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HomeMy WebLinkAboutOctober_11_2008 _Arcadia_Dtwn _Workshop__REQUSTEDDOC  1 City of Arcadia Downtown Workshop Summary  City of Arcadia Downtown Workshop October 11, 2008 Summary Event Information On Saturday morning, October 11, 2008, more than 35 people gathered in the Arcadia Women’s Club to discuss and plan the future of the City’s Downtown. The workshop consisted of a slide presentation followed by a moderated public comment session.1 In order to make discussion of the various issues affecting Downtown, the General Plan team divided Downtown into four areas (depicted on the map on the following page): 1) The future Gold Line station and surrounding properties 2) First Avenue and Huntington Drive 3) Santa Anita Avenue 4) The industrial area                                                              1 The workshop was originally designed to have an informal breakout session following the presentation, during which participants would be able to converse directly and informally with City staff and the consultant team. During the presentation, however, it became clear that the participants would rather have a session that allowed everybody to hear all of the comments. The format was therefore modified to accommodate this desire.   2 City of Arcadia Downtown Workshop Summary  The slide presentation consisted of the following: • An introduction and explanation of the format of the event • A primer on what makes a good downtown, with examples of transit-oriented development from around the nation • Overviews and discussion for each of the four target areas consisting of: ƒ illustrations of existing conditions ƒ examples of neighborhoods/developments in other cities that could potentially serve as models for development in this area ƒ A visual preference survey consisting of 20 to 35 pictures, which participants were asked to rate on a scale from -5 to +5, reflecting their impressions regarding the appropriateness of the type and scale of the development depicted for the area in question2                                                              2 Each picture was shown for seven seconds, as the purpose of the survey was to gauge initial reactions.   3 City of Arcadia Downtown Workshop Summary  Below are notes from the discussion session that followed the presentation, as well as written comments submitted by participants. Appendix A presents the results of the visual preference surveys. Discussion Session Public Comments Gold Line Station Area • Is there a possibility of undergrounding the track? • The station needs to be conceived of and designed as a benefit to the entire district. • Is there a possibility of moving the station to the west side of First Avenue so as to better connect it with Downtown, as well as eliminate the need to negotiate two intersections to get from the parking garage to the platform? • The City should put the choice of grade separation at First Avenue (and the attending consequence of a raised platform) on the ballot. If Arcadians are willing to pay for it, they should be given the opportunity. • Care should be taken to minimize the visual impact of the station parking structure. Can it be undergrounded? Is a green screen possible? • Safety and blight: design of the station should make sure that blight is minimized and safety maintained. • The area needs good signage to draw people into downtown commercial area. • The City should improve the key blocks along First Avenue leading from the station to Huntington to make them more interesting for pedestrians (look to Mission Street in South Pasadena as a model). • Better connections are needed with First Avenue south of Huntington Drive. • The whole area needs to have a coherent look and feel. • Could Arcadia be a center for the arts, maybe with a festival (like the Sawdust Festival in Laguna Beach)? First Avenue and Huntington Drive • The City needs a community center, possibly near the proposed station. • What will be the costs versus the incentives for business owners? Plan should not only offer incentives for new development and shut out existing business owners (for programs to enhance Downtown). • People who bought in this area ten years ago did not know that it was “Downtown”; it was just a sleepy little neighborhood commercial district. • This area is a kid zone; several schools are nearby, and land use decisions should be made with this in mind. • There is a lack of public restrooms in this area. • More specialty retail is needed here, less office use. The former is more likely to encourage walking.   4 City of Arcadia Downtown Workshop Summary  • Height and parking restrictions inhibit office development. • The City should look at a trolley system serving the downtown area. • Businesses have been approached about sharing parking, but are reluctant to share parking with bars. • Better signage needed is for bars and bar parking. • Events at the Women’s Club, which has no parking, have had a significant negative effect on surrounding residential neighborhood. • The area businesses should provide services that nearby residents need. • Design standards should be developed so that the architecture of these streets flows together visually. For example, the buildings on the southeast and southwest corner of First and Huntington are barriers to walking down First. They are out of scale by comparison with the rest of the street. • Parking is a problem in this area: not enough public parking and what exists is overly time limited; for businesses, excessive parking requirements inhibit development. • There is a great need for better signage. Nothing directs passersby to the businesses on South First Avenue. • There are significant negative impacts (noise, crowds) from the bars and clubs on Huntington and the residents on the nearby streets. We do not want nightlife. Cafes and restaurants are good, but everything should shut down by 10 p.m. • Downtown needs