HomeMy WebLinkAboutNOVEMBER 28, 2006
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MINUTES
ARCADIA CITY PLANNING COMMISSION
Tuesday, November 28, 2006, 6:30 P,M,
Arcadia City Community Center
The Planning Commission of the City of Arcadia met in regular session on Tuesday, November
28, 2006, at 6:30 p.Ill" in the Arcadia Community Center of the City of Arcadia, at 365 Campus
Drive, with Chairman Olson presiding.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
ROLL CALL:
PRESENT-
ABSENT:
Commissioners Baderian, Beranek, Hsu, Parrille and Olson
None
OTHERS ATTENDING
Community Development ,Administrator Jason Kruckeberg
Senior Administrative Assistant Billie Tone
EIP Representative Alison Rondone
SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION FROM STAFF REGARDING AGENDA ITEMS
Community Development Administrator Kruckeberg presented a letter from ChatteD,
Brown, Carstens to the Commissioners regarding the public meeting on the DEIR for the
Shops at Santa,Anita.
PUBLIC HEARING ITEMS
Commissioner Olson said that the purpose of the meeting was for the Planning Commission to
bear public comments on the draft environmental impact report for the Shops at Santa Anita
project only. He also reviewed the procedures applying to speakers,
I. PUBLIC MEETING
Draft,Environmental Impact Report
Shops,at, Santa,AnitaP!lTl<:
The City of Arcadia Development Services Department has completed a Draft Environmental
Impact Report (OEIR) for the Revised Shops at Santa Anita Park Specific Plan (also referred
to as the Caruso Project) located in the City of Arcadia, The purpose of the meetmg is to allow
an opportunity to comment on the, Draft Environmental Impact Report (OEIR.) only,The
Planning Commission will be hearing comments only, no decision will be made on the project,
Mr, Kruckeberg presented a brief overview of the project to date and stated that the public
comment period will end on December 14 at 5:30 p,m,
The public hearing was opened_
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Following is a Ilst of the speakers, Please refer to the draft transcript of the meeting (attached)
for their comments,
Dirk L. Hudson,
Stewart Bell. MD
Larry Wtlliams,
Brian Golden; I
SanfOrd.shulma~
Sonia Williams, - ,
Douglas Carstens, '
Nicky Hunter,
Scott HettricL_ _ ~ '
JetfBowen,~
RebeccaRuiz,
Talin Nigolian,
Paul Herr,
SungTse,~ ,~
Ruth Dunlop,~,
Bob Kimball,
Rick Limo, Caruso Affiliated
Vince Fotey,
Tony Henric
Unidentified Speaker
Michael O'Conner,
Kevin Norton, mEW
Mike Morris, Portola Drive
Richard Martinez,~e,
Frank Razi,
Eina Sirene,
Paul Becket,
Ralph Roy Ramire
Marco Valle, I
Carmen Thi our, 6
Stella Ross,
Mary E, Hansen.
Ann A. Duirgerian,
Dennis Goldenhouse,
Dick Harris;
Kelly Mandu,
Colleen Brennan,
BettyHarris,~
Ed Casey, W~'
Scott Saire,
Vidal Hemandez,
Mark Bower,
Jerry Garing,
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PC AGENDA
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MOTION:
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It was moved by Commissioner Parrille, seconded by Commissioner Baderian to close
the public hearing,
ROLL CALL:
AYES:
NOES:
Commissioners Baderian. Beranek, Hsu, ParriIle and Olson
None
TIME RESERVED FOR mOSE IN THE AUDIENCE WHO WISH TO ADDRESS THE
PLANNING COMMISSION ON NON-PUBLIC HEARING MA ITERS - Five-minute time
limit per person
None
MATIERS FROM CITY COUNCIL AND PLANNING COMMISSION
Councilman Amundson thanked everyone for their participation in the hearing.
MODIFICATION COMMI'ITEE MEETING ACTIONS
Chairman Olson said that all items on the Modification Committee agenda were
conditionally approved,
MAITERS FROM STAFF
None
ADJOURNMENT TO 12-12-06 AT THE ARCADIA CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS AT
7:00 p.m.
9:00 n.m,
Is/Jason Kruckeber~
Secretary, Arcadia Planning Commission
PC AGENDA
11-28-06
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ARCAOIA CITY PLANNING COMMISSION
TUESOAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2006
6:30 P.M.
ARCADIA COMMUNITY CENTER
, 365 Campus ori ve
Arcadia, California 91007
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1 COMMISSIONER OLSON: I'd li.ke to call to order
2 the meeti ng of, the ,tircadiaCi ty pl anni'ng commi ssi on for
3 Tuesday, November 28" 2006. . ,
4 would everybody please rise, and join me in,
5 the pl edge of All egi ance. " ,
6 (The pl edge of A 11 egi ance was reci ted.)
7 COMMISSIONER OLSON: Roll call, please.
8 MS. TONE: commissioner Baderian?
9 COMMISSIONER BAOERIAN : present .
10 MS. TONE: commissioner Beranek?
11 COMMISSIONER BERANEK: p'resent.
12 MS. tONE: commissioner HSU?
13 COMMISSIONER H5U: present.
14 MS. TONE: commissioner parrille?
15 COMMISSIONER pARRILLE : present .
16 MS. TONE: Commissioner olson?
.17 COMMISSIONER OLSON: Present.
18 Can I have supplemental information from staff
19 agenda items?
20 MR. KRUCKEBERG: We do have one item that was
21 passed out. It's a memo from Chapman Brown Carson.
22 It's dated November 28, 2006, and it's been placed at
23 each of your places.
24 COMMISSIONER OLSON: Thank you very much. TO
25 start the meeting, I'd just like to briefly describe
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1 what we're here to do tonight, and that is to accept
2 Ilublic comments on the draft environmental impact report
3 for the shops at Santa Anita project only.
4 I'd like to go ahead and tu rn this over to the
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staff for a brief presentation on the project, the
process and the procedures we will follow.
MR. KRUCKEBERG: Thank you, Mr. olson.
welcome. Thank you to you all for cominq tonight. My
name is Jason Kruckeberq. I'm the communlty development
administrator for the Clty of Arcadia.. Also with me
tonight is Alison Rongodi from EIP Associates,
consultants on the project, and we have additional staff
in the audience.
The purpose of toniqht's meeting, as Mr. Olson
mentioned, is to receive pub11c comment on the dra.ft EIR
,for the shops at Santa Ani.ta. project.
The draft EIR was released to the public on
October 23rd. It'S available, for review at city Hall.
It's also available at the library. You can also
purchase copies, both in hard copy form and CD, and it"s
available also on the city's website. SO there's plenty
of opportunities for you to review the document.
The California Environmental Qua.lity Act
requires a 45-day public comment period. That public
period will be ending on December 6th. However, the
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city did extend the public comment period until December
14th, 2006. At each of your places here tonight there
is an agenda. On the back of that agenda is a notice
that shows that extension of the comment period and also
the method With which to give comments to the city on
that. so, again, 5:30 P.M. December 14th is the end of
the public comment period. All comments received in
writing up ,until the end of the, period will be added
into the administrative record, as well as any comments
verbally made tonight.
AS :(ou can see, we have dual reporters here so
we are record1nq the meeting tonight so there will be
transcripts ava11able at the city. AS most of you know,
the shops at Santa Ani.ta project .was revi sed and
resubmi tted to the ci,ty in Apri 1 of thi s year.
Just a ,quick description on the project. The
project contains a specific plan for the 304-acre
property that includes the racetrack and surrounding
area. Included in the applica.tion are zone change,
general plimni ng mi nutes, architectural desi gn revi ew,
design guidelines for the proposed buildings. The major
change of the revised project was the removal of
resi denti a luni ts from the project. ,
-. .. 'The' project we are lookinl;jat tonight in this
draft EIR does not include residentlal. The project as
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1 proposed is approximately 829,000 square feet of retail,
2 commercial and office, designed a.s a pedestrian main
3 street, pedestrian-oriented main street in a north/south
4 orientation on the southern part of the racetrack
5 parki nQ lot. '
6 The northern portion of the project includes
7 1.4 acre -- it's called paddock garden, which would
8 actually interface with the grahdstandin the paddock
9 area of the racetrack. At the southern portion of the
10 project area is a proposed three-and-a-half-acre water
11 feature, which is included within a seven-acre, roughly,
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open space area.
The J)roject will also include an approximately
98,000 square foot simulcast center which would be
located within the actual grandstand structure itself.
In addition to the project that I just described, of
course, there will be on and offsite public improvements
for streets, pedestrians, et cetera.
AS required by the california Environmental
Quality Act, the ErR does three things. It assess the
expected di.rect and indi rect accumulative impacts of the
project. It identifies means of voiding or minimizing
potential adverse impacts from the project. And it
evaluates are'asonable range of alternatives to the
project. The ErR in this case analyzes 15 topic areas,
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including transportation, traffic, aesthetics, water
quality, air quality, et cetera.
This meeting is one of the key steps in our
process. AS you remember back in June we held a ,similar
meeting called a public scoping 'meeting where we invited
input on what items and issues should be included in the
draft EIR. This meeting is to receive again comments
from you on how that information was presented, are
there things that still need to be looked at, and how
are the issues presented within the document. The
meeting allows the planning commission to hear public
comments, and they will betaking those public comments,
alonq with additional comments that we receive, as I '
mentloned in writing, along with our responses 'when the
planning commtssion and the city council reviews this'
project for a decision. And that, we estimate, will
occur u will begin in March, April of next year. '
The, planning commission will be making a
recommendation on to city council, and it's at those
meeti ngs where pl anning commi ssi on wi 11 have the benefi t
of all the public comments receiv~d during the comment
period and the consultant team and city's responses to
those comments., At those meetings in early next year,
we will be able to receive all your questions, the'
planning commission, I'm sure, will have plenty of their
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1 own. Again, this meeting tonight is to receive those
2 comments. So we won't be discussing necessarily the
3 content, answer questions, we will be receiving comments
4 from you.
5 one fi na 1 thi ng we wanted to menti on, we di d
6 get a number of calls on the recent initiatives and
7 whether those recent ini,tiatives that passed which dealt
8 with public J)aidparkingand also dealt with signage
9 have a si~nificant impact of the EIR. And the answer
10 is, there s no significant impact. They do not
11 necessarily change any of the conclusions of the draft
12 EIR.
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so with that, I'm going to turn it back over
to ,?ave olson tl? go through the procedures we'll follow
tOO1ght. I'd hke to askfo,lks to please turn off cell
phones and pagers. We have a lot of folks in the
audience, and we're going to try to get through this as
quickly as possible. Again, Dave will go through the
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procedures that we will follow tonight.
, COMMISSIONER OLSON: Thank you, Jason. First
of all, the commission is not here to answer any
questions on the project because we do not have all the
project materials yet, and, plus, we're basically here
to hear public comments. Because of the size of the
crowd, we have determined that all the speakers will be
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limited to three minutes. we feel that's an appropriate
amount of time for each speaker to say what they want to
say. If you don't feel -- you've got a lot more to say,
you can write that down, submit it in.
whether you speak tonight or put your comments
in writing, they're given the same amount of wei~ht and'
will be answered in their entirety and included ln final
reports and the comments that the consultants will look
at, the city will look at.
when you're up here, as you come up here, I'll
ask that if you want to speak. start to form a line
behind the podium. State your name and your address for
the public record, then you may speak. I'Ve got a
stopwatch up here. we will monitor the three-minute
time limit very closely and kind of give you a warning
when you're qetting close to the three minutes. Also,
there's a cl1 pboard at the podi um that we also need you
'to write your name and address, once again, for the
public record that -- sometimes it's hard to understand
the spelling of your name without it written down there
as well.
I'd also like to mention, normally we also
have up here with us at our planning commission meetings
a liaison from the city counc,il. our liaisoilis
Councilmember Peter Amundson. He's here tonight, but
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1 he's sittinq in the back. We've got some limited space
2 up here. Hl s job as a council member arid as our 1 i aison.
3 is just to' observe us as a planning commission and to
4 help bring information to us frcim the city council, as
5 well as report back to the city council actions and
6 thin~s that happened during the planning commission
7 meetlngs.
8 And with that, again, all cell phones off and
9 I ,would go ahead,and like to open the public meeting.
10 And if anybody wou 1 d liKe' to speak, now is the ti mE! to'
11 come forward.
12 State your name and address.
13 MR. ,HUDSON: Dirk Hudson, 428 Stanford Orive,
14 Arcadia.
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. As Arcadia residents who. live just north of
the racetrack, We urge prompt conslderatlon and approval
of the Shops at Santa Anita. we have toured Caruso
projects at, Thousand oaks, calabasas and The Grove, and
have come back deeply impressed.
