The March of Progress

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Claremont takes pride in its inclusiveness, particularly when it comes to involving the public in major municipal decisions. At least, that's the town's self-image. So imagine our surprise when we we took a look at the City's website this morning and saw a very brief blurb, really just two links to PDF files without any accompanying explanatory text, with the headline, Police Communications Tower 3-17-11.

[Since we wrote this post, the City has modified it with the sort of missing text we were talking about -ed.]

The two links connected to documents with plans and Photoshopped images for a proposed 174-foot tower which, with drum antennae studding the latticed tower, looking like a picked over croquembouche.

The police department wants to put the tower in against the north wall of the City Yard at 1616 Monte Vista Ave., directly across from the Claremont Club's entrance. Odd that we missed the publicly noticed meetings on the communications tower. It simply appeared without the usual fanfare city officials use to launch their projects. It's as if they wanted to slip this one in and see if anyone would notice.

The plans were listed on the City's initial studies page, so the project would have to at least be analyzed to see whether or not it would need an Environmental Impact Report. Given the tower's height and its proximity to Cable Airport's Runway 6, the FAA might have a say. If the tower interferes with the airport's traffic, we suggest the City put it on one of its other properties, like City Hall. After all, our town fathers and mothers wouldn't want to stand in the way of progress, and they would also want our police department to have the best communications possible.

It occurred to us that the tower plans would have to be reviewed by the Architectural Commission as well, and they might not like some of the future views:

TOP: View from the Claremont Club entrance
BOTTOM: View from Shenandoah Dr. facing southeast

Municipal Ordnance

As Daily Bulletin columnist David Allen pointed out last month, there was more than the usual amount of Claremont irony in the town's Architectural Commission Excellence in Design awards.

That empty commercial building at 601 E. Foothill Blvd., the one that was the proposed site for a 7-Eleven convenience store, was one of the seven award recipients. The award no doubt represents a consolation prize to the building owners, who haven't had one tenant since the building was completed (last year? 2008?). Sorta says, "No hard feelings. See, we're not so bad."

Claremont can be an awfully difficult place to do business, mostly because of the interference of our dear Claremonsters, most of whom have never successfully made or sold anything. They are for the most part dilettantes like our town historian, former mayor Judy Wright, or they're in the service sector like former mayor, former school board member, and former Chamber of Commerce chair Paul Held, who has a Claremont-centric family law practice. And that all goes a long way towards explaining Official Claremont's poor understanding of the concerns of people running reality-centric businesses.

All this got us to thinking that the Architectural Commission might want to think seriously about giving their award a snappier title. Here is our humble offering (given to the the commission free of charge - our civic duty, you know): The Claremont Neutron Bomb Award, after the Cold War tactical WMD of choice.

The neutron bomb's main selling point, you'll recall, was that it eliminated people but left most structures standing, similar to what the Claremont 400's tried to do to citizens and businesses alike over the years. So, the neutron bomb was immensely attractive to the realty crowd (another important Claremont interest group). After all, human assets can be replaced much more easily than infrastructure. Think redevelopment, except with people.

Given the current economic climate, there very well could be many more empty buildings around in the future, and that would drive down the town's image. But winning an award goes a long way toward softening bad publicity, a fact with which Claremont is well-acquainted.

We remember that in 2001, when City Hall was still suffering in the press (there were still such things back then) over the shooting death of African American teen Irvin Landrum after a traffic stop by Claremont PD, Claremont's then-Human Services Director Dick Guthrie applied for and received a Helen Putnam Award for Excellence from the League of California Cities for its response to crisis. Needless to say, the award came several years before the issue was resolved. The City's main response up to that point had been a mostly notional heads-in-the-sand one: "You can't see me if I can't see you."

Some things change, others are ever constant. Claremont's mayor at the time the award was announced? The aforementioned Paul Held, Esq., who, along with wife Kay, just last week was honored as the Grand Marshal of our annual 4th of July parade. Held, who as mayor seemed at war with certain Claremonters, could tell you that when things look bleakest, trot out an award.

Knock 'em dead, Claremont.

Around Town

AND THE WINNERS ARE...

