City Council - Regular Meeting

It's 1.5.

But they put so much money into it, they told me we did it. It's still just a box, just a box.

you Thank you.

No? You? That's a good sign. I think if there's anybody else running, we would know by now.

Yeah.

Ms. Prado, could we have you take your seat?

Terry.

Is it not on? Terry. Thank you.

Good evening.

Glad to have you join us this evening for our regular meeting of the 77th Monrovia City Council this Tuesday, July 21st. And we are convening our meeting at 7.34 p.m. We are going to, and this meeting is in honor of Elliot Emerson Leos, born June 25th to Community Services Commissioner D'Angelo and Amanda Leos. And we say congratulations to the family. Little Elliot. Okay, welcome to the neighborhood, Elliot. And we will have our invocation by Barbara Golar and followed by the Pledge of Allegiance by Councilmember Edward Belden.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council, and staff, and community. I thought it was important to, with us celebrating our 250th year, is to kind of bring that in for us today, this evening. As our nation reflects upon 250 years, help us to remember that the story of America is the story of many people. We give thanks for all who have labored, sacrificed, served, created, and contributed to the building of this nation, including those whose names, experiences, and achievements have too often been overlooked or excluded from our history. May we have the courage to acknowledge both the progress we have made and the hardships, injustices, and challenges that remain. Help us understand that truth does not divide us When received with humility and compassion, truth can guide us toward healing, justice, and greater unity. Bless the members of this city council and all who serve our community. Grant them wisdom in their decisions, fairness in their actions, compassion for those whose voices may not always be heard, and sincere commitment to the well-being of every resident. May our community continue to be a place where every person is valued, every culture is respected, and every member of our community knows that they belong. Let this historic anniversary inspire us not only to remember the past, but also to work together to build a future rooted in hope, unity, service, justice, and love for one another. We are reminded the earth is but one country and mankind its citizens. May we live accordingly to this truth, recognizing that our diversity is not a weakness but a source of strength and that the future of our city and our nation depends on our willingness to work to excuse me to walk forward together in the spirit of unity and peace may it be so thank you thank you

Justice for all.

Thank you, Edward.

Okay, can we have the roll call, please? Council Members Belden? Here. Spicer? Present. Mayor Pro Tem Jimenez? Here. Mayor Shevlin? Here. And Council Member Dr. Kelly is excused.

Thank you. At this time, I'll ask our City Attorney to report on our closed session.

Thank you, Mayor. Prior to the meeting this evening, the council met in closed session regarding the one item on the posted agenda. Council Member Dr. Kelly was absent and excused. The council took a report from the city attorney and took no reportable action.

Thank you very much. Moving right along then, our presentations. And we have one of my favorite, Pasadena Humane Pet of the Month. And we have Kevin McManus, Public Relations and Communications Manager, here with, who do we have this evening?

Good evening, everyone. Today we have Ella with us. Ella is a five-year-old German Shepherd who is very busy, but very, very sweet. She was one of the very few animals who did not get adopted on our free adoption on Saturday, so she's still looking for her home. But what an amazing dog. Just loves snuggling, has loved every person she's met, has lived with another dog. So she's really kind of a plug and play dog. She is five years old. So she's eligible for one of our favorite programs, which is the Senior for Senior. So she'll be a fee waived for any adopter over 60. But if you're like, hey, I really want to meet Ella, come on down to the shelter. She's available to anyone and obviously one of my personal favorites. So I'm really hopeful that she'll get a home this week.

So what's new and exciting at the Humane Society?

Well, we have another cool thing coming up next Monday. A couple members of the LAFC soccer team, the MLS soccer team, are going to be visiting the shelter. And they'll be doing meet and greets and photos and autographs. 430 and 630, which is a little late for us, which is kind of cool. And LAFC is actually sponsoring all the adoptions that have been during that that time. So that's a great, great partnership. And you know, I think we're all a little bit soccer crazy right now. So that's a good tie in. And then The end of next week, the 31st of July, kicks off our hot dogs summer promotion. So all adult dogs and cats will be fee waived for, well, between July 31st and August 9th. So lots of cool adoption opportunities. And of course, we're still rolling with our foster field trip program and our foster overnight program. So if you're like, hey, I maybe want to bring a pet in, But I'm not sure. You can do kind of a trial either on a field trip for many dogs or an overnight for a select handful. And that way you get a good feel for if they're a good fit for your home.

