Community -Based Planning Finally Wins One: Azusa's Smart Growth Plan Approved

Southern California remains a battleground between the opposing camps of either "more sprawl" or "no growth." It's a war without winners as commuters sit it traffic and young people watch housing prices soar out of sight. But just as the forces of "dumb growth" suffered a stinging defeat when Inglewood voters rejected an effort to force through a Walmart at theballot box, the "smart growth" alternative won a huge victory in Azusa in early May. While attracting far less media coverage than the Inglewood election, the Azusa vote was just as significant and even more hopeful for the future of our region.

By an overwhelming margin of 76%, Azusa voters approved a new community plan for development of new mixed-use and mixed-density neighborhoods on 500 acres where Monrovia Nursery has raised plants for half a century (the national wholesale nursery firm originally got its start in nearby Monrovia before moving to Azusa.) The approved plan will set a standard for housing choice in Southern California and give cities a new model for achieving a more environmentally sustainable future.

Today, caught between "greedy" developers and "selfish" neighbors, local government is the hated referee, a hapless punching bag that both sides despise. The big victory for smart growth in Azusa began with a radical departure from the way most cities deal with their futures - which is to react to developer plans instead of initiating their own.

Azusa had bitter experience with the conventional way. Five years ago, a major homebuilder tried to impose its formula on the same parcel of land. Like so many other projects these days, it ended up at the ballot box and was soundly defeated.

This time, the Azusa City Council took a completely different path. A grass roots Citizens Congress drafted a new General Plan for the city. Instead of having a developer propose a plan for the Monrovia Nursery land, nationally-renowned planning firms were invited to participate in a design competition. Azusa citizens acted as the judges. The cost of the unique approach was paid by the land owner. No developer was allowed to participate. Instead 200 ordinary citizens gave up a Saturday to pore over four competing designs and submit their reactions and detailed ranking scores.

From this exciting beginning, another year of public workshops and intense design work produced a final plan. In the end, citizen participants scored the design on the guiding principles developed at the outset of the effort. Their scores were as overwhelming as the later vote at the polls.

The final plan includes a wide range of home types. To meet the needs of diverse incomes and lifestyles, it offers mixed-use condominiums near a future light rail station, handsome townhomes across from a park and school, ‘cottage homes' for new home buyers, homes with ample lots for families as well as luxury view homes next to the foothills. A new $24 million K-8th grade school sits at the center. No home is more than a five minute walk from one of the 30 acres of parks. Over 200 acres of open space is provided, linked by bike and pedestrian trails. Instead of a sea of red tiled roof "cookie cutter" homes, strict design standards dictate a return to the traditional architecture and craftsmanship that came before suburban

sprawl.

So why did the new plan end up on the ballot like so many others? The mentality of suburban sprawl remains powerful. A small group of naysayers insisted that fewer homes on larger lots would mean less traffic, despite growing evidence that our traffic woes are caused by auto-dependent suburban sprawl. But after two years of participating in designing a better future, far more citizens supported the new "smart growth" plan. In fact, with virtually every respected community leader in favor, opponents had to stoop to misappropriating the photos of the plan's supporters on their negative mailers. The deceptive tactic backfired.

Inglewood voters showed that big box, big money developers don't always get their way. Now Azusa voters have now shown that anti-growth, anti-density fear campaigns don't either. The road to a more sustainable future for Southern California now runs through both towns.