The San Gabriel City Council invited residents and business owners out to the corner of San Gabriel Boulevard and Pearl Street on Wednesday to enjoy the new view. Hosted by City Councilmembers and staff from the Community Development Department, a dedication ceremony celebrated the completion of the first phase of the San Gabriel Boulevard Streetscape Master Plan, which proposes a functional and aesthetical makeover for the San Gabriel Boulevard business district.
Sharn Ure, vice president of Katherine Spitz Associates, the landscape architecture firm responsible for the design and coordination of the San Gabriel Boulevard Streetscape Project Pilot Area 2, said the plan beautifies and activates the commercial district while greening the street with sustainable practices like permeable parkways and tree canopies to infiltrate rainwater.
“The 1.2 miles between Fairview and Elm was quite grim before,” Ure said. “So we tried to design something that would promote a little more pedestrian activity and that would get people to use more of the businesses on the street instead of just driving by.”
Businesses that line the pilot project part of San Gabriel Boulevard include the San Gabriel Nursery, Wally’s Art Garden, Rosemead Gardens, and KM Furniture Store. An important goal of the streetscape project is to entice economic recovery through beautification of the boulevard.
Dr. Matthew Lin, a candidate for the 49th Assembly District, attended the ceremony on Wednesday to show his support for both the project and for economic recovery throughout the San Gabriel Valley. Lin told this reporter that capital improvement projects are the beginning steps to attracting business and creating a more business-friendly community.
“Hopefully people will relocate their businesses back here,” he said. “And when businesses begin to relocate back here, they will start hiring, and this will help bring more revenue to the community. There’s a lot that needs to happen, but this is where it starts.”
Other improvements to the streetscape include landscape medians, intersection curb extensions, decorative crosswalks, and site furnishings such as benches, planters and receptacles. The streetscape improvements for the Pilot Area 2 were completed in April 2012 at the price tag of $926,041.
The streetscape pilot project was funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Federal Community Development Block Grant program, and the Former San Gabriel Redevelopment Agency. Because of the dissolution of redevelopment agencies statewide, following through with the remainder of San Gabriel Boulevard’s streetscape plan will be in phases as other funds become available.
Mayor Kevin Sawkins said he wished the city were able to complete more of the five segments of the boulevard at the same time, but funding just wasn’t available in that way. “So our Economic Development team got creative and basically broke it down into bite-size sections that we could afford to do and put together some money to accomplish,” Sawkins said. “This way, people can see how nice it looks so we can get some additional financial support to complete the subsequent phases.”
In his opening remarks at the ceremony, City Manager Steven Preston said the Community Development Commission of Los Angeles County was instrumental as a funding partner with the City of San Gabriel. In addition, the city received $563,000 in funding from the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) as part of the San Gabriel Boulevard Gateway Corridor Improvements Project, which will pay for improvements between Fairview and Grand.
“So between the Community Development Block Grant program, the contribution from Metro, and what was the city’s former redevelopment agency, these are among the sources that have made this beautiful streetscape come to pass,” Preston said.
Three additional pilot areas have been partially funded to date. The segment between Las Tunas and Broadway will begin by the end of 2012, according to the Community Development Department. The Alameda Corridor East Construction Authority will implement the streetscape treatment to the San Gabriel Boulevard Bridge in conjunction with the trench project in 2013.
Terry Gonzalez, Community Development Block Grant Program director for the Community Development Commission of the County of Los Angeles, emphasized the important role that CDBG funding plays in capital improvement projects for the public.
“In this economic time, federal funds are being reduced,” Gonzalez told the crowd of nearly 60 guests. “It is really important that we continue to fight for Community Development Block funds because it is these funds that help to make projects like this possible. We are continuing the fight so that you can have this beautiful streetscape project and others.”
Photo: San Gabriel Vice Mayor Mario De La Torre, Councilmember John Harrington, Mayor Kevin Sawkins, and Councilmembers Juli Costanzo and David R. Gutierrez – Jim E. Winburn