All right. Thank you very much. My pleasure. We'll come down and have a picture with Ella.

Oh, now that she's nice and settled.

I think she likes you Edward. She adopted Edward.

All right. We don't have any further presentations or proclamations, and no student government representative report. That will resume in September. I don't believe there are any changes to our order of business, so we'll continue on to our consent calendar, which are items CC1 through CC7, which are considered ordinary and routine in nature and could be enacted with one motion so unless there's something that needs to be questioned or pulled do we have a motion to approve move for approval second have a motion and a second then without further discussion or objection then so approved moving on then to public uh input this is the time i thank you for attending this evening and this is your opportunity to come and address the city council and you will be given three minutes to make your statements um and i do believe we have some so I'll let Alice announce the speakers.

Starting with Wayne Socha.

Good evening, Wayne.

Hi, Wayne Socha, 351 Highland. The citizens of Monrovia near the property that you'll be discussing in an agenda item later on would like to thank the city council for the planned action on Highland along with the Bowdoin team and city staff. This is good action which balances both short and long-term interests. So I'd like to share two quotes we had in mind. Teddy Roosevelt said, the nation behaves well if it treats the natural resources as assets, which it must turn over to the next generation, increased and not impaired in value. And we're doing that. And former Monrovia resident Upton Sinclair, who said, there are no limits to what we can accomplish if we're willing to work together. So thank you for your vision on this.

Thank you. My apologies, I didn't notice that was for the items.

Yeah, and I didn't say specifically that this is for items not on the agenda. And he marked it. Yeah, so that's okay. That's our fault.

Sherry Lochner.

Good evening, Sherry.

Good evening, everyone.

I'm Sherry Lochner, and I'm a resident of Monrovia. I grew up here in Monrovia and Duarte. I am here this evening, as always, to continue to advocate for day laborers and other people who are immigrants targeted by ICE. At the last city council meeting on the 7th of July, I reported there had been 72 deaths as a result of ICE actions. As of today, there are now 75 people who have died. Three more people have lost their lives. Johann Sebastian Guerrero died on July 13th. He was a 25-year-old man from Colombia. He was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Biddeford, Maine. Johann worked as a delivery driver. He leaves behind his partner and three-year-old daughter. Johann was lawfully present in the U.S. and had a work permit and a Social Security card. Jesus Manuel Arenas Silva also died on July 13th. He was a 45-year-old man from Venezuela. He was taken from his house by ICE agents in Georgia on July 9th. Four days later, he was being transferred between ICE detention facilities when he was found unresponsive in a transport bus. He died at the local hospital. Jesus' sister reported that he had a pre-existing medical condition and needed medication, which he was not allowed to take with him when ICE agents took him. His cause of death is pending an autopsy. Juan Jario Coronilla Duran died on July 14th. He was a 28-year-old man from Mexico. He was killed by a truck in St. Augustine, Florida. Juan was in the U.S. for a holiday. He had a valid tourist visa and a return ticket for his flight home. Juan was in a car with three other people when men in unmarked cars, wearing masks, no identification, and brandishing guns stopped their car. He was scared and frightened and fled the scene when he was hit by a semi truck as he tried to cross the highway. Juan leaves behind his wife of 10 years and two children, a seven-year-old boy and a seven-month-old daughter. We should be shocked and outraged at the deaths of these people, regardless of their immigration status. Immigration status should never strip someone of dignity, due process, or their life. This evening, I reiterate the following request to the Monrovia City Council. Continue to pursue an independent report investigating the circumstances resulting in the death of Carlos Roberto Montoya Valdez last August. Two, adopt an ordinance declaring Monrovia a sanctuary city. And three, continue to work with us to establish a permanent memorial honoring Carlos. We are holding a vigil and a day of remembrance for Carlos on Saturday, the 15th of August at the Monrovia Home Depot from 12 p.m. onwards. Local faith leaders, laity, and members of the public will be attending. There will be food and fellowship. We would welcome your attendance to show support for our immigrant community. Thank you.

Thank you.

Martha Mack. Good evening, Martha. Good evening.