Claremont's Architectural Commission announced the winners of the City's Excellence in Design Awards. Six of the seven winning designs were on or affiliated with the Claremont Colleges. The City's website listed the award winners:

Winners of 2009 Excellence in Design Award Announced (May 12, 2010)

The Claremont Architectural Commission has announced the winners of the 29th Annual "Excellence in Design Awards," a program designed to recognize recently completed projects that best reflect the City's standards of design excellence. Seven projects have earned awards in the categories of New Construction, Renovation, Addition, Sustainable Landscaping, and Restorative Landscaping.

The Architectural Commission will formally recognize the award winners at its meeting on Wednesday, June 9, 2010. The meeting will begin at 7:00 p.m. in the Council Chamber, 225 W. Second Street. The public is invited to attend.

The Winners are:
- Claremont McKenna College - Biszantz Family Tennis Center
- 601 E. Foothill Boulevard Commercial Building Claremont University Consortium - - Honnold Library
- Scripps College - Sicilian Court
- McDermott Building
- CGU Residence
- Shafer Residence

• Read the press release (Adobe Acrobat, 27KB)

CITY YARD SALE TOMORROW

Packrats all over Claremont are gearing up for a buying spree tomorrow at the annual City Yard Sale. In a sign of the fiscal times, the City is no longer hosting the event. Instead, the Claremont High School Softball Boosters will be in charge of the annual community yard sale in Cahuilla Park. The yard sale begins at 8am.

Citywide Yard Sale
May 15, 2010

Please note the change in this event!

This event will now be offered by the Claremont High School Softball Boosters and will no longer be offered by the City of Claremont. The 2010 event will take place from 8 am to 11 am at Cahuilla Park 1775 N. Indian Hill Blvd. (corner of Indian Hill and Scripps Ave). For more information please contact the Claremont High School Boosters at (909) 450-1730.

WILDERNESS PARK CLOSED NEXT WEEK

City Manager Jeff Parker's weekly report informs us that the Claremont Hills Wilderness Park will be closed next Monday through Wednesday for what has become an annual training exercise.

If you're curious to see where the exercise will take place, you can see the grove L.A. County Fire has worn into the hills on the west side of Thompson Creek. Rather than changing the area they practice in, L.A. County Fire has used the exact same area each time for their exercise. Every year, the firefighters use a trail that they created by tromping around the hillsides, and all that activity, together with erosion, has resulted an unintended, permanent feature.

This was Jeff Parker's blurb on the subject:

WILDERNESS PARK FIRE TRAINING EXERCISE

On May 17, 18 and 19, the Los Angeles County Fire Department is conducting its annual wildfire training exercise in the City of Claremont Wilderness Park. This exercise will begin at 8:00 AM and conclude at 1:00 PM each day. During this time, the Claremont Wilderness Park will be closed. Mills Avenue north of Mt. Baldy Road will also be closed, except to residents.

MAY BUDGET WORKSHOP

Claremont will hold another budget workshop on Saturday, May 22 in the City Council chambers at 225 W. Second St. The workshop runs from 1pm to 4pm, and the public is welcome and encouraged to attend. This is your chance to take partial ownership of your community's financial decisions. Here's the info from the City:

May 22 Budget Workshop (Mar 25, 2010)

The City Council has scheduled a Budget Workshop on May 22 from 1pm to 4pm to address the budget shortfall in 2011-12 Fiscal Year. The City Council approved staff recommendations for staff and program reductions for fiscal year 2010-11 resulting in a reduction of $1,318,727 in expenditures. In fiscal year 2011-12, staff has projected a $750,000 shortfall which is dependent on several undecided factors. These factors include the outcome of the State Redevelopment lawsuit, negotiations with labor unions, and the California State budget. At the late May workshop, staff will give an update on these factors, and provide additional reduction recommendations if necessary.

In case you were thinking state and local finances were going to be in better shape this year, think again. The Sacramento Bee's Capitol Alert had this budget news today:

May 14, 2010

AM Alert: April shortfalls bring May...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will release his revised spending proposal for the 2010-2011 fiscal year today.

The outlook? Not so good. Here's what we know so far:

• Cash commitments from federal officials have amounted to about $3 billion -- far less than the $6.9 billion in federal aid Schwarzenegger counted on in his January proposal.
• Last month's drop in personal income tax revenues ruined any chance of a "May surprise" revise -- the state ended April about $1.3 billion short of revenue projections.
• The governor's office has warned of "absolutely terrible cuts," including to social services programs.
• Democrats say they want "everything on the table," including tax increases to close the gap. Republican leaders and Schwarzenegger say the topic of taxes is a non-starter.

