The San Gabriel City Council approved a motion 5-0 on Tuesday night to adopt the San Gabriel Village Urban Design Strategy that directly impacts a block-long collection of stores on West Fairview Avenue.
The plan outlines the development of design enhancement programs for unique commercial districts scattered throughout San Gabriel, particularly focusing on the San Gabriel Village, according to Planning Manager Mark Gallatin’s presentation to the council.
After giving the council a spectrum of options to choose from, Gallatin recommended that the city fully fund the streetscape improvements for the commercial block of Fairview Avenue. Design strategy options ranged from using available funds for residential street repairs without streetscape improvements on the commercial block of Fairview to, the other end of the spectrum, performing the full compliment of streetscape improvements without any repairs to residential streets.
“This alternative best fulfills the general planning goal of the design enhancement strategy for a unique neighborhood commercial area and provides this area with the most robust and dedicated improvement of all the options,” Gallatin reported.
However, Councilman John Harrington voiced his preference to also allow the option for funding residential street repairs, since businesses would benefit little from this project. “After reading the report, it’s not going to attract more business here by this project,” Harrington said. “I say let’s pave Fairview, let’s get this place spruced up a bit, but let’s get as many of the arterial streets paved as possible, because that’s really what the neighborhood is going to benefit from.”
The council would eventually include within their motion to have the Planning Division return at a later date to propose a new funding implementation strategy that would take into consideration a greater emphasis on street paving over beautification improvements.
Councilman David Gutierrez also raised a concern that the city should be able to choose what combinations of enhancements to support, especially in light of a $182,000 proposal for street furnishings and trees. “I would like to see something recommended by staff (as to) what an appropriate number of trees might cost, maybe some trash receptacles, but I’m not sure we need the benches,” Gutierrez said.
While considering concerns like those expressed by Gutierrez and Harrington, the council wondered at length if they were able to approve the plan as stated while allowing for variations in funding for the different options contained within the strategy.
City Manager Steven Preston advised the council that they could adopt the strategy as a whole and fund only portions of it at this time. Preston explained that most of the plan is self-implementing, meaning that it applies guidelines to what changes or development that property owners can make to their buildings.
“So the suggestion to adopt the plan first is a good one because this is really about the policy decision, which is about re-enforcing the neighborhood,” Preston said, also explaining that the Negative Declaration of Environmental Impact, also part of the staff recommendation, would not be affected because separate environmental determinations for any street repairs would be presented by the Planning Division at the appropriate time.
Gallatin confirmed at Tuesday night’s meeting that the various alternatives to the plan each divvy up the full $728,000 allocated from the city’s Capital Improvement Plan, which include the preparation of construction drawings and the building of streetscape improvements within the strategy.
He also clarified to property owners, who raised concerns about the original cost to facade enhancements to their buildings, that the Planning Commission had budgeted the full amount for more than $100,000; however, the actual funded amount is for $53,000. “We had an original request in our capital improvement plan for $125,000, but $53,000 is the balance available in the CIP for that program,” Gallatin said.
Mayor Kevin Sawkins, who said he had served on the Planning Commission when the General Plan was adopted in 2004, said he believes there is a consensus among the community that the design strategy is worthwhile.
“There’s been a lot of great work (on this plan), and we’d like to see that investment — even if we may not have the economic bang for the buck,” Sawkins said. “It’s going to have some infrastructure that will really make that area, which is a jewel in the city, much more livable and much more rewarding to the community.”
He also reiterated how important it was to get the ball rolling on the project by adopting a flexible design strategy. “It would be nice if we could start with some of the design strategies, maybe some of the less expensive ones,” Sawkins said. “I would be supportive of that, and putting some money into street re-pavement in the area.”