entertainment and nightlife to survive/thrive; people who moved there should have known what they were getting into. • The City needs to enforce better design guidelines so that there is better architectural quality. • The City needs to be careful about encouraging entertainment uses adjacent to residential ones. • The City should implement its existing laws re: bars and noise. • We should encourage residential development above commercial. • More cut-through passageways with good signage are needed from Huntington to parking lot behind to the north. • This area has the wrong mix for window shopping; needs more cafes, variety • There is limited parking south of Huntington. Santa Anita Avenue • Grade separation of Gold Line crossing: is it possible to put it underground so as not to block views of mountains? • The City needs tax incentives for businesses to change uses. (Maybe a tax base exchange program?) • Housing would be acceptable along Santa Anita Avenue. • Live/work could be a good option. • There is a lot of vacant office currently. • The City seems to be meeting the current office demands. • Arcadia should think about selling itself as a place to come for medium-level-office. • The City has seen a lot of demand for medical office.   5 City of Arcadia Downtown Workshop Summary  • The regional office market would require a lot of infrastructure improvements, and the City should think about whether these would be worth it. • Housing above offices could be a good use. Industrial Area • This could be a good location for entertainment uses, as an area far from residential development. • This area could possible work as an artists’ community. • Right now there are marginal residential units among the industrial businesses. Residential should be kept out of this area. Written Comments Provided by attendees • Loosen up on parking requirements. Arcadia has the largest space size per car and number of spaces per square feet (for non-residential development), which limits use type and development. • Well done! Greatly appreciated and informative. Please notify me of any future learning opportunities about the topics covered today. • We’re residents on Alta Street between commercial and residential area. There are some businesses on Huntington which are north of Alta Street such as bars. 1) During daytime, there are always delivery trucks back and forth. 2) At night time, when bars are open, the music is very loud, and people are talking and yelling loudly outside of bar thru 2 A.M. 3) There are always some people who park on Alta Street pass the residential area to go to the Huntington business area. Hope the new Plan will effectively consider the concerns of the existing residents. Thank you. • I live 2 doors east of here from the Woman’s Club on Diamond Street and First Avenue. Today we are in the Huntington Drive/First Avenue subarea of the downtown. • Here is some feedback. ƒ The Downtown as a whole is wonderful and is a joy to walk, shop, dine and to be entertained in. ƒ Yes, we could use more continuous restaurants, bars, and retail shopping establishments especially on Huntington with less vacant, office space and under used buildings. ƒ Yes, we could use more accessible parking for areas that we are part of the downtown.   6 City of Arcadia Downtown Workshop Summary  ƒ The problems of the Downtown should not negatively affect the local residents at the same time. Trash, Graffiti, Public Urination, Excessive Noise are not being properly addressed. ƒ Where is the off-street parking for this building (Women’s Club)? Amazingly, there is none for people who drive here. People are forced to park on the street in front of the local residents. As a local Woman’s club catering local Arcadia residents maybe no parking requirement is OK because residents can walk here for LEGIMATE Woman’s Club Functions or when it is used as a Church on Sunday. When there are regular Quinciñeras and party events that are not for local residents, this building functions as a major black eye on the community. The visitors end up taking up all of the on-street parking in front of our homes for several blocks beyond the downtown which means that a resident has no on-street parking anywhere near his or her homes. ƒ Where is the Conditional Use Permit for the weekly rental hall parties they have here? Any other business would be required to have such a permit and residents would have the opportunity to voice their concerns at a public hearing. Generally a City Staff report would be part of the process that would make recommendation so a potentially offensive business would be acceptable within the community. ƒ Many of my neighbors and I have all registered concerns in the past with the City. The City Planning Department indicated a letter would be sent to the Woman’s Club to Cease and Desist and informing them of the requirement for a Conditional Use Permit if they wanted to use this building for event and party rentals in the future. That was 12 months ago. Apparently there has been no follow up or they are very well politically connected. We have heard that the former Mayor is a member here. Is someone helping them sidestep the law at our expense? Either way we as residents of the City or Arcadia are victims of inadequate service from the Public Officials. ƒ Please help eliminate illegal uses within the downtown such as the Woman’s club renting their facility to banquets planners who in turn hire out catering services and regularly bring in alcoholic beverages, food that is not prepared here, very large sound systems, lot of vehicles and frequently loud drunk disorderly people who do not live here and care about our community. They just leave us with the mess and negatively affect our quality of life with excessive noise, trash, graffiti and inadequate supervision of so many people in such a small area that bleeds into our residential community. We are being deprived of our right to quiet enjoyment of our property.