The bottom line: Get ready for another long budget fight.

Bee colleague Kevin Yamamura reports today that one proposal expected to be included in today's revision would revive a plan to house some 15,000 nonviolent felons in county jails instead of state prisons. Read more on that here.

The big rollout of the governor's proposal, set for 1 p.m. at the Secretary of State building, will be broadcast live here.

Unintended Consequences

It came as no surprise that the proposal for a 7-Eleven at the northwest corner of Mills Ave. and Foothill Blvd. bit the dust. The person whose conditional use permit application was rejected by Claremont's Planning Commission withdrew his appeal to the City Council at the end of March.

What was a surprise was that anyone would want to put a 7-Eleven in there in the first place. The way the building is situated on the site, with its back facing Foothill Blvd., always struck us as strange. The only access is from Mills Ave. and from the frontage road that runs parallel to Foothill. Laying the property out as it is now guaranteed complaints from residents who live along E. Morelia Dr., which connects to the frontage road, because some of the traffic leaving the site would inevitably have ended up on their narrow street.

Even worse for potential 7-Eleven customers was the exit from the site onto Mills Ave. The City planned on that particular exit being a right-turn only driveway. So, if you wanted to get from that exit to Foothill Blvd., you would have had to turn right, then make a U-turn farther up Mills.

Here is what the property looks like in its current configuration:

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7-Eleven site: 6/19/09

Why would anyone create such a cockamamie layout in the first place? The answer is that the property owners were following Claremont's "design vision" for the area. When the design was reviewed by Claremont's Architectural Commission on 7/25/07, city staff recommended approving the design. The staff report for that meeting said on page 3:

The proposal is well planned and makes efficient use of the property. The placement and height of the proposed building is consistent with the standards of the CH zoning district. The site plan is consistent with the city's design vision for Foothill Boulevard in that the building is placed adjacent to the street with the parking area to the north of the building, thereby minimizing the visibility of parking areas to the major street.

The site wasn't always laid out like as it is now. It used to be a Union 76 gas station with a building farther away from Foothill Blvd. than the current building. The location had four driveways rather than two, and two extra entrances opened onto Foothill, making it easier for traffic from the main road to get in and out easily.

Here is what the site used to look like:

7-Eleven site: 12/30/03

However well-intended the reasoning behind Claremont's design vision for Foothill Blvd., the result was a property that will be difficult to fill, and any business owner considering the site in the future will have to contend with its limitations, as well the perception that Claremont simply isn't a business-friendly town.

As always with our screwy town, there was some irony involved. On his COURIER City Beat blog, Tony Krickl posted a letter from one of his readers that addressed the 7-Eleven issue. If you listened closely to the complaints about the 7-Eleven, there was an undercurrent of snobbery in some (not all) of the comments. That haughty attitude is one Claremont has affected for years, probably all the way back to its founding.

The letter Krickl posted on his blog noted that Masatoshi Ito, who lent his name to the Peter Drucker & Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management at Claremont Graduate University, is the founder of the corporation that owns 7-Eleven. Not a 7-Eleven. Over 10,000 of them.

Krickl's reader said:

It was Peter Drucker's insistence that Ito's name be added to his school. Drucker was so impressed with Ito's customer focus success and highly ethical operation all grounded on principles learned by Ito from Drucker. Ito's monetary donations to the school was significant but far short of the level in getting his name on the school.

The dichotomy of the large number of Claremont residents demonizing 7-11 while the world renowned "management guru" having given this 7-11 owner the highest expression of praise.

So, to Ito-san, Claremont says, many thanks for any prestige that your name brings to CGU. Now leave.

Affordable Housing Moves Forward

The College Ave. affordable housing project cleared another hurdle Wednesday night when the Claremont Architectural Commission gave its conditional approval on a 4-2 vote.

Wes Woods explained the vote in a Daily Bulletin article:

The commission - which approved the project by a 4 to 2 vote but requiring that several conditions still had to be met, including details on the project's color, windows, soundwall, carport, roofing and other details.

The Claremont Redevelopment Agency and the Jamboree Housing Corp. - the project's applicants - told the commission they may appeal the conditions.