J.D. Vance stated in 2025 there were 30 million undocumented people in the United States. In 2025, 29 murders were, I'm sorry, undocumented people were responsible for 29 murders. That's one in a million undocumented people as a murderer. There are 22,000 ICE agents who work for our government that are responsible for 34 murders in 2025. That means one in every 674 ICE agents has killed someone. I would like to emphasize that these 75 names I will read are just from the last two years, and these people have been killed by our government. Jose Manuel Sanchez-Castro, Pankaj Karan Singkateria, Ramesh Amichand, Henry Donald Ruiz-Guyen, Sarawit Dezehen Gahene, Maxim Cherniak, Juan Alexis Tineo-Martinez, Ruben Ray Martinez, Brian Garzon Rayo, Non Noc Nguyen, Marie Ange Blaise, Abelardo Avellaneda Delgado, Jesus Molina Vella, Johnny Noviello, Isidro Perez, Jaime Alaniz Garcia, Tianxuan Fan, Chaofeng Ge, Carlos Roberto Montoya Valdez, Lorenzo Antonio Batres Vargas, Oscar Rascón Duarte, Santos Benegas Reyes, Ismael Ayala Uribe, Norlan Guzman Fuentes, Silverio Villegas Gonzalez, Hua Bing Xie, Miguel Angel Garcia Hernandez, Leo Cruz Silva, Hassan Ali Moed Saleh, Gabriel Garcia Aviles, Josue Castro Rivera, Kai Yin Wang, Francisco Gaspar Andres, Pete Sumala-Montejo, Shiraz Fatehalle Sachwani, Isaias Sanchez Barbosa, Jean Wilson Brutus, Fawad Saeed Abdul Qadir, Delvin Francisco Rodriguez, Nenko Staniv Ganchev, keith porter jr heraldo lunas campos luis gustavo nunez caceres renee nicole macklin good louis beltran yanez cruz paradis la victor manuel diaz ever sanchez dominguez yael tarabishi jairo garcia hernandez Alex Jeffrey Pretty, Lort Sim, Linda Davis, Nurul Amin Shah Alam, Julio Cesar Pena, Alberto Gutierrez Reyes, Pajman Karsenas Najafabadi, Emanuel Damas, Daffy Michelle, Irvin Cruz Nappe, Orlin Hernandez Reyes, Muhammad Nazir Paktiawal, Royer Perez Jimenez, Jose Guadalupe Ramos Solano, Tuan Van Bui, Alejandro Cabrera Clemente, Aled Damien Carbonell Betancourt, Danny Adan Gonzalez, Mamuka Artmeladze, Felix Alcorta Rodriguez, Adrian Andreas Florian, Lorenzo Delgado Araujo, John Sebastian Guerrero, Jesus Manuel Arena Silva, Juan Jairo Corania Duran, let us never forget.

David Pinto. Good evening, Mr. Pinto.

Thank you. I want to put some of these unfortunate deaths in perspective. There were 13 deaths in ICE custody this year. That's the first six months. Since ICE was formed in 2003 up to now, according to the ACLU and NGO watchdog groups, there have been 300 deaths in ICE custody. That's across 23 years. That's around 13 per year. And according to the same sources, the number of deaths outside of custody due to ICE enforcement at the border and other places is not completely accurately recorded. So I asked AI, I asked, is it in the hundreds that non-custody Deaths occurred and said no, it's in the dozens. So let's assume it's 69 across 23 years That's three per year Now, let's add that to the number of deaths in custody and we get a very low number under 20 don't we in Texas alone for the first six months of this year 75 illegal aliens have been convicted of murder just in Texas. And that's the only state that's reporting that's allowed to gather immigration and so reporting on immigration status. And I will not read my names here, but these are the names of the criminal illegal aliens who not only murdered, but sexual abuse of children, rape of adults, murder, racketeering, drug trafficking, And I don't really pronounce Spanish names that well, and I won't take up your time. But the salient fact is, it's true that there's been an increase in unnecessary injuries and murder, even murder. But it's miniscule compared to the victims. And what I would love so much is that as a nation, we would think not only of the criminals, but think also of the victims, both the victims whether they be here legally or not, sympathy for them, but more so for the victims of these heinous crimes.

Thank you. Thank you. Russell Hollenhurst. Good evening, Russell.

