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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMaterials Distributed at MeetingMATERIALS DISTRIBUTED AT MEETING 07/07/2015 "4�w 0--p ARCADIA YOUTH COUNCIL �- COMMISSION Travis Chen Manager Website: http : / /areadiayouthcommis.wix.com Email: arcadiayouthcommission (a)gmail.com Phone Number: (626) 400 -3325 July 7, 2015 To the Arcadia City Council: Thank you very much for your time today. We are grateful to have the opportunity to speak in front of you to express our belief representing the youth of Arcadia. We strongly believe in connecting the youth and the city council. Too often do we feel a separation, or barrier that distances us from what occurs within the city. We hope to build a bridge among the youth and the city. As stated today, we invite you to join us at our privately- funded Arcadia Youth Bonding on July 19th at the Arcadia County Park starting at 5PM. This event will bring all students city -wide together in friendship - building, fun events and discussing their life in Arcadia today. Thank you very much for your support and dedication to the elegant and beautiful city we live in. We appreciate your service everyday. We look forward to connecting with you in building a bridge to the youth. All the best. Best Regards, Arcadia Youth Council Commission 7 -7- l� jmd Dlo% 4 Aked Arcadia council can't hold back tide of citizen discontent: Editorial By The Editorial Board The Pasadena Star -News Posted: 06/25/15 Just as Arcadia faces tremendous residential development and commercial land -use pressures on all fronts, its City Council majority goes derelict in duty by canceling an ongoing zoning -code update. The three members who voted last week for this crazily mistimed halt to prudent governance — Roger Chandler, Sho Tay and John Wuo — could hardly have acted more irresponsibly both for a citizenry up in arms over rampant mansionization in its neighborhoods and a downtown business community preparing for the arrival of the Gold Line light rail and the new retail and dining opportunities that transit access will bring. The three, none of whom are lawyers, insist that their vote to kill the year -long, comprehensive zoning update has nothing to do with being pro - "anything goes" in the city's formerly placid, leafy neighborhoods and everything to do with a citizen lawsuit from the Highlands neighborhood over concrete castles being built out to the lot lines where low -lying ranch houses have been the attractive norm for generations. They say the suit prevents the city from changing its zoning at this time, and they are wrong. The two lawyers on the council, Mayor Gary Kovacic and Councilman Tom Beck, the two members who know the law professionally, vehemently disagreed with the majority vote, and say there is nothing in the lawsuit that does anything to prevent a zoning update while the legal issues proceed. Cities get sued every day. Lawsuits can drag on for years. You don't stop responsibly representing your constituents while the legal wheels grind. Page 1 of 2 "We were elected to the City Council to be proactive, not reactive," Kovacic said at the meeting. `By coming to a complete halt, in essence imposing a moratorium on our own zoning code update, we are reacting. A professional, comprehensive and moderately paced process to review our zoning and land -use issues ... is much better than being reactive to single -issue politics." As if in retribution to the Highlands neighbors who, yes, have sued because of more irresponsible council - majority development decisions, the trio also senselessly voted to proceed with a historic preservation survey in all neighborhoods except for the 854 houses in the Highlands in the north of the city. But the neighbors there point out their suit does not mention zoning or preservation. Again, as if in retribution, the majority also suspended the work of a citizen - driven neighorhood- impacts committee that had been established to allow Arcadians to craft ideals about the way they want their city to look and work in the future. We live, for better or worse, in a representative democracy, and all you have to count to is three on a five - person council. But does it not give the trio some pause to see dozens of citizens walk out of council chambers in appalled disgust at its members' actions last week? Or to ignore the wishes of the Chamber of Commerce and business community who had been awaiting new downtown zoning changes, reviewed sign standards in commercial areas and new zoning standards for the massive developments of Santa Anita Park and Westfield Santa Anita? These emperors will find, as King Canute knew, that a person cannot hold back the tides — this time, in the form of citizen discontent.