"In the next day or so, we'll evaluate and see if we want to come back here, but we need to consult with other people," said Brian Desatnik, housing and redevelopment manager.

You can see why the Architectural Commission would want to impose their conditions. The lack of important architectural details would seem to make it difficult for the commission to do its job. But, the City and Mr. Desatnik have a lot of pressure on them from the League of Women Voters and others to get to project done. So, details or no, on we go.

If you haven't reviewed them, the Insider has posted the project plans here.

Woods' article said a number of residents spoke out against the project, citing things like cost and child safety (we're not sure if this refers to concerns about kids having to deal with traffic or the nearby Metrolink or some other issue). Another resident complained about the lack of an environmental impact report for the project.

The housing units are being built by Jamboree Housing Corp. and the Claremont Redevelopment Agency (whose board consists of Claremont's five councilmembers and whose executive director is City Manager Jeff Parker). Having already been approved by the Planning Commission, the matter moves onto the City Council, probably by next Tuesday, according to the Woods piece. You can see how this works - CRA project has to be approved by the City Council, which is the CRA.

Getting the project to the council by Tuesday is important because the council and city commissions go dark in August for their traditional summer break. If the College Ave. project doesn't get to the council next week, it'll have to wait until September. Also, getting it done in July means Desatnik and the city staff assigned to the project have all of August to work with less scrutiny than the rest of the year because people are preoccupied with vacations and recreation.

Claremont's other August tradition is to get hot button issues shaped and fully dressed by staff during the council break. Affordable housing is no different. You can expect Desatnik to be ready in September to rattle off answers to critics' questions with absolute confidence and certitude, no matter how substantive those responses may or may not be.

College Ave. Project Plans Unveiled

The designs for Claremont's affordable housing project at 111 S. College Ave. (the old Claremont Courier site) go before the City's Architectural Commission this Wednesday, July 22, at 7pm. The commission meets in the City Council Chambers at 225 W. 2nd St.

Here is the meeting information listed on the City website:

Affordable Housing Architectural Plans to be Reviewed

The Architectural Commission will review the College Avenue Architectural Plans for the affordable housing project, at their meeting on Wednesday, July 22, 2009 at 7:00 p.m. Click on the link below to view the architectural plans.

For more information, please contact the City's Economic Development Department at (909) 399-5341.

For your convenience, we've posted the plans below. As always, click on the box in the upper right-hand corner to enlarge to full screen:

City Holiday Schedule

Claremont City Hall and the rest of the City's offices will be following the following holiday schedule, according to the City's website:

City offices will be closed the following holidays:

Christmas - December 25 & 26
New Years - January 1 & 2

Sanitation, public safety and critical operations will continue as normal on December 26 and January 2.

Also, the regularly scheduled City Council meeting for Tuesday, December 23rd, is canceled, as is Wednesday's Architectural Commission meeting.

The Claremont Trolley, for those of you (S. C.) who ride it, will not run on Christmas Day, but will resume its regular 11am to 11pm schedule on Friday, December 26th.

City Meetings this Week

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The Daily Bulletin reported that Claremont is having a special meeting regarding the the City's cell tower policy tonight at 6pm in the Claremont City Council Chambers at 225 W. 2nd St.:

CLAREMONT - The Planning Commission last week denied a Claremont resident's request for additional safety measures at La Puerta Sports Park.

Joyce Sauter said she was concerned for the safety of young athletes in the park due the placement of a wireless antenna inside a light pole and construction of an underground electrical vault.

There will be a special meeting on the issue today.

That information may be a little off. The Planning Commission doesn't convene until tomorrow for its regularly scheduled meeting. Tonight's meeting is for the Architectural Commission. The agenda for tonight's special meeting only lists one item: review of the architectural and site plans for Claremont McKenna College's Kravis Center. That matter was carried over to tonight because of a lack of quorum when the Architectural Commission's last met on November 24th. The city staff report expains.

Now that the lawsuit filed by residents of the neighboring area has been settled, the project can move forward.

There is a "wireless facililties" agenda item for tomorrow night's Planning Commission meeting. That item concerns the City's proposed revisions to its wireless tower ordinance. There was also an agenda item regarding a proposed T-Mobile cell tower at the northeast corner of Base Line Rd. and Padua Ave., but there didn't appear to be anything concerning the La Puerta Park cell tower.