Good evening, Mayor. Long time, no see. And a good evening, council and city manager, sir. I'm here this evening to provide the Monrovia Chamber update. We have actually 10 new members this month, and I'm going to read them out here. The author, Blair Historical Inn, Ruvius Roofing Company, Trust Guru, Aspire Counseling Group, Jeff Speakman's Kenpo 5.0, Peppertree Technology Solutions, Rooted Wellness Center, Site Services of America, Mayan Bar and Noodle. And we have 15 renewed members for this month so far. And some of our upcoming events, we actually just had one this evening at Home Instead just a little while ago. We're going to have one on Thursday, an evening mixer at Lead the Way Fitness. MAFA Paint and Sip on Monday, July 27th, and that's at the Monrovia Chamber. Lunch Mob, Wednesday, July 29th at Milan Bar and Noodle. And then a ribbon cutting on Thursday, July 30th at the Arthur Blair Historical Inn. and a coffee social Thursday, August 6th at Moses at the actual chamber, and a ribbon-cutting Thursday, August 6th at C2 Education. And to get information and things like that, you can contact Corrine or actually look at MonroviaCC.com, and you can sit there and register, and you might be lucky enough to see me there. So there you go. Thank you.

Thank you, Russell.

No other speaker cards.

Anyone else wanting to address the City Council at this time? Not seeing anyone then we will close that portion of our meeting and we will move on in our agenda. We do not have any public hearings or meetings this evening and so we will move on to reports of City Manager and staff and Mr. Feek. For your report.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. A few updates I'd like to provide in addition to the directives log in front of you. The city attorney's office shared with me moments ago that the city received an extension request from the highway patrol, again, related to the Records Act request we submitted for the investigative report into the death of Carlos Roberto Montoya Valdez. We continue to seek the information that they have, but they continue to request extensions.

I think we've asked this at the last meeting. Is there a limit to the number of extensions, or can that just go on forever?

There's not a numeric limit or a time limit to the number of extensions. We're gonna have to decide whether we wanna take some action to get those reports. I don't think we're at that point yet, but there isn't a specific outside time limit on their response. I do find that, I mean, some public agencies sort of just let the deadline slip and don't pay any attention to them. I do get an email from a particular individual at the Highway Patrol in Sacramento advising that they're going to take the additional time and they do it within their allotted time limits. So they are being... relatively transparent about the time they're taking, they're not getting the documents to us with any alacrity.

And what is the time period of the extension? 30 days. 30 days. Could we maybe have something back at our September meeting then? Does that fall in the right?

Yeah, the 30-day limit is early August.

Okay, and we don't have a meeting, the second meeting?

It's after August 4th, but it'll be back before the September meeting.

Okay, so if we could have a report back as to what our options are at that time.

Yeah, could we also just maybe send another letter up to our governor, our attorney general, and our assembly members, and our state senator, and just also CCR, chief of highway patrol, just so they all know that we have asked this routinely. make sure they know that we're still asking for it. Because maybe the, I appreciate that CHP is responding on a 30 day notice, but no one else really knows that they're dragging their feet.

Yeah, I would just, we absolutely will. And we'll continue to, we've had multiple conversations with attorneys from the governor's office, from the attorney general's office. Everyone is well aware. We continue to receive no update.

Maybe that's the San Gabriel Tribune in the LA Times as well.

The couple updates I'd also like to share. Last week, the city released the RFP for the 222 East Cypress project. I mentioned that in a previous meeting that it was soon ready. Now it's out and available. We're circulating it with potential partners. So we'll look forward to bringing that item back to city council in September for your review and consideration. I'm also very happy to report last week, the community set project completed its plan check review. And so we're very excited. Now we're working on the package of documents to release an RFP for that project. We'll provide an update to council. There have been no substantive changes since the last time you reviewed the project, but we're very excited to begin circulating that. And we're looking at process and timeline. We will certainly be bringing that back to city council here in the fall to I'd also add that at the time where public works and community services and the community development teams have been working on taking the project through the RFP or through the plan review process, Ray has been hard at work working with our team on the 2026 bond, as we're referring to it. So a lot of legal work preparation has been happening. And also in September, we'll be bringing documents back to your attention related to a 2026 bond issuance. So a lot of work happening behind the scenes as we prepare to break ground this year. Um, the city and the school district, it's been some time since we've had a joint meeting between the city council and the school board. And so we've reached out to the superintendent and just kind of taking, we're taking the lead on scheduling the meeting. Um, our suggestion is to provide a little bit of time where we can talk about shared and joint business together, maybe have lunch together and similar to last time, maybe we could do an activity at a, at a, Nearby location, one suggestion was Makers and Clay, something that the public is invited to attend, but it provides opportunity for us to collaborate and talk about shared interest, potential goals for the next year. Um, and then last but not least, our next council meeting, just want to remind the public, it'll be, uh, kind of a special meeting. We'll start at 5 PM on August 4th. Um, and then we're, we do this annually so that we can break early and participate in the national night out event over at library park. And we'll share more information, the city managers update, but we hope the community will come out in large numbers to support our police department, to learn more about some programs and services provided here, but also to have some fun and enjoy some food. That's my report this evening. Thank you.