Our concerns are two-fold. One, to preserve
the economic viability of historic Santa Anita park and
wi th it Arcadi a's raci ng heri tage. And two, to obtai n
from Arcadia as part 'of its future heritage, the
demonstrated beauty and style of Caruso landscaping and
architecture. This would be a vast improvement over
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1 today's empty parking lot, and it's unobstructed view of
2 the trashy lookinq eastside of westfield Mall.
3 The posni ve envi ronmenta li mpacts, the shops
4 at Santa Anita would provide at least seven benefits to
5 Arcadia. One, preservation of Arcadia's racing heritage
6 in santa Anita for which Westfield has no plan. TwO, an
7 attractive and relaxing outdoor environment as may be
g observed in previous Caruso projects. Three, over two
9 mi 11 i on doll arsannua 11 y in, new sales tax revenue to the
10 city, benefiting schools and vital services, 1l01ice,
11 fire and ambulance. Four, a wider spectrum of goods and
12 services with greater competition for the consumer
13 dollar. Five, an audftorium and performing arts center
14 for school and cominuni,ty events, and offi~es for the
15 Arcadia schoo loi stri ct a 11 without charge.
16 six, an atmosphere and architecture in harmony
17 with Santa Anita offering views of horses being brought
18 up for racing events and perhaps even rides in
19 horse-drawn carriaqes. Seven, an attractive open-air
20 complement to the 1ndoor westfield Mall, enabling both
21 malls to exchange visitors and better compete with malls
22 further away by o.ffering greater variety and choices to
23 customers, the same strategy that works for food courts
24' in mans such as westfield and jewelry and garinent,
25 di stri cts in citi es. Negati lie impacts.
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Having said all this, there's some concern over
increased traffic, whether attributable to westfield's
expansion, the good traffic, whether Shops Santa Anita,
the bad traffic. 30 years ago when we moved to Arcadia,
the racetrack was flourishing and the traffic was much
worse than it is today. Nevertheless, the college
street area, above the racetrack where we live,
continues to be surrounded on all sides by traffic
creating problems for both ingress and egress.
CoMMISSIONER OLSON: One minute.
MR. HUDSON: As a statement in our comment to
the first draft EIR effort, much could be done to,
alleviate this situation by placing signals at Baldwin
and Harvard on the west and Princeton and colorado on
the east, and inserting a dedicated northbound feeder
lane,.on_Bali:lwi n from Stanford to Harvard. In addition,
through traffic' would be discourageo'oy'closing'tne
intersection at Harvard and colorado which is also a
blind intersection.
unfortunately, the second draft EIR contains
no discussion that we could find of traffic impacts and
mitiqation proposals for the college street area that we
submltted in our comment on the first draft EIR on
February 27th of this year. One would have thought the
comments provided by the city would have been ,
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1 considered, discussed. the solution, the Caruso project.
2 Unlike other alternatives ~-
3 COMMISSIONER OLSON: we're at three minutes.
4 Wrap it, up in the next ten or 15 seconds, please.
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MR. HUDSON: -- provides its own solution to
the traffi c probl ems in the' adiacent neighborhoods.
First I'd like the city, as reflected in this draft EIR,
unlike westfield, Caruso will provide a 250,000 bond to
address the impacts of increased traffic in the adjacent
neighborhood. second, unlike possible alternatives, the
shops at Santa Anita will provide over two million
annually in sales tax revenue to the city which will
enable the city to mitigate the traffic impacts.
COMMISSIONER OLSON: Mr. Hudson, thank you.
If you've got more to add, please submit it in writing.
It sounds li ke you have a speech there. .
MR. HUDSON: I almost reached the last
sentence.
COMMISSIONER OLSON: we have got a lot of
people here.
MR. HUDSON: I'll put my name down, if I may.
COMMISSIONER OLSON: Yes, please do that.
MR. BELL: My name is Stewart Bell. I'm a
physician. I practice at 150 North santa Anita.
My concern of the mall is two-fold. I don't
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disagree with much of what the previous speaker said
about the attractiveness of some malls, but that's
possible. My concern is the traffic impact. A recent
article, about a year ago, in the Star News mentioned
that Arcadia traffic has grown much worse, much faster
than the traffic engineers had anticipated, which tells
us something about the traffic projections which can be
inaccurate. I think, since we're looking at a statement
that's claimed that this adding of 30 to 50,000 cars a
day to the, city is going to actually improve traffic, if
we just improve the signals at the intersections.
A good way to check out a reality check out on
it is to take a look at what's happened in the prior
caruso malls. My understanding is his las~ 100;000
square foot development tremendously worsened traffic,
and 'they're now after the ci'tY to try and mitigate some
of that. It'S a permanent effect. It isn't once we
build iI mall, if he's worse, if the traffic's worse, he
takes it away. It'S there.
second, my concern is the extra thousand
square foot of gambling point, non-gambling industry
people, study of the economic impact of gambling,
positive, ,negat'ive, it turns out negative. Increased
pol i ce, fi reo, bankruptcy rates. et cetera, 'ilr',i'i n on
legitimate business. It's a negative. And this is part
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1 of the plan.
2 Lastly, just tell you as a physician,
3 the saddest wounds I've seen are self-inflicted
4 We're talking about changing' a city of homes to
5 a city of traffic gridlock I would just ask you
6 reconsider that. ThanK you.
7 COMMISSIONER OLSON: Thank you very much.
8 MR. WILLIAMS: My name is Larry williams. I'm
9 from 130 Greenfield Place.
10 And I want to discuss one aspect of the new
11 mall, that is the so-called water feature. 'This is
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about three and a half acres of basically still water.
And I want to analyze it in terms of benefit versus
risk. AS I see it, this three and a half acres has
basically relatively little benefit, after all this
water isn't being used by anybody for anything, other
than to be looked at.
I, would sugg~st there are two down sides, two
risks to this large water feature. The first, of
course, is the West Nile vi rus situation. The situation
is that, for example, if a human is showing symptoms,
their death rate is somewhere between 5 to 10 percent.
For a horse, rather i roni cany, it's somethi ng around 40
percent. If you go on the Internet and check the state
of California or the state of New York the number one
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method to reduce the inci~ents of west Nile virus is
simply to remove sites of standing water.
we've been urged to do that locally, and
people in this region are guite concerned about that.
we've been told, for example, to do things like takin!3
away spare tires or trash tires which may have water ln
them, or animal dishes that ,are left outside. It's
somewhat ironic, of course, because of the horse
involvement, a loss of just one horse from a racetrack'
of thi s type woul d be a real di saster.,
The second downside is that of injury due to
the water. Although the new. EIR has increased the
security around the water feature, there still is no
complete security around it. children can walk in, fall
in, be thrown in from a variety of sites of this water
feature. And you can imagine a scenario where you're
there with your children or grandchildren and you
suddenly disco)ier one of them might be missing at 'night,
for example. What are you supposed to dq? Are ,you
supposed to, look in this water feature and tt:y to find
someone? I think that the security around the feature
has to be at least as good as those we require around
swimming J1001s, for example, which this is basically a
replica of.
My alternative is to convert this into either
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1 a grassy area or a,xeriscape that offers you two
2 possibilities. In9reased parking for overflQ.W, il-nll~lso
3 a place for athlet1c events. I think that we do have to
4 be careful of riot having security around the feature, and
5 the disease threat. Thank you.
6 COMMISSIONER OLSON: Thank you very much.
7 Also, could I just add. I haven't heard any clapping or
8 anything, but please maintain civility throughout this
9 hearing. Everybody's got different view pOlnts and
10 would like to say them, and we would like to hear them
11 all. Even though everyone has many different
12 viewpoints, at the end of the day we're all neighbors,
13 so please show respect here for the speaker at the
14 podium.
15 Next speaker, please.
16 MR. GOLDMAN: Brian Goldman,1022 East camino
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Real.
I'm just going to read a brief paragraph from
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the public notice that we should have all received in
the mail but many of US may not have read. "significant
environmental effects. The proposed project would
result in significant, unavoidable adverse environmental
effects to aesthetics, air quality, cultural resources,
noise, transportation,traffic and utilities and service
systems that cannot be mitigated to less than
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significant levels. The EIR provides further discussion
and the environmental effects resulting from the
implementation of the proposed project."
My' question is, why on God's green earth do we
want to put something in there that's going to have
signiffcant environmental effects that we cannot fix
once it's done? so my question is, on this for caruso,
as many of you have heard many times on T.V., deal or' no
deal? And it's no deal.
COMMISSIONER OLSON: Thank you, Mr. Goldman.
Next speaker, please.
M~. SHULMAN: The gentleman before me forgot
to sign, but I don't know if that's mandatory. ,
Nevertheless, I'm Sanford shulman. we live at
427 Harvard, in what is called the college district, as
the first gentleman mentioned.
, My concern is, that I do hope that within the
traffic report, within that envi.ronment report, that
it's difficult now to access Baldwin or colorado from
Harvard and Stanford and cambridge; I do hope that they
do look at that particular area and have some kind of
solution as far as the access and ingress from those
streets. Thank yquvery much. .
COMMISSIONER OLSON: Thank you very much.
MS. WILLIAMS: Hello my name is Sonia
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williams. I live at 130 Greenfield place.
And my comments concern the panoramic and
scenic views from the south and southeast of 'the santa
Anita racetrack when you drive along Huntington orive in
front of Holly Avenue. These are described in the 1996
Arcadia General plan as worthy of preservation. They
are Arcadia's heritage and must not be obscured. The
racetrack built in 1934 is now eligible to be listed on
. ,the country's most I>rominent national register of
historic places and the caTifornia: Register of Historic
Resources. The revised DEIR has numerous adverse
aesthetic plans that need to be changed.
For example, in the before pictures of the
parking lot with the grandstand behind it, i.tshows the
dull, grey cloudy day not highlighting the background as
being visually distinctive or beautiful. when one
drives by' on Huntington Drive eastward, one's eyes
quickly scan a grey parkinq lot and look immediately to
the grandstand, the mounta1ns, the greenery, the
fabulous vista which we just cannot have taken away from
us.
In the after picture with the shops now
loading the heiqht to four-plus stories, the view looks
outstanding" qulte picturesque, and ul'lbelievably
attractive. This visual effect is deceptive and that
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even with the buildings lowered in height, the visual
effect of the grandstand would still be obscured., Note
also that all the shops will be visually blinded with
perhaps advertising signs, 'store names, et cetera,
taking the eye from the racing track grandstand and
showing only gray roofing. .
We keep asking for alternatives to project, I
submit this layout of the shops be split into a
horseshoe effect with green path in the middle, no
lagoon and with the west and east flanks built with some
shops of a l.imited number, say at least half the present
proposal. Let's not fill in all the land. Give us
something aesthetic with limited ,shops, some
restaurants, the auditorium, a beautiful hotel, a
medical plaza of offices" school offices, a science
park, et cetera. Let us not rush into this very
important future investment in our city. our city
cannot be asked to make an amendment to our general plan
to allow for the loss of our vista and heritage. Our
city forefathers voted on this for a good reason, and we
need to upnold tti:is part of our heritage. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER OLSON: Thank you very much,
MS. Williams. Next speaker, please. '
MR. CARSTENS: Good evening, my name is
Douglas carstens, and I'm an attorney with Chatten-Bl'own
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& carstens. And we are here representing the 4300
'members of Arcadia First. And I did submit that letter
for the planning commission members' considerafion.
I appreciate the time that you are de"oting to
this, includinq tonight and the numerous hearings that
we will be hav1ng on this. It's obvi,ously a very
important project. probably one could argue the most
important in Arcadia's history and for its future. So
obviously the time spent on this is time well spent.
This is a project that is going to generate
about, 30,226 vehi cl e trl ps a day. n has those
significant impacts that we heard about earlier. It has
,the dramati c adversei mpacts on the hi stori c resource ion
Arcadia, 'the Santa Anita Racetrack. So this is'
something that we urge everybody to take the time that's
requi red to fi nd a better consensus,. Come up wi th
better alternatives, find a way that you don't have to
choose,between this group and that group, but find a way
that people can come togetner. . ,I think there ,are ways,
if only ~ better range of alternatives can be developed.
we ask tonight not. to comment about the detail~ of this
ErR, we are going to be submitting a detailed comment
letter, we have done that already on the, prior draft
ErR.
What tonight I'd like to ask is that we extend
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1 the comment period just a little bit more. I mean, we
2 had asked that it be extended to January 8th. staff had
3 determined it would be extended eight days, to ttie 14th.
4 It's reasonable to ask that it goes just one more week.
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This is a regionally significant project. It took seven
months for professional consultants'to revise this EIR.
