Increasingly, cities are finding themselves stuck between a rock – developers – and a hard place – citizens who demand an end to seemingly endless growth and expansion. Local government is caught in the middle, working to respond to the needs of the community. The City of Monrovia recently devised an innovative solution to this divisive problem, in a way that engaged the community and built support in a positive way. In July, Monrovia’s residents voted overwhelmingly to tax themselves to buy the last remaining open space in the adjacent foothills and hold it in trust as a wilderness preserve. The tax was supported in every precinct in the city.

Monrovia is a diverse town of nearly 40,000 that lies on the southern slope of the San Gabriel Mountains, along the northern edge of the San Gabriel Valley. Although just 20 miles from downtown Los Angeles, the community has retained its small-town charm, nestled snugly in the surrounding foothills. For years, Monrovia has been one of the last development opportunities in the Foothill Corridor. Residential building has encroached on, but not yet dominated, the still-wild lands on the community’s northern border. Multi-million-dollar homes cover the hillsides of communities on both sides of Monrovia.

Residents got a taste of what loomed ahead when one large development was built in the early 1980s, but during the recession years of the early and mid ’90s, development was stagnant. Now, on the heels of an expanding economy, pressure for more and more residential development is growing. However, unlike the 1980s, Monrovia is now experiencing a concurrent demand from vocal residents to preserve and maintain open space.

The Need to Preserve Natural Habitat

About 1,000 acres of undeveloped land along the hillsides separate Monrovia’s residential neighborhoods from the Angeles National Forest above them. About 400 of those acres are owned by the city and have long been set aside as park and hiking areas. The remaining 600 acres are in private hands, and open to development. These hillsides include the last remaining riparian woodlands along the entire Valley-to-Valley corridor of the San Gabriel range. The hillsides are rich with vegetation and wildlife, including deer, mountain lions and bears. Sampson, a bear that gained notoriety for making himself at home in local residents’ hot tubs and swimming pools, drew national attention several years ago and came to symbolize the impact that urbanization and development are having on the last remaining areas of wilderness.

In recent years, as the economy and housing market were renewed, so too was the fear that developers were about to exploit that last wilderness. This concern fueled an intense desire among Monrovians to preserve those environmentally sensitive lands. The same fear is fueling similar desires in other communities experiencing similar challenges.

Responding to a Vocal Community

Frankly, the concern took city officials by surprise. During the preceding 10 years, the city had convened more than 50 meetings of residents and developers, consultants and neighborhood groups, and had put together some pretty tough development standards for those hillsides. It was particularly pleasing that this Hillside Advisory Committee, which included such diverse interests as developers, and environmentalists, had reached a consensus with which they could all live.

The committee-created standards became the foundation of a specific plan, which was required before development of remaining open land could take place. When the specific plan hit the planning commission and its public hearings, however, the process bogged down. In hearing after hearing, residents showed up – as many as 400 at a time – to protest any level of new development in the hills, citing environmental destruction, displacement of animal life, aquifer damage, fire hazards, a drain on city resources, increased traffic on residential streets and similar concerns. They asked the planning commission and, ultimately the city council, to “just say no” to any new development on the open lands.

The Importance of Listening And Straight Talk

But simply saying “no” is not a legal option. Landowners are entitled to reasonably develop their properties, and cities that impose unreasonable limits on that right face costly “taking” lawsuits that could leave them either having to allow development or having to buy the land and pay huge damages. It’s not easy to explain this to 400 angry residents in a heated public hearing who want no more development — period.

The local planning commission did an extraordinary job, patiently listening to residents and working through the issues with them. Instead of unproductive confrontation, residents felt they were being listened to and that they were participating in a solution.

The planning commission, working closely with the city staff and city attorney, came up with a new plan — far less dense than the earlier consensus plan, but still too much for the residents to accept. The revised specific plan went to the city council, with residents still demanding no more growth. Staff cautioned that any further cuts in density would jeopardize the city’s legal position and result in lawsuits.

Read the rest of this article on the League of California Cities’ website.

by Donald R. Hopper

Originally Published in the September, 2000 Issue of Western City magazine

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