Monterey Park OKs Plan to Redo Atlantic Square Mall : Council Approves Project Despite Complaints From Neighbors

MONTEREY PARK —  Three years after work began on the idea and months after residents first raised detailed arguments against the plans, the City Council on Tuesday approved a major overhaul of Atlantic Square Shopping Center.

In a series of votes taken after eight hours of debate Monday and Tuesday nights, the council granted Champion Development Inc. of Long Beach approval for the $27-million to $30-million project. It will be a joint venture with the city’s Redevelopment Agency.

Will Fulfill Pledges

“This project will enhance Monterey Park . . . and become one of (the city’s) richest assets,” Mayor Patricia M. Reichenberger said.

Council members say the project on South Atlantic Boulevard at Floral Drive will fulfill their pledges to restore a quality, general interest shopping center to the city, which in recent years has lost a number of restaurants and department and grocery stores.

As the revamped center provides added variety in shopping, Councilwoman Judy Chu said, it will also boost the city’s sagging sales tax base. Monterey Park has among the lowest returns per capita on sales tax in the San Gabriel Valley. City officials say that is because residents shop at malls in Montebello, Arcadia and West Covina. In the last year, Monterey Park also lost its biggest generator of sales tax, a car dealership.

“We’re really excited and we took a lot of effort to create a pedestrian-friendly shopping center,” developer Bob Champion told the council. But he said, “‘It’s been a long, arduous road to get here.”

City Manager Mark Lewis said, “This project resembles, just barely, the project that was originally submitted.”

Based largely on complaints from neighbors of the center, the developer made dozens of revisions in the original plans. Even Monday and Tuesday, 12 residents criticized the plans, on which the Planning Commission had attached more than 70 specific requirements.

“We had an outhouse back in Minnesota that looked better than (those plans), and we also had part of the universe on it. We had a moon on the door,” resident Len Gustafson told the council.

Champion seemed to take the criticism in stride, saying: “As a developer, it is our goal to get overall acceptance by as many people as possible.”

Neighborhood Concerns

Criticisms have varied from concerns about traffic, parking, pollution and congestion to placement of trash bins, truck delivery locations and walkways. “We have a right to ask questions,” resident Lucy Ammeian told the council Tuesday. “We just want the best for our community.”

The plans call for a Mediterranean-style center, with fountains, arches and tree-lined walkways. City officials say construction may begin as soon as January, with a completion date of Thanksgiving 1990. The city still must buy the center from Mex-Am Shopping Centers.

In the plan, Champion will double the size of the supermarket and include additional anchors of a drug store, sporting goods store and a major restaurant.

Even with all the changes, Councilman Christopher F. Houseman said, “I have big concerns about this.” Houseman said he still thought Champion had not ensured the center will be revived in the manner the city and nearby residents deserve. He was the only council member to vote against major approvals required for the project.

Councilman’s Situation

Houseman’s involvement and his possible conflict of interest became part of the debate. At the beginning of Monday’s meeting, the council adjourned to a closed session. Assistant City Atty. Stephanie Scher said later that she advised Houseman not to participate in discussions on Atlantic Square, except as a private citizen in the audience, because of two possible conflicts of interest:

Houseman acknowledged that, during the last year he had received a consumer loan from MPR Auto and Truck Repair, which is owned and, in part, operated by Stephen Tan, a member of the Planning Commission. Tan, also in the insurance business, owns insurance offices in a shopping center across the street from Atlantic Square and therefore, Scher said, could be directly affected by the economics of the shopping center project. Tan has consistently excused himself in Planning Commission deliberations about Atlantic Square.

Scher said she also was troubled by comments Houseman made at a contentious Planning Commission meeting that lasted until 3:15 a.m. July 14. At that meeting, the commission voted 3 to 0 to approve the project. After that meeting, three planning commissioners wrote the city manager, saying they believed Houseman “has prejudged the matter and therefore has disqualified himself from voting on the case.”

Houseman refused to stay out of the debate. He said the California Fair Political Practices Commission had advised him that only “a very limited and very strained” interpretation of its rules would suggest he not vote on the Atlantic Square project. “I know I don’t have any conflict or financial conflict” as far as the loan goes, Houseman said.

He said his opposition before the Planning Commission referred only to the project “as it was at that time. In no stretch of the imagination was that prejudging or showing bias. I urged (the Planning Commission) not to rush into a decision in the wee hours of the morning.”

Scher told Houseman it was his decision whether to vote, and she advised the council to give no more weight to his comments than to a member of the audience.