It'sa busy time of year. so it's not unreasonable to
extend it a little bit further to give folks an
opportunity to comment and to do so on a good long look
at 'thi s. '
Thi,s revi sed draft EIR is still inadequate.
There were hundreds of comments, literally hundreds
submit,ted on the prior one,including from members --
COMMISSIONER OLSON: One more minute.
MR. CARSTENS: cine 'more minute? I can do
that.
And public agencies, and they were not
responded to, here. .r think perhaps they were responded
to, there were changes, some errors were corrected, some
errors were created. But this draft, EIR is hard to work
with. It's not a red-line 'version where we can see
where changes were made and what responses were made to
particular' comments. So proceeding like that actually
discouraqes people who have submitted, taken time out
from thelr busy schedules before, submitted comments,
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1 and they don't know what happened to those comments. so
2 it's a discouragement to submit comments again.
3 We ask that the EIR be responsive not just to
4 comments that are submitted on this draft, the revised
5 draft, but ,also on that Ilrevious one, the original.
6 That would meet the California Environmental Quality
7 Act"s purpose of involving the publilO in this process.
8 'so we ask for ttiatcontinuance of a deadline. And we
9 ask that 'the EIR be responsive, both to comments that
10 are received in this process and in the prior one. And
11 I thank you for your time tonight. ' I, know that th'ere
12 will be mor'eabout this. Thank you very much.
13 COMMISSIONER OLSON: Thank you. , We have a lot
14 ofempt)' seats thr:ouqhout here, so those that are in the
15 back, if you would l1ke to sit down,. Go ahead, please.
16 MS. HUNTER: I'm Ni cky Hunter. I 1 ive at 120
17 west Sycamore Avenue.
18 This report made by experts is extremely
19 large, excellent bedtime reading. But I would say that
20 all the points that I want,to make, I just want to take
21 one, and that involves traffic. 42 intersections were
22 actually looked at in depth. And of those, only 20
23 intersectiQns were deemed to be impacted by this report.
24 Now, I 'have a graphic here that 'I want to show
25 you. This -- just look at the colors because I know you
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1 can't read anything. Red, this is the projelOt if
2 nothing happens at all. If we don't build anything,
3 this is what our traffic is going to look like. Red
4 means it's going to be at the worst 'possible stages of
5 congestion, the lowest. two levels of congestion. yellow
6 means that. traffic is going to be okay. It'S the mid~le
7 two levels of congestion. Green means that the traff1c
8 is goinq to be good, excellent at the top levels of
9 con~est10n. Just look at the amount of red without the
10 proJect.
11 second thing I want to show you is what
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happens when we do have the project. Again, of those 20
intersections, if we do all the developments,
mitigations, including improving the signs and physical
restripinq of the lanes, as stated in the report, white
on thi s Vl,sua 1 shows that there" s no impact, or very
little. Lots of white. Green shows that those
intersections are siqnificantly improved, quite a lot of
green. of those 20 1 ntersections , 16 are ~oing to be
better, or at least to the same level, as lf no project
was there at all.
The last remaining, yes, there are four which
be improved, I agree, that's the grey. But of
four, the levels that the project will actually be
the top two levels and just one down in at the
won't
those
is at
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middle level. Tome, I just think that's a huge
improvement of where we're goi ng to be ion 2009. I don't
think we can afford not to do this, in terms of
improving our traff:ic.
COMMISSIONER OLSON: Thank you very much.
Next speaker, please.
MR. HETTRICK: Good evening. My name is scott
Hettrick. I live at 67 East Arthur Avenue.
I' first wanted to commend the city and the
independent agency responsil:ile for the preparation of
thi s revi sed envi.ronmental impact report. It's good,' to
see that all the issues that were fully addressed from
the comments we Arcadian's made after the first ,report,
including concerns that were expressed again thi.s
evening about the, West Nile V:irus and the traffic,
they're addressed pretty substantially in the revised
report so it should alleviate any ~oncerns some have had
about that.
while I'm happy to see that 84 of the 100
potential areas of impact would result in no si~nificant
impact with the approval and the building of thlS
development, there are a few areas that were not covered
that I would like to address.
First, there's nothing in the report that
notes the potential negative impact on the Santa Anita
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1 park Horse Track if this development is not approved.
2 For instance, will on-track attendance continue "to
3 decli.ne? The city has already lost about 1. 5 mill,ion
4 do 11 ars i n annual revenue from the track in the pa'st10
5 or 15 years. And as a result --as an i ndi rect result,
6 we have had to reduce the size of our fire department
7 and other city staffing duri,ng that time. How much
8 further will our city be impacted if this development is
9 not built.
10 There's also nothi ng in this report to note
11 the positive impact that, an extra two million dollars or
12 more each year from sales tax revenue alone could have
13 on all 'city services. ' Neither was it noted how much we
14 could imllrove fire and 1l01ice protection for the entire
15 city by earmarkin9 the first dollars generated from this
16 development to brlnging those departments back up to
17 full string.
18 In the section about alternative uses for the
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racetrack Rarking lot, which gets a lOt of ink in the
media and from other organizations, I don't believe the'
report provides any perspective on the realistic chances
of forcing or convincing the owners of this private
property to implement any of these alternatives, whether
we want them to or not. After all, this is private
property, and I don't imagine they would be any more
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wi 11 ing to have others tell them what to do than you
I would want someone to tell us what 'to do wi.th our
property .
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COMMISSIONER OLSON: One minute.
MR. HETTRICK: Thank you. There's also
nothing in the report to explain the negative impact of
having the owners of the race track property build an
Indi'an casino or resident,ial housing or car lots on, the
property, none of which will offer the tens of millions
of dollars of community improvements that Caruso
Affiliated is voluntarily offering.
The report also doesn't describe the posi tive
impact on our schools if the development'is approved'i
especially in light of the new bond measure that cals
,for new buil di ngs on the hi ghs'choo 1 campus . HOW much
more crowded will the campus be ifschool district
offices are not proviaed a new 22,000 square foot
building for free by the developers across the street?
In all of the findings relative to the impact
on the traffic, almost all of which show the t,raffic
flow wi,ll be even better with the improvements provided
by the developer than it is now, as Nicky just so
adeptly pointed out. The report does not really factor
in how traffic may be even further improved if and when
the owners of the westfield ~all provide all the
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mitigations they have promised for years.
COMMISSIONER OLSON: . Go ahead and wrap it up.
MR. HETTRICK: Finally, the report points out,
that even wi thout the development, traffi ,c willcont; nue
to get worse and worse in Arcadia, but there's no
mention about the impact on the pocketbooks of local
residents if we are required to pay die tens of millions
of dollars in higher taxes to make improvement ,rather
than-~etting the developer of The Shops at santa Anita
foot the bi 11. Thank you,.
COMMISSIONER OLSON: Thank you.
MR., BOWEN: My name is Jeff Bowen. I live at
1919 wilson in Arcadia. Arid I've lived in Arcadia since
1950, and raised my family here.
I view this ErR a little differently. Yes,
there's going to be environmental issues to deal With
that the vacant parking lot is built on, but the reality
is that somethi ng will be bui 1 t on that parking lot.
And I think we ought to just face that reality and move
fOnNard with the quality proje~t that's been proposed
for that property and be thankful that we have it to
look for. That's my comment.
COMMISSIONER OLSON: Thank you. Next speaker,
please.
MS. RUIZ:
My name is Rebecca Ruiz, and I live
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at 955 Encanto Orive. well, aft~r two EIRS, I know that
they are independent and very factual, and a little dry.
so part of the life that really, I think, is missing
from these reports, I wanted to focus on.
In the project description we have a community
theatre added. Now the community, at least those who
have children in school, have really been looking for a
cOinmunity theatre, It's a real benefit. School
administrative space, the high school is approaching
occupancy maximums. And I was at a school board meeting
and they were ecstatic to have Caruso offer what he's
offered, in terms of space. Reinvigorating the
racetrack. The purpose of bringing Caruso in there is
to draw people into the racetrack. so any alte'rriatives
would really have to address reinvigorating the
racetrack. ,when people are on the property, they can
see the grandstand, they can be invited to come in
instead of drive by. Lastly, I
wanted to talk about the footprint of this project. If
you go to The Grove, this is just to give a little
perspective" The Grove is 13 acres, of which about 20 to
25 percent is open space. The Shops at Santa Anita,
it's going to have 46 acres available for development
that the project is proposing, of which 26 acres is open
space. And about 14 acres is park, the water feature,
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that's the size of The Grove. So in addition that's
over 50 percent open space. And that's huge.
COMMISSIONER OLSON: One minute.
MS. RUIZ: In closing, I hope n I see there
are a lot of supporters here, and I hope others come up
and talk. :T:hank you.
COMMISSIONER OLSON: Thank you very much.
MS.NIGOLIAN: Hello, my name is Talin
Nigolian, and I live on 951 paloma orive.
And after all this well-researched
information, I ju'st want to say to my fellow intelliqent
tasteful and concerned Arcadians, really, what more 1S
there to thi nk 'about?' Mor:e money to, the ci ty., very much
needed office space for Arcadia High school. A
beautiful and safe environment to shop and dine with our
families,., A community theatre that we've all been
waiting for. And a developer 'who cares what we think~ '
And most importantly, let's all remember that
competition is good.
'Have we all noticed the cheesecake Factory and
the finer retail stores such as Banana Republic, Guess
and H&M that are all of a sudden coming in Westfield.
Bottom line, we are Americans and we are about progress,
so why not progress forward wi,th a top-notch quality
,development that most other cities would die to have.
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1 Thank you.
2 .' COMMISSIONER OLSON: Thank you. Next speaker.
3 MR. HERR: Good evening, my name i's Paul Herr.
4 I'm a 30-year resident of Arcadia. Grew up in the San
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Gabriel valley.
And my main concern is the traffic. I notice
somebody got up here and said 16 intersections would be
better. I'm an accountant. I've been an accountant for
many years. The numbers don't add up. I don't see how
you can add 30 to 50,000 car trips a day and improve the
traffic no matter how you change things, unless you put
in a double, decker system or something.
I'd like to address the -- also the traffic,
as it's going to be five years, ten years and 15 year~
down the way. As all of you are aware, anybody who's
driven on the 210 over the last 30 or 40 years, it's
gotten progressively worse year after year. If you have
that many more cars comin9 into Arcadia on the 210, on
the 60'! and whatever, you re goi ng to have major cause
of add~tional qridlock. You take the effect that has on
the people's t1me, as far as how much time it's going to
take .us to get to and from work, that's increase.
That's a cost.
It'S going to slow down your progress so
you're driving longer, you're going to use up more gas.
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I think these need to be addressed in the EIR. I've
also been over to The Grove. There is a lot of gridlock
around there. It's very difficult to find parking lot
on occasions. And I don't think we need to add that, to
Arcadia. Arcadia is known as a city of homes, and I,
don't think we, should make it a city of gridlock. Thank
you.
COMMISSIONER OLSON: Thank you very much.
MS. TSE: Good evening my name is sung Tse,
T-s-e. My address is 240 Renoak Way, Arcadia. I do
live in Arcadia.
I would like to squash the rumor that Arcadia,
Fi rst, fi rst of a ll.,i s a shill orqani zati on for
Westfield. I am not paid by westfleld. I'ma very busy
mother of two. YOU know what, I just -- I just wonder
how people could just gloss over the fact that we are
going to have increased smog that cannot be mitigatea.
I have a calendar that was sent'to me by the
Air Quality Management District, and it says here that
the -- I'm sorry. Nearly half a million california
children have asthma, leading cause'of children
absenteeism. children are more at risk from the effects
of air pOllutionbe.cause they breathe in larger
quantities of air, spend a lot of outaoor --'doing
outdoor activities, and have lungs that are not fully
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1 developed. Weare talking about the children, the
2 schools,and all the impact, the negative impact, the
3 traffic. '
.4 YOU know, I'd rea 11 y love to address all the
5 mothers here. Why did you move to Arcadia? Why do you
6 live in Arcadia? Isn't it for your children? I mean,
7 this says the environmental impact -- theDEIR, all the
8 impacts here, -- excuse me, I'm sorry. It's listed right
9 here all the impactsl 4.2, 4.2-2, 4.2-3, 4.2-4. And
10 this is black and wh1te. It says that our air will --
'11 it's going to get worse. If you just look at the --
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okay.
If the impact -- 4.2-2 says, "construction
activities associated with the proposed project." It
has a lot of initials here, voe, Noxand co2. That
means smog. Bottom line, that means smog. And it says
here, black and white, that it will be -- the impact is
significant and unavoidable. The bottom line here, if
we are talking about the overcrowding of schools, this
community theatre that's supposed to be so great for our
children, this outdoor space that's going to be inside,
that's as large as The Grove. My goodness, that's going
to be very lar~e, and all that and we're saying that's
for our commun1ty, for our children. what about the air
that we breathe? You could say the lights are not going
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to affect me, 'I don't liVe near the mall . I am not
affected by the traffic, I don't live near --
COMMISSIONER OLSON: About 30 seconds.
