location currently occupied by the community center, there was a collective gasp followed by a groan from those in the standing-room-only crowd. It was not a gasp of pleasure, but of dismay and horror. The sketches showed the proposed 50-foot structure containing more than 50 units. As Chi explained, development of this size would be required to offset the cost of remodeling the 4th Dimension site in an economically viable manner.
The drawings showed the proposed building from several angles. In most of the sketches the various trees in Library Park masked the building. This prompted one wag to remark after the meeting that it took more than a fig leaf, but rather an entire Moreton Bay fig tree with many leaves to cover the obscenity that the proposed building would be.
Even before the discussion began, Councilmember Becky Shevlin left the meeting explaining that the title insurance company involved in the negotiations employs her husband; there was a conflict of interest in the matter. By state law, she could not be involved even in the discussion and, as the city attorney explained, she could not even remain in the room while the matter was discussed.
