September 10, 2011 Meeting Summary

Agenda Items:
Preparation
Attendees
Meeting

Preparation

E-mail and phone reminders

Attendees

6 members

Meeting

Agenda Items:

The meeting began about 11:25 am

  • Neighborhood tour with city’s new planning director on October 21, 9-11 am
    • We have an appointment to tour our neighborhood on Friday October 21 from 9-11 am with Vince Bertoni, the city’s new Planning Director. He has invited Neighborhood Associations to set up walking tours with him in their neighborhood areas to get to know the neighborhoods and the concerns of their residents.
    • The Planning Department is responsible for things like designing and enforcing zoning codes.
    • Our tentative route would start at Sierra Madre Villa and Foothill (or perhaps Mataro), go north on Sierra Madre Villa, west on Las Lunas or Hermanos, south on Avocado, east on Alameda, south on Santa Paula, west on Mataro.
    • Folks who can’t walk the distance are welcome to join any portion of the tour to participate in discussing whatever they are most passionate about.
    • Whether or not you want to personally participate, what would you want him to see and discuss?  Here’s a list so far:
      • Sierra Madre Villa – Rosemead, brick building’s parcels potential development
      • Sierra Madre Villa pedestrian crossing problem
      • Sierra Madre Villa traffic problems just north of Foothill caused by driveway from Bed Bath Beyond.
      • PCC-CEC parking
      • Kaiser and, potentially future, business parking on residential streets
      • city possessed properties such as 3175 Alameda
      • Avocado frontage to Edison land
      • Pedestrian access to park
    • Kathy suggested, and it was agreed, that before out next meeting a map with the tentative route and points of interest where we’ll stop to talk will be put together to aid our discussion.  Then, after any updates decided at the meeting, we’ll send that out via e-mail and to Mr Bertoni.  This will make it easier for anybody who wishes to participate.
  • Recent local crime
    • At a Hermanos neighborhood watch meeting, attendees were told that if they call the police to report something and want feedback about the outcome of the call, but don’t want officers to come to their doorstep, they can specify that contact be made only by phone.
    • Reports from crimemapping.com:
      • Burglary, Friday August 19, 8:45 am, 300 block of Santa Paula
      • Theft from vehicle valued over $400, Wednesday August 24, 10:30 pm, 3200 block of Estado.
    • Report from the Daisy-Villa neighborhood, which is across Eaton Wash from us:
      • On Monday August 29, a guy on a bicycle was going through trash looking at papers and discarded mail.
      • This is a reminder that there are people out there who do go through looking for information to use in identity theft or perpetrating a con.  Shred everything that has personal information on it.  Yes, it’s a time consuming nuisance for a relatively small chance of theft, and there are other ways to steal your information; but consider the enormous pain that shredding can prevent.
      • Kathy noted that Office Depot (at Colorado and Wilson) now has a service where you can bring papers you want to shred and they’ll do it right in front of you for 99 cents per pound, with a limit of 50 pounds.  If you don’t have a shredder or just have more then you want to feed through a small shredder, this could be useful.  There are likely other providers of similar services.
  • Orange Grove house fire
    • On Tuesday August 16, around 11:30 am a house on the north side of the 3200 block of Orange Grove Blvd was gutted by fire.
    • The house was empty.
    • There were reports it was a foreclosure and also that some neighbors thought it might have been a drug house. The police department says, however, that it didn’t have any record of calls reporting any issues or suspicions about the house.  (Which bring up again, that if there is suspicious activity you should call the police non-emergency number and let them know your concerns.)
    • It was reported the fire department was doing an arson investigation.  It is currently listed on crimemapping.com as an arson.
  • 3175 Alameda Status
    • This is the house you run into coming north on Santa Paula to Alameda.
    • It’s still a week choked lot. Nothing seems to have happened in the past month.
  • Perssons nursery closed
    • Perssons nursery (under the Edison wires on the north side of Sierra Madre Blvd since the 1950s) was suddenly closed and boarded up and the plants left dying.
    • Employees were reportedly given no notice.
    • A couple different stories are circulating.  One that “the father” died in July.  Another that a divorce was involved.
  • Sign for park pedestrian access gate
    • A message was received from Noreen Sullivan, council member’s field rep, on August 24 that the Crew Supervisor would talk to the sign company the following Monday to place an order for a sign for park hours on the pedestrian entrance gate on Avocado.  She also said she’d ask that a temporary sign be put up in the meantime.
    • A paper sign has been put up next to the gate.
  • Edison wires activity?
    • It’s just a little too soon yet to know if we’ll get activity in the coming weeks.  But nearby residences should have received notification by now, and we haven’t gotten any.  So perhaps it will only occur south of the Goodrich Station (on Foothill between PCC-CEC and Eaton Wash).
    • As a reminder, the dates given at a City Council meeting in early August were:
      • September 12 to October 2, with helicopters working the weekend of September 17 and 18
      • October 3 to October 22, with helicopters working the weekend of October 8 and 9
    • The helicopters will be pulling the wire. The rest of the time is for various construction, arranging for blocking roads during the pulls, etc.
  • anything else attendees wish to discuss
    • Passing of Don Hayes
      • Don Hayes, a resident on Las Lunas for over 60 years, passed away in mid August.
      • He was 91 years old. He had been a frequent attendee of our meetings until early this year and was often out walking wearing his light blue hat.
    • General Plan Survey results summary
      • A summary report to the Planning Commission scheduled for September 14, says that
        • over 70,000 surveys were mailed
        • 2893 responses were received, more then 1/3 of which were submitted online
        • Over 300 people attended the 5 workshops (doesn’t say if they eliminated duplicates)
        • Respondents were well distributed among the zip codes, with a household response rate of 4 to 9 percent in each zip code
        • Alternative C (focus future growth around Gold Line stations and major intersections) received the most support in each planning area, but never more then 33 percent. In some areas two alternatives received nearly equal support.
        • Strong support was expressed for targeting transit station areas for development and for modifying streets to be walker friendly.
        • Less then 50% support was expressed for reducing traffic lanes to accommodate bike lanes or for limiting parking around Gold Line stations.
        • Alternative A (redirecting growth away from the Central District to other areas of the city) had the least support in all the planning areas.
        • The two planning factors chosen most were increasing jobs and jobs, shopping, and housing close to transit.
    • Habit Burger Grill moving in where Boston Market was
      • A food place called Habit Burger Grill is moving into the former location of Boston Market right next to Rosemead on the upper/back side of the Hastings Ranch shopping center.
      • According to their web site, it specializes in “chargrilled” burgers and chicken sandwiches and salads.
      • An opening date was not available yet.

Next meeting is October 8, 2011, 11:15 am, at Hastings Branch Library

Adjourned about 12:15 pm