MS. TSE: well, I would just like everyone to
just instead of -- all these little badge, Arcadia First
and Arcadia wins, whatever, if we are -- if we truly are
concerned about our children, please don't ignore the
fact that th~ir air is going to get worse. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER OLSON: Thank you very much.
Next speaker, please. please no clapping.
MS. DUNLOP: I'm Ruth Dunlop, and I live at
824 Arcadia Avenue.
, Many things have been said tonight that I was
going tosay,likethe fact that Caruso is planning on
having the Arcadia High School or the Arcadia offices on
their property, not charging rent, which will keep the
school from bursting at the seams. somebody said
something about calling these people of Arcadia First
shills for westfield, I don't think anybody has thought
that or said that; however, when westfield has thrown
over three million dollars into this campaign to defeat
caruso, I think that they may be misled. I won't go to
the mall at night. r had two friends who had their
purses snatched at Westfield. one was when Broadway was
still there, and this friend of mine was going into
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1 Broadway and there was a woman standing by the door, she
t thought she, ,was --
3 COMMISSIONER OLSON: 'can-we"Trmit this to
4 discussion on the --
5 MS. DUNLOP: okay. we 11, one thi ng, though,
6 that Caruso project is, they do h~ve grea~ security.
7 And I know that at one of the pol1ce meet1ngs that we
8 had this last summer they said soinething about putting
9 in cameras and things at the westfield Mall. well,
10 Caruso has that sort of thing. I was wondering who is
11 paying for this? IS westfield paying for this or is the
12 city paying for this.
13 A city of homes doesn't put the police and the
14 fire, people in -~ the Caruso is up-scale shop~, they're
15 no threat to westfield. And ,certainly they would not be
16 a magnet for the teenagers and such that hang around
17 there. I know that caruso has tded to work with the
18 city, and I know that when the mayor called westfield,
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they wouldn't listen to him. So as I said, the theatre,
the school district, the -- all the -- all the ways that
they have tried-to work 'together. And I don't --
talking about West Nile ana the lake, well, we have open
water --
COMMISSIONER OLSON: 30 seconds.
MS. DUNLOP: we have open water at the
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1 arboretum too, and I haven't heard anybody with their
2 ~hildren falling in or west Nile. Thanks.
3 MR. KIMBALL: Bob kimball, 140 Santa cruz.
4 Just to echo what' the lady said, I work with
5 water parks and water features, and the health
6 department would shut you down in a heartbeat if there
7 was standing water.
8 Anyway,I am a realist and the city of Arcadi a
9 has to make a huge deCision. Santa Anita is! for lack
10 of a better word, doomed. There's so many dlfferent
11 venues for qambling, there's so man v different venues
12 for entertalnment. r go to the t~ack, I entertain ,
13 guests, neighbors, friends, out-of-towners goin~ to the
14 track. The attendance is ladd n'g and the park 1 s
15 doomed. It's either that, or have 1100 homes and then
16 all of a sudden the city of Arcadia has to figure out
17 traffic mitigation, smog, timing of lighting, the
18 traffic signals, et cetera, et cetera.
19 The other impact is tax qenerated -- I'm
20 sorry, tax revenues generated by elther 1100 homes --
21 and this is just .a plus or minus of what people have
22 been saying with the 86 acres. Keep in mind that
23 westfield did get 20,acres from the track in 1978, I
24 thi nk it was. .
25' Anyway, the caruso project will continually
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1 generate taxes as opposed to permit fees and new water,
2 sewer, electrical, et cetera, et cetera. A lot of those
3 fees are just going to be a one-time hit, and then the
4 city is going to have to try and figure out what to do
5 with those 1100 homes, times 2.3 people per home, per
6 ,dwelling, whatever. I'm in favor of the caruso project,
7 just because there has been a lot of thought gone into
8 how to lessen the traffic, what to do with it, and I
9 know that westfiel d . has. ,tri.ed and they've not had thei r
10 hands ti ed as to what to do. 'Crriean, tney've been
11 recommended but haven't really flipped the buck to do
12 it. so, that's my time.
13 COMMISSIONER OLSON: Thank you.
14 MR. LIMO: MY name is Rick Limo, and I'm with
15 caruso Affiliated.
16 councilmember Amundson, commissioners and city
17 staff, out of respect for your t1me and respect for the
18 quests here tonight who have come on both sides of the
19 1s5ue, I want to congratulate the city and the residents
20 for literally crafting the project that has been studied
21 in this EIR. And to save time for a lot of folks and a
22 lot of people who were robbed from their Tuesday
23 evening, if I could just ask that everyone here who is
24 in support of the work donei n thi s, EIR, and support of
25 the mitigations that Caruso will be putting in the
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project, would please raise ther hand so our
commissloners would be able to ee what the numbers are,
so we don't tie everyone's time tonight speaking. And
as you can see, it's a significant amount of the,room.
I have to tell you that' we're humbled" and we're very
grateful, and we thanK you all for turning out tonight.
Thank you.
COMMISSIONER OLSON: If I could, I'll remind
everybody, this is not a popularity contest, number one.
Everybody, whatever is said tonight or in the comments
is getting equal consideration and discussion and
thought to it. And so it really doesn't matter how many
people are here or not, quite frankly. And if somebody
has a 1 r~ady sai d wryat ~ou want to say, 'you don't need to
repeat 1t because lt w111 be answered '1n the report.
Next, speaker. '
MR. FOLEY: Gee, David, you have to say that'
just when I get up there. "Not a popularity contest,
don't forget." My name is vince Foley, I live at 320
cambi"i dge ori ve, whi ch, as you can tell by the name is
one of those college streets places.
~ lot of the thinqs I was going to talk about
have been said, already, obv1ously. So I want. to just
talk about one thinq that I got in the mail just today,
and it's from Arcad1a First. And it says, of course.
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it.' s pili d by Westfi e 1 d, we ,all know that. One of the
things they want me as a citizen to talk to you about
tonight, is the need to include a new public park. And,
of course '. we know there are no pub 11 c parks anywhere
near westf1,eld, but we know there are some, as we've
heard 20 acres of open green space proposed for this new
project. So I would agree that we certainly need in
Arcadia in that area a new public park. And I would
suggest we place it immediately east of Baldwin, just
north of HUntinqton, kind of right where westfield's
purposed expanslonlsgoing to be. Because they say we
need a park, I thlnk that's where we ought to have a
park.
MR. HENRICH: My name is Tony Henrich. I live
at 431 North Altura Road in Arcadia, over the lower
Rancho. My wife and I have lived in, Arcadia for over 30
years': '-
I'm past president of the homeowner's
association and currently architecture review board
chairman for the 900 homes which surrounds the racetrack
on the north and on the west. Speaking for myself, I
have, revi ewed the EIR, and I fi nd it comprehensi ve and
complete, but I would like to ask the planning
commission to consider the EIR to reflect the added
goodwill that this project provides to the citizens of
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1 Arcadia.
2 The Caruso proj ect will fi na 11 y gi ve us a
3 downtown, a plaza. A place where we can go and stroll
4 and dine and meet with our neighbors or what have you.
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we don't ,have that in Arcadia. Just think of the added
value and goodwill that downtown Monrovia provides to
its citizens, or the added value, that sierra .Madre
downtown adds to its citizens. I can't imagin~ these
cities without their downtown.
Here in Arcadia we have an added value
provided by a great school system, which our kids went
throuqh. We have added value 'from the arboretum, and
most 1 inport'antl y, we have added value from thi s great
crown jewel of Arcadia, Santa Anita Racetrack. I would
hate to lose that track. I think this project provides
the enhancement and will help save this pro~ect.
So in closing, I, support this proJect, I ask
the plannjng commission to look at the ~oodwill and
,added value that this project will prov1de all of us.
Thank you.
COMMISSIONER OLSON: Thank you. Next speaker,
please.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAK:
'blow citizen like myself --
COMMISSIONER OLSON:
t think the average Joe
Can I have your name and
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address, please.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I prefer to remain
anonymous, if that' s all ri'ght. I thi nk the average
citizen of Arcadia is not interested in the squabbling
that's going on between westfield, the ci,ty, Arcaoia
First, and any other organizations. I moved here from
Northern California 11 years ago. InitiallY, my wife
and I lived in south Arcadia, on the other side of Live
Oak. we lived i'n a small hous'e off of Live Oak for two
years and then we bought a house very close to the back
side of the track. And like so many other peoPle, we
enjoy Arcadia, we enjoy the track. I take my
nine-year-ola-daughter over to the track quite
frequently to see the horses, to ride the tram on
saturday mornings. I love the track.
But just some comments I'd like to throw in.
Agai n, I thi nk another poi,nt that's bei ng ,mi.ssed is, I
think the duty of any city council and any planning
commission is indeed to protect the interest of the
people, and make sure that the public health is
safeguarded. And some of the speakers have been saying,
well, something's got to goin there, something's going
to go in there. That may be true, and maybe it is owned
by private interests, I can't arg'ue with that, but
that's mi.ssi ng the poi nt. .
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1 City counci 1 s are to safeguard the i.nterests
2 of their citizens, regardless of whether or ,not it's
3 private property. Look at the eminent domain issue,
4 'that's a perfect example. I'd like to see a commission
5 appointed, just like Monrovia did. old Town Monrovia, I
6 don't think anyone can argue, it's been a huge success.
7 They appointed a Blue-- I don't know if it's properly
8 called a Blue Ribbon commission, but it was an
9 independent commission' that Monrovia went with to get
10 input. I'd really like the City of Arcadia to do that,
11 to s'tudy --
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COMMISSIONER O~SON: One minute.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I work in Encino, it
took me an hour and a half this evening to drive 35
miles from Encino to get here. If this project is going
to be successful, people have to taRe that 210 Freeway.
AS one other speaker pointed out, it's just going to get
steadily worse. I don't think the traffic can be
adequately judged until you put a whole bunch of cars
there. GO out and get some rental cars and actually put
them in that area and judge the impact.
The impact on the power grid has not been
addressed at all. In prior sessions I've been told.
well, that's Edison's responsibilitV' What if Edison
can't deal successfully with it? I d like to see
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comments solicited from neighboring cities and
,communities. Sure, the school district is going to get
a bu'i 1 di ng, but it 'os just goi ng to be ashe 11 from what
I understand.
COMMISSIONER OLSON: You have 15 seconds,
could you please wrap it up?
UNIOENTIFIED SPEAKER: sure. Also, the track,
from what I understand, was one of the original
promoters of offsite, wagering. And sure enough, that's
reduced the number of-people coming to the track. This
project is much bigger' than anything else that Mr.
caruso has tackled.
COMMISSIONER OLSON: If you've 90t any further
comments, you can pl ease put them in wri tl ng.'
UNIOENTIFIEOSPEAKER: My final comment would
be, I really encourage the city to appoint an
,i ndependent commissi on to study thi So. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER OLS()N,: Next speaker, please.
MR. O'CONNOR: My name is Mike O'Connor. I
live up on the college streets. ,
when I first heard about this project, being'
neutrali I just waited to see what it was all ,about. My
persona oplnion, I would like to see -- I want to see
progress in Arcadia, but I certainly don't want to see a
lot of additional building right in the middle of
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1 Arcadia. we already have a lot of conqestionand
2 traffic. Important thin9s such as pohce, fi~e,
3 hospital, docto~s' build1ngs, there's too much traffic
4 for those important services as there is right now.
5 Adding to that is just going to make things in Arcadia
6 extremely difficult, even possibly unsafe for somebody
7 who's in an emergency. ,
8 There's no way that -- no matter what you are
9 told or what people claim will happen, there's no' way
10 anybody is going to improve the traffic in Arcadia after
11 they put in a new, mall. It's not going to happen. I
12 don't care if they consult the number one foremost
13 traffic facilitator in the country. It'S not going to
14 happen. I 1 i ve up there. I know what it's 1 i ke.
15 There's a school up there, Barn Heart, they haven't
16 talked about all the racetrack traffic 'leaving out
17 through that direction. people living on the hill, the
18 only way they're going to get down to this mall is Santa
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Anita or Baldwin. There's no way you're going to handle
that traffic. You're going to back up traffic on the
freeway on busy days.
That doesn't even talk about pollution. HOW
would you like 35,000 cars going around us here in this
buildin9? All that pollution, smog, you're breathing it
in. It,s not the city's obligation at'all to save the
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racetrack owner from making a bad investment. That's
not, our job. That's not your job, because your job, as
the man said before, is to safeguard the citizens of
this town.
