June 9, 2007 Meeting Summary

Preparation

E-mail reminder was sent to each member who has provided a contact e-mail address.
Susan Chu and Laura Ellersieck phoned other members on the phone contact list.

Acknowledgments

Susan Chu brought scones for attendees.

Attendees

9 members

Meeting

Agenda Items:

• Ice Rink & Edison land planning status
• library grand re-opening
• Hazardous & E-waste collection, June 23, Rose Bowl parking lot K
• Westfield parking plan
• curb number painting
• coyote surge
• anything else attendees wish to discuss

The meeting began about 11:23 am

Ice Rink & Edison land planning status

• No new public information regarding the ice rink since the Design Commission meeting in early March.
• Weeds were cut down on Edison land and street frontage this past week.
• Edison has said in writing that it will not extend the lease of Perssons nursery any further, therefore Perssons is being forced out at the end of June.  Similarly, Present Perfect nursery has to be out in August.  This is in spite of the fact that the developer with the option from Edison for that land does not currently have any application pending or approved for other uses.
• Open space supporters packed the public comment period at last Monday’s City Council meeting.  Speakers asked the council to stop Edison from evicting the nurseries.  The response from staff was that the council cannot intervene in private matters between landowners and lessees unless zoning or ordinances are being violated.  Speakers asked council members to publicly state they will not agree to rezone open space or approve self storage facilities.  City staff said it would be inappropriate for council members to pre-judge something which may eventually come before them.  Discussion of the topic by the council was shut down by the city attorney because it was not on the agenda.

library grand re-opening

• Library renovation is to be complete and reportedly there will be a Grand Re-Opening celebration on Saturday June 30.

Hazardous & E-waste collection, June 23, Rose Bowl parking lot K

• Properly dispose of old paint, oil, pesticides, computers, VCRs, cellphones, etc. by taking them to this LA County collection event.
• Parking Lot K is southwest of the Rose Bowl.
• Next collection event is probably in Arcadia  in August.  (Looked it up since the meeting. It will be in both Arcadia and Sierra Madre on August 18).
• http://ladpw.org/general/enotify/Calendar_Template/Calendar.aspx

Westfield parking plan

• Last week, the San Marino Tribune carried an article by San Gabriel Valleywide News stating that the Arcadia City Council had approved a further big expansion of the Westfield shopping mall including plans to handle the shortage of parking during the holiday season by having employees park in the Metro Gold Line Station garage and take a shuttle to their job at the mall.
• This article was forwarded to Councilman Haderlein and his field rep by one of our residents.  Apparently it was news to them and to city staff.   Haderlein responded that city staff would be contacting the MTA about this because Arcadia should not be using Pasadena parking facilities to support their retailers.

curb number painting

• Recently somebody calling themself “Curb Appeal” taped notices to our front doors soliciting business painting street address numbers on the curb.  The next day, an e-mail came from the councilman’s field rep warning that the business was not contracted by the city and also didn’t have a business permit.
• Further inquiry of the city discovered that the city is about to contract with a non-profit company to provide that service to residences that request it.  Details are to appear soon in the city’s In Focus news pamphlet.
• Some residents did have “Curb Appeal” do the job and were satisfied with the result.  General consensus is that it is best to pay in cash after the job is done.

coyote surge

• Coyote packs are being reported in our vicinity again along with probable cat eating in the early morning hours.  Do not leave food outside.  If you must feed animals in your care outside, take any leftovers/spillage away.  Aside from food directly attracting coyotes, increasing the population and plumpness of the raccoons, possums, skunks, rats, mice, etc is a big encouragement to the coyotes to make visiting our neighborhood a habit.  And the more comfortable they feel, the bolder they’ll get about when they come and what they do.
• An attendee also asked that people put a collar with a bell on their cats so they won’t catch the song birds.
• If you do have cats or small dogs you let outside, try hard to have them inside at night.

anything else attendees wish to discuss

Next meeting is July 14.

Adjourned at ?? (forgot to look again, but meeting was fairly quick)