I would like to see Arcadia improve and get
better, but I also want it to stay the way it has been,
a decent fine community, not a congested overloaded
place where people can't get from one place or another.
when I went to one of the earlier meetings, the real
estate people, a spokesman stood up and said, "we want
more apartments, there's not enouQh." obviously most of
them don't want apartments. ,I called them and said,
"You don' t rea" y mean that." The real estate 1 ady, she
said, "Have you lived here long?" I says, "Yeah, I
remember the way Arcadia was ,when the racetrack was
going." she goes, "Yeah, I heard Arcadia was hopping
then.," Yeah, you couldn't drive anyplace between 11:30
and 1:30, you couldn't drive anyplace between 4:30 and
6,: 30. Now we'" have it all day 1 on!!. And on speci al
days liRe special race days or christmas shopping or
~omething like thllt, might as well walk. The
racetracku
COMMISSIONER OLSON: you've got 15 seconds.,
please, if you, could, Wrap it up.
MR. O'CONNOR: I'll just get to one,thing.
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1 I'm concerned about some of the tactics I've seen used.
2 obviously, everybody has different opinions. But when I
3 saw a flyer come to, my house that said, "NO new
4 apartments in Arcadia," small print, "unless the city
5 counci 1 approves." Small pri nt.
6 I went to date ni ght, when I talked to other
7 people, there were people in a number of ,those meetings
8 who stood up and said the traffic around The Grove is a
9 lot better. They're obviously working for Mr. caruso.
10 COMMISSIONER OLSON: Mr. 0 'connor ,i f you have
11 anything else to SllY, you can put it in writinq.
12 MR. O'CONNOR: I go to Meet-the-Candldates
13 Night and the homeowner's assocjation, and what is in
14 the back of the room? The racetrack. It's the Santa
15 Anita -- or the owner's association, Day At The Races,
16 right in the back of the room, but we're sitting up
17 there, listening to the candidates.
18 COMMISSIONER OLSON: Mr. o'connor, your time
19 is up, please. We have other speakers.
20 MR. O'CONNOR: sO anyway, my last comment is,
21 just follow the money.
22 MR. NORTON: Good evening. My name is Kevin
23 Norton. I represent International Brotherhood of
24 Electrical workers, we're the electrician's union.
25 we're a community stakeholder.
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we have members that work on projects in
Arcadia like the hospital in front of us, the westfield
Mall when that was under construction, and they'll be
working on this project. We all represent electricians
who work at the racetrack, so we're concerned about the
future of' that racetrack so we:can have these jobs. we
al ready have hal,f the amount of jobs that we used to
have just a few short years ago because of the
dimimshed traffic at the ,racetrack. we feel that
Caruso project will be an added value to the community.
It will also help shore up the racetrack, which is rich
in Arcadia history. It's a beautiful facility that
they're going to build over there. And we fully support
the project and hope that you move forward with it.
Thank you.
COMMISSIONER OLSON: Next speaker, please.
MR. MORRIS:, M~ name is Mike Morris. I've
1 i ved on porto la Drive S1 nee 1964.
what I'm con~erned about is a simple situation
that nobody has bothered to ask Caruso to guarantee in
writing with a situation where it will cost them dearly
in the pocket if they don't go throuqh with all these
promises. They promised a school bU1~ding. it's a
shell. Let's give them a building that's quality, that
won't fall down with the first earthquake and get it in
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1 writing. Make it hurt if they don't give you a quality
2 building.
3 Next thi nq is, I have yet to see Caruso say
4 anything about,puttHtg il ~ril'!l in betlJeen tryeir fa<:ili~y
5 and the Gold L1ne" and p01ntlng out ln theH ads lt wlll
6 cost three bucks a day to come to thei r facility if they
7 take the Gold Line and the tram, and maybe even refund
8 the three bucks. That will cut traffic. That will cut
9 existing traffic to Westfield.
10 parki ng si tuati on. I've been a Holy Angels
11 pari shi oner S1 nce I moved here. There used to bea
12 problem with people parking in the Holy Angels parking
13 lot when they went to the racetrack. In fact, Monsignor
14 O'Keefe ,had to pull the candles (inaudible) so people
15 would light a candle for their horse. well, let's make
16, it to where -- where if -- 1 e't' s make the parking free
-17' lntheparking lot wliere thfs won't happen. '
18 They're talking about putting gambling in
19 there. NO, thank you. I'm a sheriff's volunteer in
20 their communications group. I hear about the problems
'21 the sheriffs have in the gambling dens done in other
22 parts of this country. Ask any sheriff's officer if the
.23 crime rate improv,esaround where there's gambl i ng.
24 please. And then ban the gambling. I'd much rather see
25 that parking lot be zoned parking only forever than to
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1 see something go in where my personal quality of life
2 drops. I also want to see Caruso guarantee my personal
3 property value won't go doWn. Thank you.
4 COMMISSIONER OLSON: Next speaker, pl ease.
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MR. MARTINEZ: My name is Richard Martinez. I
live at 301 West Magna vista.
And I think a lot has been discussed here
regarding the quality of the Caruso projects and so
forth, many people have gone over and taken advantage of
going over to The Grove and so forth, which is flagship,
as far as we're concerned, here in Arcadia. I think the
issue is not really whether it's a good project or not
for the residents, it's the quality of 'life in Arcadia.
And over and over what do you hear? YOU hear about the
traffic. '
Right now I would suggest that probably most
of us at qiven periods of time avoid different
intersect10ns in Arcadia or we just don't travel in
Arcadia. when they talk about adding between 30 and
50,000 extra trips per day and improving, with a project
improving traffic, that is not so.
I'm sure most of you have already seen
numerous articles in the front page of the business
section of the L.A. Times that says -- I have a copy
here which came out in, page 1 of the business section of
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the LA. Times wednesday, April the 19th. A comment
from an area re'si dent that says, "Traffi c in thi s
neighborhood is much worse than it was before The
Grove. "
Also, the article states that "Traffic
cong'estion is so bad that now the state is conducti ng
an.d providing additional grants to try and solVe the
problems at The Grove." And The Grove adjusted 40-some
traffic lights. The~ built riew streets, new ingress and
'egress. And they stlll are congested where the state is
trying to resolve thi.s Ilroblem. If adding lights is
qoing to solve the traffic problem here, why don't we do
1t now? We don't have to build the project in order to
adjust the 1 i ghts if that i's the answer.
And also, as far as traffic is concerned. if
you look in the ErRS, it says -- there is a note, I'd
like the planning commission to follow up on it, that
they are going to work, I believe, with about five other
cities probably contiguous to our city, to try to
resolve the traffic. In other words, if We get the
traffic out of Arcadia because of minor adjustment, San
Marino, Pasadena, sierra Madre, Monrovia W111 say yes,
give us your tra;fJ:ic? ,No.. \t1ey ar:e_ .rrC?t_.
COMMISSIONER OLSON: 30 seconds.
MR. MARTINEZ: There was a comment saying that
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1 we will be getting together with them to resolve this.
2 I say this has to be resolved before anything goes any
3 further than that, because I suspect that they don't
4 want, our contiguous neighbors do not want Arcadia
5 traffic. Thank you. .
6 COMMISSIONER OLSON: Thank you. Next speaker,
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MR. KRUCKEBERG: Folks, if you could please
to sign in after you speak. Thanks.
MR. RAZI: I live at 2210 South 6th Avenue.
of the few people here that actually grew up in
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Arcadia.
. I moved to Arcadia when I was about eight
years old, and I moved away for about four or five years
and now I'm back. And a couple of the issues that hav~
been issued is the issue of the parkinq. I mean, of the
traffic on the 210 Freeway, the pollutlon. , The fact of
the matter is, the growth of the Inland Empire has
really created, traffic on the 210, the additional smog
that we deal with. f am a developer in that area. Ido
that run just about every single day, and I know that
the trafflc ,is ,bad, but not because we're going to have
an extra mall here. It's because there's about 300,000
new homes in that area. so anybody who thinks that this
little mall is going to create more traffic on the 210
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or more pollution, they're highly mistaken compared to
that other issue.
The other issue that I have is that of all my
classmates that I grew up with there's probably maybe
three or four of them that actually stayed in Arcadia.
And it's not because we can't afford the homes here, the
big issue is, there's really not a whole lot for us to
do that goes beyond just going to the mall. Many people
that are here are retired and only have a certain amount
of period of time that they're going :to still live in
Arcadia, but I'll probably live here at least another 30
years. Let's be serious. There's really not a whole
lot for us to do. ' ,
. The track has become a -- not an exciting
place to go anymore. The Arc:adia Mall is just filled
with these corporate entities that really don't have the
kind of stuff that we',re looking for,. we don't have
good restaurants. I have to go to pasadena, the fact of
the matter is, i,t has affec:ted our home val ues. If you
think I'm joking, I'm not. If you look at the average
price of a, say, 1500 square foot home in Pasadena in a
poor n~ighborhoC?d, .it's eql!ivalentto what a -- th~~
same Sl,ze home 1 s 1 n Arcad1 a. And you're not gettl nq
near the schooling, the beauty of Arcadia. And why lS
that? Because pasadena has a lot of stuff to do. It's
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1 a place where people want to be. There will be some
2 htqhe~ traffic in the city, but that ~ay be a small
3 pr1ce to pay for the welfare of our C1ty. Thank you.
4 COMMISSIONER OLSON: Thank you. Next speaker,
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please.
, MS. SIRENE: My name is Edna sirene. I live
at 824 Arcadia Avenue. I've lived there for 85, years.
The block west I was born and raised.
I have, a whole list of things to talk, about
but 'many people, have already covered. If I hear about
The Grove one more time -- it's so wonderful because
people love it. Why don't they move :to The Grove? It's
a good idea, huh? And as far as the racetrack, the
racetrack brought more to the City of Arcadia, than
anything else. It isn't the racetrack's fault that they
don't have the people there, crowds. Because the state
of california Horse RaCing Board are the ones that allow
the off-track betting.
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19 So if you bet the races, 'i f you l'ive in, 1 et ' s
20 say, pomona, wh~'would you come to Santa Anita, when
21 you've got an off-track right there, in pomona. Or the
22 same with people going to Hollywood park, it's not a
23 popular place any more because people can go right here
24 to Santa Anita to bet Hollywood Park and so on. There's
25 a lot more I could cover, you don't have time, and I
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don't have time.
COMMISSIONER OLSON: Thank you. Next speaker,
please.
Becket.
I'm also
Fi rst.
MR. BECKET: Good evening. My name is paul
I reside at 2016 canyon Road here in Arcadia.
a member of the executive committee of Arcadia
AS you all know, we're oPRosed, to the project,
I have a number of concerns, most of which have been
expressed here, from the' traffic, to the pollution, to
the obliteration of the, skyline, to the increased
ponce, fire services.
I've heard the comments of a number of the
supporters ,of the project here thi s eveni ng, and some
made comments about the wide open green spaces in the
caruso Ilrojects, the safety of the Caruso projects. I
think if you do visit The Grove, as I guess many have
done, you'll see that The Grove is not known for wide
open spaces, it's wall-to-wall concrete with, a
meandering path through the middle. I think the same is
true of Glendale. I think what you see in each of these
areas is denSity beyond your wildest imagination.
And in our case here, the develbpment ~ill
introduce new elements to, our community here which are
not presE!n( here. I think if everything went as the
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1 most optimistic projections say! you kept all the retail
2 sllaces full, your adjoining buslness remained vibrant,
3 inaybe you get the increase in revenues that we're
4 tal ki ng about, but it comes at a ~-r'eat cost. Because
5 what is associated with, these proJects, the caruso
6 projects in particular, is density, density, density.
7 Try today to drive anywhere near 3rd and
8 Fai rfax at any time of day. Try to drive from north to
9 south in Glendale anytime of day. I think the revenues
10 are- certainly s-omethi ng 'to tal k about', but the costs are
11 very, very great. And with what I know of our current
12 projections in the city budget I our current situation in
13 the city budget, we simply don t need those kinds of
14 revenues. we can do with lesser revenues and preserve
15 the kind, of community that we have here.
16 I wou 1 d li ke to add one other thing. There's
17 a lot of talk here about the imminent demise of the
18 racetrack. From the numbers I've seen. and I've said
19 that here before, I don't see a basis for that. I think
20 those claims are without foundation. I think on the
21 contrary, santa Anita Racetrack is the highest
22 reven~e-qenerating racetrack in the natiory. t~lking in
23 the ,m11110ns of dollars, 80 percent of WhlCh lS
24 off-track betting. , ' .
25 So I don't think hangi ng thi s project on,
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well, we have to save the racetrack. I don't think you'
can go forward with the project solely based on what you
may get by way of revenues1f everything goes just,
right, police, fire services don't run higher costs than
what you project, crime levels aren't higher. AS the
gentleman earlier said, show me a place where there's
gambling, a casino atmosphere where crime has gone down.
It just doesn't happen.
Show me a pl ace where you add 30,000 ca17s or
50,000 and how you get traffic getting better. where
has t raffi c. improved in and around any Caruso proj ect?
Yo'u 're talking about somepl ace 1 i ke Ca 1 abasas. Maybe
you don't get a major impact. we're not calabasas here,
we're also not West L.A. here either. This is a
community of homes. consider some alternatives.
COMMISSIONER OLSON: Could you sign the
clipboard please. Before the next speaker, I'm going to
-- because the reporters, they need a short break, if we
do take a five-minute break. If you want, to stand up
you'll be the first speaker. we'll reconvene in five
minutes.
(A recess was taken.)
COMMISSIONER OLSON: Next speaker, please.
MR. RAMIREZ: Members of the planning
commission, City staff, good evening; My name is Ralph
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1 Ramirez, my wife and I live ,at 504 sharon Road.
2 , And the thi riq that has been addressed to you
3 briefly here, but not lnthe depth I think it should be,
4 is the issue of public standard. public standards of
5 conduct , wh.i ch are -- I think is a very important issue
6 that is enforced at all of the Caruso projects. si nce
7 this is private land, you can enforce it 1n an effort of
8 public conduct. These posted standards.
9 And I thought it was qui te i nteresti n!(l, and
10 that having toured their security system, and w1th their
11 cameras and thei:r security force, whenever they see
12 somebody wi th inappropri ate atti re or inappropriate
13 behavior, or even people who are at the point where
14 they're mitigating the possibility of qood behavior but
15 of errant behavior, their security is 1mmediiltely posted
16 to that area. These standards are read to the people,
17 -theY'Te'~said.""Do-you'want to stick around here'? DO you
18 want to be arrested? DO you want to leave the
19 premises?" And as a result of that, those enforcement
20 of a standard of code of conduct at all the ca17uso
21 projects, and verified by the police chiefs of .all the
22 citl es involved, as well as the ci ty of LOS Angel es,
23 pohce requirements have been lessen, crime has been
24 reduced, even with more people.
25 So I think it's a very 'important issue that
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2 to go to Westfield in
3 shootings up there at
4 things, if this would
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My wife and I are very reluctant
the evenings. And with the
Dave & Busters and those kinds of
have been mitigated to begin with,
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you wouldn't have those kinds of people in the location
to begin with. I think it's a very important issue.
And we're talking about police and fire and safety
issues. I'.nd we have a number of vacancies in our police
department, we can't afford to hire anybody. so when
somebody says we can do whatever we wan,t, yeah, you can ,
downsize it, and can have crime incr'ease. If you don't
have enough police, you don't have enough fire.
I think you necessarily have to have the
revenue to support a city of this size and a city of
this quality. And it needs adequate public safety, And
the standard of code of conduct I think is an important
ingredient o'f that. .Because of that issue" ;r felt that
I had to get up and lmpress upon -- the woman addressed
it earlier, the issue of safety and of public safety for
all those people whopartic~pate is a very, very
important issue.
And I think if you visited any of these
locations at any time of day, I think it's very
important. And if you visited their security locations
and seen where th~ cameras are at the entrances of their
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parking lots, as well as the egress of their parking ,
lots, that could be tied very easily with the CHP stolen
automobile issues so stolen cars don't get out.
They're immediateiy arrested. There's so many issues
that pertaining to public safety of that: program.
COMMISSIONER OLSON: 15 seconds.
MR. RAMIREZ: SO anyway, public safety I think
is an extremely. important i,s~ue, and it can be mitigated
by approvlng thlS caruso proJect.
COMMISSIONER OLSON: Thank you very much.
Next speaker, please. '
MR. VALLE: Hello, my name is Marco valle,
v-a-l~l-e. I ljve at 4939 Rupert Lane, which is La
canada, Flintridge, not in Arcadia, although, I have
worked in Arcadia for years and so have members of my
family, and do a lot of shopping here, have over the
years. .
And just felt compelled to share a short word
about change and the process of change. In my business,
I've had,the opportunit~ to look at ,how communities like
Arcadia have become cit1es of' homes. It's because over
the process of many years Southern california and the
,suburban c,u,l:ture that's frayi ng out of it, became very
autocentri c. . - ,
I think a lot of the challenges that have been
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1 addressed tonight,a lot of the concerns that have been
2 concerned at this meetinq and the previous one, stem
3 from the process of gettlng away from a traditional town
4 with a town center, which was centered around
5 pedestrians and retail that was in a central location.
6 These problems are stemming from decades and decades of
7 getting away from that and towards the culture that we
8 now have, which is very focused on cars, and has led to
9 all the traffic problems and commune issues that we have
10 now.
11 So what I'd li'ke to share is that I thi nk I'
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represent a 'lot of people from La canada, Flintridge who
would love 'to come to the shops at santa Anita and to
spend our leisure time and our money here, because we
don't have anything like that in La canada, Flintridge.
It's projects like this that represent a renaissance in
developmental thinking now. with new developers such as
car,uso, Caruso Affiliated that are embracing working
with communities and getting back to the fundamentals of
city planning.
I do recognize that there are issues that come
up .with any kind of big changes like this. The 30,000
cars keeps being mentioned over and over ad nauseam. At
the same time, though, it is projects li.ke this that are
now beginning to happen as people are changing their
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minds and looking back towards the more traditional ways
of city planning, going back literally centuries,if not
millennia. They provide a catalyst for business, civic
leaders and resldents, to not simplY ,have change for
change sake, but to embrace how c:-ities like Arcadia are
goi ng to deal wi.th change that is bei n!il imposed on them
with increases in population and chang1ng of
demographics.
COMMISSIONER OLSON: 30 seconds.
,MR.' VALLE: Thank you very much. That's
actually all. I wanted to say. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER OLSON: Thank you. Next speaker,
please.
MS. THIBOUH: Good evening, commissioners.
I'm Carmen Thibouh. r live at 1215 oaklawn Road in
Arcadia.
Before I make my comments, I would hope that
the commission in the future. if an individual refuses
to give their name and their resldence, that their
comments should be stricken. If you don't have the
courage to give your name and your address, then I don't
think they should have been allowed to speak earlier.
My comments are regarding the traffic flow.
The EIR states clearly that the traffic flow will
improve as' a result of the 8 to 10 million dollar
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1i nvestment by Caruso in upgradi ng the ,current 1970s
2 :traffic' te~,hr~o logy in )>.rcadi a. Thi s is a techno 1 o!ily
3 that the Clty would 11ke'to have been able to proVTde
4 for over the last few years, but, has not had the money
5 to do so.
6 contrary to a letter that was written to the
7 pasadena Star News from somebody, Caruso has not made
8 extravagant prom'i sesto improve the Arcadia .
9 intersections. New state-of-the-art traffic technology
10 has proven to be effective in his other projects. what
11 a great deal for Arcadia. Much needed traffic
12 improvements at no cost to the taxpayer.
13 Some of the congestion that we are now
14 experi enci ng is because when westfi eld expanded, they
15 did not follow through with mitigating traffic, thereby
16 creating the mess that we're in now. I applaud Caruso
17 in bringi ng fi rst-cl ass shopping, dini ng and facil hi es
18 for our schools' and our community events. I also want
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to strongly caution clt1zens to consider the
ramifications of bringing a petition to reject the
Caruso project. ,
Remember, this project is being built on
private property and would you want the city or any of
your neighbors to tell you how to build on your private
property? Keep that in mind. Thank you.
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Thank you.
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Next speaker,
COMMISSIONER OLSON:
please.
MS. ROSS: My name is Stella RosS, and I live
at 881 west Huntington Drive.
several people have talked about traffic, and
I can't resist reminding us in the '70s and '80s, 80,
90, 100,000 cars went to the,racetrack. And the traffic
was reversed on Holly in the morning north, and south it
was reversed south in the afternoon. I had three
children that went to Baldwin stocker, and you know
what, no problem. Everyone talks traffic, traffic.
And now there was -- I for~ot something. Oh,
I know what. They talk about our chlJdren, our
children. what are 'we going to do. oon't some of you
remember how we drank water out of the water hose
outside because we didn't want to go inside, and we ran
after the ice truck? I did. And my little brothers and
sisters dfd too. we got fce, and we licked it. It was
great I and we ran throughout barefooted. DOIlook like
theres something wrong with me? I don't think so.
Really, I'm here -- I'd rather,talk about this
other stuff. I am so upset with westfield. I don't
even know how to tell ~ou. , The misrepresentations, the
half-truths, the buny~ ng! bullyi ng. bullyinq." And as a
matter of honor and pr1nclple, I am very ser10us, I made
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a decision on November 7th, I don't shop there anymore.
And I don't intend to shop there. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER OLSON: Thank you, MS. Ross.
Next speaker, please.
MS. HANSEN:
spell.ed H-a-n-s-e-n.
for 45 years: '
I can remember attending many. many meetings
where the city has been offered good deals to put on
that'Tand~' And they'said no'deal all the-time.- We have
something now and I say deal. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER OLSON: Thank you. Next speaker,
please.
My name is Mary E. Hansen,
And I live at 900 Hugo Reid Drive
MS. DUIRGERIAN: Good evening, members of the
planning commission. My name is Ann Duirgerian, 122
East Foothill Boulevard, Arcadia.
,over the last ten years or 'so, we have watched
as proposal after proposal has been presented to the
city regarding the southern parking lot of the Santa
Anita Racetrack. Each proposal was different, it had
one common thread, improving the bottom line of the
racetrack, and, hence. the city.
This year Santa Anita had a great year.
According to Magna's own financial report, Santa Anita
generates twice as much revenue as any other racetrack
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they own. And this year the racetrack's revenue had
increased by another two million dollars. That meant
additional funds for the city, and those funds, when
combined with other revenues coming into the city, have
put us in great financial shape for next year and
solidified the years to come. I'm surprised that the
revised draft environmental impact report did not
disclose this information but used older revenue
information as justification for the'need for this
proposed regional mall.
we also know that the near future may br.ing
additional race days with, the closing of Hollywood park
or perhaps the future will be almost 2,000 machines ~hat
wi.ll allow people to place bets on hi stori c races, all
of which means more money for the city.
I am concerned that the environmental
documents prepared for the proposed regiQnal mall did
not include any analysis of the impacts of these
additional race days and site uses, especjally the
increased traffic all of this activity would bring to
our community. '
The RD -- EIR'should be revised to reflect the
improved economic picture that we now have on hand.
Therei s no immediate need for this proposal. Ai;a
resident, I wonder why we don't sit back and take a look
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'at what we would like to have Arcadia look like 20, or
even 50 years from now. There is no urgE!nt need to save
entities that don't need saving, and that gives us the
opportunity to take a look at no~ just t~e ra~etrack
proposal, but what we want our Clty to look l,ke and be
known for in the future.
I know Arcadia First has asked the city to
consider creating a Blue Ribbon commission to use a
consensus building process that will identify
alternatives to the proposed regional mall at Santa
Anita Racetrack and I support that idea. The commission
could look at the current proposal, the alternative to
the proposed project submitted to'the city during the
comment period of the last EIR and perhaps even develop
other ideas that woul d meet the goal s of enhanci nq, '
revenue streams for the track and improving the Cl,ty'S
financial ,picture even further.
I hope you wi 11 consi der the Bl ue Ri bbon
commission process as a chance to identify what we want
our co'mmunity to look like in the future. And I want to
say, my husband and I are on the executive board with
Arcadia First, very proud to, and we're volunteers.
Thank you very much.
COMMISSIONER OLSON: Thank you very much.
Next speaker, please.
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1 MR. GOLDENHOUSE: My name is Dennis
2 Goldenhouse, and I live on Fairview in the 400 block.
3 I've ,been to several of these meetinqs, and
4 I'm reminded of the audience each time in looklng around
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when I first got here. There are a lot ,of people who
are in the same ilk I'm in, unfortunately or
fortunately, I don't know, we're senior citizens.
And I see the same group that banned together
to fiqht westfield. It's the same doom and gloom,
traff1c, Blue Ribbon commissions all the conversations
that people have when they don't have a lot of time to
-- or they have a lot of time in their lives, basically
they're retired, so westfield has tapped into that
ener9Y of people like myself who are senior citizens.
And 1t'S really very sad because the very people that
they've tapped into are the ones that fought the very
the very existence of westfield.
So myself, looking at all this conversation,
,I've come to the conclus'ion, especially on that ballot,
and the way that ballot was written, westfield --
COMMISSIONER OLSON: Can we limit it just to
discussion about the environmental --
MR. GOLDENHOUSE: Oh, okay. The envi'ronment
is really simple, then. The environment is, westfield
has been a good addition to our community. The shops
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over on Baldwin and Duarte anchored by pavil.ions have
been a very good addition to our community and the
quality of our communi.ty.
And last but not least, the addition of the
caruso project would increase the guality of life for
the people who live here, espeCially the younger
generation that will be here long after we're gone. And
I don't think we're gOing to be, here that much longer.
Thank you very much.
COMMISSIONER OLSON: Next speaker, please.
M,R., HARRIS: My name is Dick Harris. I live
at 143 west Santa Anita Terrace. My predecessor spoke
about the senior citizens here, I"m a sen'ior, senior
citizen. I'm not goi ng to speak for or against thi s
project. I want to talk about traffic.
I've read the EIR report, I've read it again
and I've read it agai n" and I still don't understand it.
I'm going to make a sugqestion. It comes up with
approximately 34,000 trlps per day to the new proposed
unit, the neW shopp\ng center. I assume that means
that's an average, and on Monday you wou1d have 15,000,
on Friday or saturday you would have 50,000. I don't
know. But my suggestion, this number is awfully
important, lt 'becomes the base of this statement that
caruso is gOing to put in traffic enhancements, that we
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1 will not have any increase in our traffic problem. His
2 statements are based on this figure. . All of the
3 projections of the future are based on this figure.
4 NOW when you read the report, the person who
5 did the study points out how difficult it is to project
6 the number of visits that will be made to a shopping
7 center. This is a computerized process using statistics
8 that are available for different types of retail space.
,9 NoW, I'm so old I remember when Santa Anita went in, the
10 shoppin~' center, and I remember how ,bad -- how far off
11 the proJections were there of the traffic, to that unit.
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So this figure is subject to some question.
NOW, there's an awful good advantage that you
have here. sitting ,just to the west of the proposed
development there's a shoppinq center. coul dn 't you
take and run the same statistlcal projection for the
existing one, using the same data that was used in the
EIR, and see how many automobile visits there are using
those statistics and then check it against the actual
pne? we could tell -- you could tell how many are going
into Santa Anita every day, you could compare it and it
would verif~, at least give you some semblance of
confidence 1n the projection that is made here. I think
that we are all concerned about the traffic.
COMMISSIONER OLSON: You have 30 ,seconds.
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MR. HARRIS: Beg your pardon?
COMMISSIONER OLSON: 30 seconds.
MR. HARRIS: That's it. I ,think we're all
, concerned -- this will help verify the figure that
you're using. It would take some of the question out of
the minds for many of us. '
COMMISSIONER OLSON: Thank you for your
comments'. Next speaker, please.
MS. MANDU: I'm Kelly Mandu, and my address is
30 East Newman. I went to Arcadia High school and I
graduated this past year and I now attend Cal State Long
Beach.
And I know that there -- in my high school
years there was definitely a place where my friends and
I wanted to go and hang out and feel safe and just get
dinner,watcha movie, do something fun together, and we
didn't feel that at westfield, we didn't feel that it
was safe. -
And I think that Caruso definitely will make
us feel safe. Arcadia is known as being a com~unity of
homes, and how are we a community if there's no place
that we can meet as a community, and feel safe as ,a
community?
And one more thing, about the smog. Everyone
says that the caruso project would add smog in our
1 world, news flash, we don't live in the '60s and '70s
2 anymore. people drive cars. Kids don't ride their
3 b'ikes'to school, they don't walk'toschool. ,.hey're
4 either getting dropped off in ,a car, or they're riding
5 to school in a car. So there's going to be smog no
6 matter what.
7 Also, on what the one man said about there
8 being a gambling problem with the Caruso project and it
9 would increase the crime rate. Yeah, he's totally
10 right, cuz there's no gambling going on at the
11 racetrack, right? Everyone goes to look at the pretty
12 horses? Thanks.
13 COMMISSIONER OLSON: Next speaker.
14 MS. BRENNAN: I wrote a feW notes down here to
15 make it short.
16 COMMISSIONER OLSON: State your name and
17 address, please.
18 MS. BRENNAN: sure. My name is colleen
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19 Brennan. And I have resided on Altura Road for 44 years
20 in Arcadia.
n ,And I would like to address a few subjects on
22 the west Nile virus. A shallow pool, just like a
23 swimming pool, could be checked every two hours, the
24 water. And I can't understand the panic about this
25 pool, no one is suggest)ng draining the arboretum, the
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lagoon or other water on that particular land as Ruth
brought up about the arboretum.
The ,second i.ssue is parki nq of non-residents
for fees. And I have a, number of fnends that attend
this senior center. We eat lunch together most days~
And they're very concerned about them having to pay for
parking. I inq~i~ed about this this evening from one of
the trusted lnd1vlduals that I've talked to before on
this proj ect, and he sai d val i dated parki ng is avail abl e
through the merchants for a certain amount of'time. You
ask them for this validation. And the same is true for
going to a movie.
And in closing, I'd like to say that we have
no control over what goes in, to a degree that is,
should Caruso not get voted in. In other words, what if
a law is Ilassed that had -- they have to put a Title 8
on part of that parking lot or some lesser desirable
type thing? And, personally, in ending, I'd like to say
that' I'm going to vote for a financially sure thing for
Arcadia's property values, their schools, and that type
of thing. T~ankyou very much.
COMMISSIONER OLSON: Thank you. Next speaker,
please.
MS. HARRIS: Betty Harris, 143 west Santa
Ani ta Terrace, Arcadia for about 4'4 years.
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1 ,I just. want .to say th,!-nks. Thanks to a .
2 councl1 Wh01S llsten1ng and d01ng the best they can1n
3 trying to bring something they consider of value, and
4 these are people I trust. Thanks to a planning
5 commission, again, who I trust, for listening to all
,6 these people tonight. Thanks to everyone who has, spoken
7 toni ght.It' s been i nteresti ng and fun, heari ng fri ends
8 from both sides of the battle and friends on staff slleak
~ to ~hi~ ts~ue. It's been very interesting, a beautiful
10 display of democracy, I guess.- -,
11 'one point. Traffi c seems to be of concern to
12 everyone. And we do live in a beautiful, beautiful city
13 with a lot going for it. Even things for senior
14 citizens. AS a senior, I find I have a lot going for
15 me. And a lot ,of things that do interest me right here
16 within the city.
17 one thing I would consider on the traffic
18 thi ng is, why not promote bicycl es? Buil d bi ke racks,
19 and do a real promotion. Bikeways on the streets and
20 buil d bi ke racks and see i,f we can't get people back to
21 riding a bicycle. All they're going to dois go to the
22 mall from home, get on a bike and'go and reduce the
23 traffic. Thank you.
24 COMMISSIONER OLSON: Thank you. Next speaker,
25 please.
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MR. CASEY: GOOd evening, commissioners, my
name is Ed Casey, appearing tonight on behalf of
westfield Santa Anita.
, And given the time limits on remarks' tonight,
let me limit my own remarks to a single issue, and that
is, alternatives. And what I want to focus on toni~ht
in connection with alternatives is what is missing ln
this revi sed EIR. And what is mi ssi ng is any discussi on
at all of the detailed alternative proposal that
westfield submitted in connection with our first comment
letter in on the original EIR. And I think you have a
copy of that site plan in front of you.
NOW, the revised EIR is broken -- the alternatives
analysis is broken into two parts. The first part has a
detailed discussion of four project alternatives, that .
alternative you're looking at is not among them. It
also lists all the other alternatives 'that were proposed
in the past but were deemed infeasible by the city.
This alternative is not even listed there. That's' kind
of curious, because as we demonstrated in our first
comment letter, this alternative achieves more of your,
city's general plan objectives with fewer environmental
impacts and substantial tax revenues in the million
dollars of dollars.
Let me just go walk through some of the key
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elements even though it's here, and try to, go through
this very quickly. And the point of me going through
the li st of these uses is not to say this is what shoul d
be done. but to poi nt ou't that thi s is' the ki nd of
alternatives that should be discussed and analyzed in
this document. Because what this does, is create a
campus-like setting for the collection of uses, and it
achieves a couple of key general plan objectives,.
First, the sites, as you'll see, the whole
project in the, southeast portion, it keeps the middle
open for a number of other open space uses. By doing
so, you achieve the first general plan's objective, that
is, preservinq the views of the historic grandstand from
Huntington Drwe, that's in your general plan.
TwO pther key general plan objectives, "That
any development on this parking lot has to be compatible
with adjacent uses, and create economic synergy." That's
the worcs in the plan. This plan does this, how? By
haying more different types of uses than in, the Ilrojed
you're considering tonight. It has a medical office
building and some assisted-liv'ing component that would
work very well with the adjacent hospital. It has a
site for another auto dealer at the site, which could
work well with the existing dealers in the site, which
may also be looking to expand. It has a hotel that has
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1 business conference facilities that could achieve a
2 number of different uses.
3 COMMISSIONER OLSON: One mi nute.
4 MR. CASEY: In the middle 'it has a small
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park-like setting that could work well with the entrance
to the grandstand as opposed to demolishing two of those
buil di ng.
We've also included in this alternative, a
small retail component of 50,000 square feet. And we
pi cked that number because ,i t' s the si ze of Mr. caruso's
project, and his other project in Thousand oaks at The
Lakes. We think that kind of collection of uses could
achieve your general plan objectives as we showed in the
first comment letter, we show in the second one, with
few environmental impacts, and it will create millions
of dollars of tax revenue 'to the cjty.
YOU add thos~ three things up, achievin~
general plan objectives, fewer impacts to the proJect,
substantial tax benefits for the City, that's the
definition of a feasible alternative under CEQA. CEQA
says you have to look at feasible alternatives. This'
EIR should look at this alternative, and if it doesn't,
I urge you to ask one simple question, why not? '
COMMISSIONER OLSON: Thank you, Mr. Casey.
Next speaker, please,
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MR. SAIRE: Good evening, my name is scott
I 1 i ve at 444 west Hunt; ngton ori ve, that:' s
the street. It'S about a five-minute walk from
saire,'
across
here.
I'm a licensed architect in California. I'm
d()ing mostly commercial work, so I'm kind of familiar'
with what we're talking about, I have to say something
to the previous speaker who is apparently a Westfield
rep -- well, I hardly know where to begin. westfield--
COMMISSIONER OLSON:, If you could Keep your
comments just t9 discuss)ng the EIR impact report.
MR. SAIRE: It's relevant. That westfield is
withholding receptacle access to the project. And:
that's driving the caruso design, in what I say is, the
wrong direction. What I say is that they need to join
the party. They need 'to start working with us and not
against us.
, Let's see, the items I wanted to talk about
specifically, hopefully it's something different than
what, some of the other peoplel:tave been talking about.
Just real briefly about the traffic impact. I know
nobody wants to hear the word traffic again, but the
,s,ul11mary-,-l'!:hich I've got here, says that i,f we make all
of the improvements that everyone's proposin~, that the
impact would be less than significant. However, if -- a
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1 number of those improvements take place in other
2 jurisdictions, mainly in Cal Trans and L.A. county
3 areas, and that if all of the mitigations aren't made,
4 then the impacts would be significant and unavoidable.
5 so I guess my statement would be that we should make
6 approval of the project conditionea on approval from
7 other agencies so that we don't have significant
8 impacts. '
9 Let's see, the other thi ngs t wanted to talk
10 about. Someone else mentioned a deaicated shuttle, the
11 report, actually, mentions a dedicated shuttle 'from the
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track to the Gold Line to try and reduce traffic. I'd
like to just tag onto that, that one of the ways the
track, could induce people to use the Gold Line is to
give some sort of entrance fee reduction. That's not
specifically mentioned in the report. It would be nice
if they added that in as a potential incentive on the
super busy track days.
COMMISSIONER OLSON: You have one minute:
MR. SAIRE: okay. I'm trying to go as fast as
I can. Let's see, pedestrians' access., when, Westfield
was building their project, we specifically asked for
some kind of a real peaestrian entrance from Huntington
Drive and it was in the EIR, it was approved. They
never did it. The city didn't enforce it. we've been
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asking about the same thing here, it's just a one-line
sentence that pedestrians' access will be provided. I'd
like to see a little more, detail in exactly what we're
asking. As the reSDonse, what that mitigation is going
to be. what kind of access, how big, what sort of
landscaping, so we actually get something thi s ti me.
The last things is, I'm really just kind of
unhappy with the project and where it's s1ted. There's
~ number of alternat1ves, none of which I think are very
good. I took the 1 i berty of maki ng a sketch, but rather
than bore you with it, I'll just hand it in and you guys
can take a look at it.
COMMISSIONER OLSON: You need to wrap it up. '
MR. SAIRE: Exactly. The project should be '
moved south and West so'that it"s actually linked with
the mall. I believe that if you want to get some
synergy happening between the two pl'ojects, which I
believe is i~ the general plan! as the Westfield rep
said, you need to have them j01ned. .so the project
needs to be reconfigured so lt actually feeds together,
the mall al1d the new Caruso project work together. If
someone wal1ts to walk over from 'the racetrack, I'm sure
they will. Anyway, thank you very much.
COMMISSIONER OLSON: Thank yciu. The next
speaker, please.
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1 MR. HERNANDEZ: Good evening. Vidal
2 Hernandez, 540 Gloria Road in Arcadia.
3 The pr10r speakers already discussed all my'
4 three pages. I am just goinq to make a one statement.
5 Free enterprise and competinon for joining the
6 (inaudible) is the key of the success of this country.
7 we know that without competition we are nowhere.
8 Monopoly is out of the question and I don't know why ,
9 we're trying to fight over here. It's competition, and
10 that's it.
11 Mr. Caruso is one of them, entrepreneurs,
12 after seeing the projects that he has, I know that he's
13 thinking big with class and style. And that's What we
14 need over here, shops in Arcadia, we make stronger
15 Arcadia with class and style.' Thank you.
16 COMMISSIONER OLSON: Thank you very much.
17 MR. BOWER: Mark Bower. I live at 300 Monte
18 vista Road in Arcadia.
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19 I 'm all neutral, as you'll see my comments. I
20 think that any new construction in Arcadia, any maJor
21 construction, shouJd include (inaudible) easier to do
22 when ;t"s going up thim think about it later.
23 Also, in the model of Calabasas,
24 unfortunately, I get tired of smokers, not so much from
25 the smoke, but throwing cigarette butts on the ground.
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And ,I would like to see the Caruso project, should it
materialize, be a total non-smoking area.
It gripes me, this is -~ those are my inpLit
comments, but thi s is an addi ti ona 1 comment,. The
Arcadi a Hi gh School campus is .crowded. A number of
parents feel the junior high school at Foothill, I,think
'it was about, 15 'years ago, I have a bad memory, and we
tried to keep the 8th graders from moving to that
campus, and we tried, everybody in the crowd, basically,
did not want to see them move. It's very hard to have
sympathy now that they're stuck there. It was a
mistake; in. my opinion. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER OLSON: Thank you. Next speaker,
please.
MR. GARING: Good evening. My name is Jerry
Gari ng from 122 East Foothi 11..
I'd like to continue with (inaudible). I hope
that all the members of the planning commis'sion and the
city council have either read or attempted to read the
revised draft environmental impact report. It'S a
daunting task. It's 5200 pages, which you're aware of.
However, 'in the specific plan, in chapter 1, page 3"
there's a disturbing paragraph, quote, "wherever the
regulations of the santa Anita Park specific plan
contain provisions which establish regulations,
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1 including, but not limited to heights, densities, uses,
2 pa~king, siqns, open space and lands~aPing requirements
3 WhlCh are d1fferent from, morerestrlct1ve than, or more
4 permissive than would be allowed pursuant to the
5 provi si ons contai ned 'i n secti on 9263 et seq. and 9273 et
6 seq of the AMC, the santa Mita Park speci fi c pl an shall
7 prevail an'd supersede the applicable provisions of the
8 Arcadia Municipal code and ,those ordinances." I'd like
9 tOo repeat tt,cit. "santa Anita Park specific plan shall
10 prevail and supersede the appl i cableprovi si ons of the
11 Arcadia ,MuniCipal Code and those ordinances."
12 If I understand this paragraph correctly,
13 it basically supersedes and overrides any and all
14 current regulations and ordinances passed by both the
15 planning commission and the elected city council. If
16 this specHic plan passes, then the city is aavocating
17 all of. its le~~l obligations and power with Arcadia
18 El ectr1 C as gwen to you,.
19 If this paragraph is allowed to remain, then
20 all these community meetings over the years have been a
21 s,ham. When Arcadia property owners approach you
22 requesting variances for setbacks; you inevitably ask 1,'f
23 the occupant --,if they knew what the regulations were
24 b~fore the~ de~igned their project. T~e paragraph I
25 c1ted earller lS' one example of how thlS developer
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proposed not to follow the rules that govern the rest of
us and have you let him set his own rules. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER OLSON: 'Thank you.
MS., DOUGHERTY: Good evening. My name is Mary
Dougherty. I live at 1110 Rodeo Road. I've lived here
since 1971. I'm a 16 year past member board of Arcadia
Unified school District Board of Education.
I thi nk the, ci ti zens of Arcadi a owe a huge
debt of gratitude to the Santa Anita Racetrack
management for selecting the Caruso Affiliates as the
projec't developer. Arcadians recently passed a 218
milliondoll.ar bond issue to ;mprovethe facilities at
each a'nd every school wi thi n the Arcadi a unifi ed school
District with the major emphasis at the high school.
caruso has offered 22,000 square foot development for
the administrative offices for the school district.
That i,s a huge asset for the school di stri ct and for the
community. '
There's been a lot said about traffic. I
remember when the racetracK was crowded and traffic jams
were in the morning before the first post, and in the
afternoon at the close of the race season -- the race
day. with additional shops at Santa Anita, any
additional traffic will be disbursed throughout the day
rather than an opening and a closing time. That is a
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huge difference. And with increased technolo~y, Which
is not provided for in the city budget, there s, the
opportunity to provide increased technology for traffic
management and signaling. And J think that is a huge
benefit.
COMMISSIONER OLSON: You have one minute.
MS . DOUGHERTY: Thank you.
And an additional factor that no one has
mentioned yet, KCET in August of this year. honored Mr.
Caruso as being -~ for his contributions to the
community with 500 in attendance at the Beverly Hllton.
I think his reputation at The Grove and his other
developments speak to the quality of his developments'
and his caring for the community.
In addition, he ,served on the police
commission for L.A. city. I 'think we're pealing with
somebody who has aqua li ty reputati on. 'I'm proud to
endorse his project and hope that it will go forward.
Thank you very much.
COMMISSIONER OLSON: Thank you,
Mrs. Dougherty.
MS. THOMPSON: Last but not least? My name is
Laurie Thompson. I live at 229 South Altura. I have
lived in Arcadia, both in South Arcadia, I now live in
The village, where I serve as the architectural review
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1 board chairperson, gladly serving my community.
2 As a science educator, I believe decisions
3 have to be based on facts and evidence, and not
4 emotional hysteria; such as throwing children into
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ponds. ~nd wheryI ~logged my way di1igently throu~h the
EIR, my 1mpress10n 1S and my' bellef 1S that the eVldence
in the EIR is overwhelmingly supportive of the Caruso
project.
And if I could ask the City of Arcadia to do
anything, we know that there will probably be an ensuing
battle, but I want the facts and evidence of the EIR to
predominate. And if information comes out that is
untruthful and unbiased, I wish that both you and the
city council would take a stand. And I overwhelmingly
support this projeCt and the EIR. And good luck,
Arcadia. because I think we are at a turning point.
Thank you.
COMMISSIONER OLSON: Thank you. Next speaker.
MR. BLAKE: Hello. My name is Robert Blake.
I live at 871 Coronado Drive.
. I think Mr. caruso, without a doubt, makes a
wonderful maTl; however, it's the traffic. It'S the
traffi,c as more than half the people here mentioned,
it's the traffic. I don't feel like pooping in my nest.
This man, Mr. Casey, he proposed something to you that
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I'd never heard of. I'd like to know more about it. I
don't work for this man, t don't even go to that mall.
But he's proposing somethin, g that, seems that it would
add to your tax base, and'if he's getting short shrift,
I, thi nk that's an error. t thi nk that" s a very, 1 arge
error.
This project that's going to be put in here,
it's goi ng 'to be for, I assume, ye<!rs and years. IS it
going to be productive for years and years? If we have
30 to 45,000 cars, by the way, on the weekends,
goodness, what's it going to be in ten years? What's it
going to be in eight years? Five years.
These women who -- the woman who menti,oned
about her children, that's a valid point. I don't know
if you have children, it's a worth while point to think
about.
pollution. There was a medical doctor here.
In fact, a former mayor, Mr'. wu, am I ri ght about the
pronunciation of the name? Also a physician. Made a
comment previously about the possibihty of there being
hiqher levels of pollution than would be healthy for
ch11dren,and I assume adults at the same time.
, Thi s is the last comment, again, I don' ,t have
no conne<:tionwith Mr. Casey here,could we also hear
about his plan? And also from an economic standpoint.
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1 Again, I have nothing against Mr. Garuso's mall, nor Mr.
2 caruso. He builds a beautiful mall. Economically, I'm
3 not so sure it's viable. I haven't heard a single
4 person come here and talk about financials. Not the
5 fi rst person. Good Lord. I hope we can tal k about
6 finance, one day, gentlemen. I hope we can talk about
7 what this is really going to cost Arcadia for
8 protection, fire department, police department, their
9 salaries, their retirement, over a lifetime, over a
10 career.
11
At any rate, that's all I have to, say.
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a little bit passionate, I don't mean to be. I wish I
could be mpre cold about it. , But, again, I'd like to
hear about more alternatives besides this single
project. Thank you very much.
COMMISSIONER OLSON: Thank you. Next speaker,
please.
MR. CEPORIOUS: Name is victor ceporious. I
live at 32 East camino Real. I've lived there, I think
approximately 30 years now.
I just had to say something because this
dribbling I've been hearing, just like chicken Little
running around saying the sky is falling. It's
interesting to me how westfield, at this late stage,
jumps up and says, oh, we ,have a wonderful alternative
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thing. where Were they tWQ or three or' four years ago?
They keep putting every obstacle into getting this
project to move forward.
This 'project is good for Arcadia. I think
we're all in favor of it, 1rrespective of that baloney
vote that went in for Nand P. That was a travesty. I
couldn't believe what kind of underhanded things that
Westfield was involved -- ,
COMMISSIONER OLSON: can we st~ck to the
discussion of the environmental --
MR. CEPORIOUS: I'm sorry, I just had to get
that point across. AnyWay, but that additional thing
westfield i.s now throwing up, oh, we've got this
wonderful alternative plan. baloney. It's just another
stalling tactic, and we should proceed on it. We waited
a long, long time. I'd love to see the thing qet done
before I die so I can get some benefit out of 1t. we've
been waiting long enough. Anyway, that's all I have to
say. Thanks. '
COMMISSIONER OLSON: T~ank you.
Is there anybody else? It's your last chance
if you'd like to speak. I'll entertain a motion to
close the public hearing.
COMMISSIONER PARRIlLE: So move.
COMMISSIONER BAOERIAN: I'll second the
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motion.
COMMISSIONER OLSON: It's been moved by
commissioner' parrilleand seconded bycommi~sioner
Baderian. without an objection, the public hearing is
closed.
We're not quite done with the meeting, but
we'" go ahead and wait a few seconds if you"d like to
go ahead. we'll be done.
Now is the time reserved for those in the
audience who wish to address the planning commission on
non-public hearing items. If you would like to say
anything to us tonight, now is the time. Not about the
item that we've just discussed, though.
seeing none, I'll move to matters from city
council and p 1 anni ng commi ssi oners. ci ty counci 1 member,
would you like to say anything?
COUNCILMEM8ER AMUNDSON: Nothing, but the
council appreciates everyone's interest and efforts and
P~np ~q
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taking the time to come out tonight. That's all I have.
COMMISSIONER OLSON: Thank you, councilmember.
Manaqementplanning commission? None? You
have the modiflcation meeting agenda, it's in your
packet. The minutes came out, the minutes were
essentially approved. Therce were some conditions
attached to it this morning,
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Any matters from staff?
MR. KRUCKEBERG: Not tonight.
COMMISSIONER OLSON: Tnank you. Then we will
adjourn ,to regularly scheduled meeting December 12th at
7:00 o'clock P.M. in the city council chambers. Thank
you very much for your patience.
(TIME NOTED: 8:44 P.M.)
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1 STATE OF CALIFORNtA )
2 COUNTY ,OF LOS ANGELES )
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ss:
II CATHRYN L. BAKER, CSR No. 7695, do
hereby certlfy:
, That the foregoinq hearing was taken before me
at the t1me and place thereln set forth.
That the comments made at the time of the
hearing were recargedstenographic;:allY,by me, were
thereafter transcrlbedunder my d1rect1on and
supervision and that the foregoing is a true, record of
same.
I further certify that I am neither counsel
for nor related to any party to said action, nor'in
any way interested in the outcome thereof.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have subscribed my
name this 29th day of November, 2006.
CATHRYN L. BAKER, CSR NO. 7695
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