Thank you. Any questions of Dylan? Then we will move on then to our reports of city council members, and I will start with Mr. Bilden.

I'm going to go ahead and let Larry take it first because he seems ready to go.

Okay. I don't have a report, Mayor.

Oh, okay.

That was my report as well.

okay um then i will Since Larry doesn't have a report, Edward doesn't have a report. Sergio.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Family, a word that you don't often see associated with government. But here in Monrovia, the term family is something that I experienced right here in the council chambers. This July 8th, there was a swearing in by our Chief Harvey of the newest officer, Officer Munoz. Yes, his... family was here his friends were here his fellow officers were here but you sense that there was a camaraderie that was best described as a family relationship with the city supporting the new officer you really saw how much they care for each other how much are committed to serve monrovia the love that they have for the community that they serve, the dedication they have also to be there for one another. So to me, I think that was a very special experience right here in these council chambers that we saw. That family, that sense of family there in Monrovia, police department has. So thank you, Madam Mayor, very much. That concludes my report.

Thank you very much. And I only have a few things. It's been fairly quiet this summer. Most of the organizations go dark either in July or August. I did have the opportunity. I know that Russell was talking about the coffee socials that they have through the Chamber, and the last one I attended was at the upper water, San Gabriel Valley Water District, and it was very interesting to visit their offices and hear from our representative, Dr. Fellow. I also attended, I want to thank staff. It seems like it was forever ago, but it was since our last meeting. Just thank our staff, and so happy that we had a wonderful 4th of July celebration, and it was awesome. Did we have a record number in attendance, Dylan? Did we do a big count?

It's hard to know the number because we can't count. By the time it really fills up, it's already dark, but it was packed.

It was so much fun. And so at any rate, that was fun. The second watch party, I think, was since our last council meeting. I think that's accurate. That was also a blast. I will tomorrow night, I will be attending a JPIA, a Joint Powers Insurance Association meeting on behalf of the city. That's their annual meeting and they install officers and give an update as to the status of the JPIA. And this coming weekend, I will be attending a transportation conference in Washington, D.C. on behalf of Foothill Transit. And I've been to a couple of ribbon cuttings, as Russell alluded to earlier. And yes, it was right before coming here. Both of the ones yesterday and today, Comfort Keepers was yesterday and Home Instead was today. Both organizations, entities that help with home care for mostly seniors. So lots still going on and then look forward to back to school. it's coming up already so with that that's it for me for my report and then we are moving and we only have one administrative report this evening and as I have in the past I will be recusing myself on this matter because of my relationship with with Bowdoin Development. I do legal work on their behalf, subdivision work, ceasing hours, bylaws, articles, that kind of stuff. But I do work with Todd and Bowdoin Development. So I am going to be turning this over to Sergio, and he will handle this. But I do want to come back and actually formally adjourn the meeting. So I'll be back.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Moving on to administrative report AR1, letter of intent to purchase property located at 347 North Highland Place.

All right. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem Jimenez. I'll take this item. If we want, before we wrap up and we invite Becky back in, maybe we can sneak down to base 141 or something and then come back and invite her back in. I'll try to be brief on this item. The council, as well as the public, has been able to review the presentation slides ahead of you, but I'll walk through these fairly quickly. The item before you tonight is kind of an exciting opportunity that we've been working on. I do want to recognize managing partner of 347 North Highland Place LLC, Todd Bowden, who's in the audience too. Certainly invite if you would like any questions of him or any words to share with him later on in the presentation. But this item is exciting for many reasons. Over the years, the City of Monrovia has not only embraced open space preservation, but we've been very active in promoting the Hillside Wilderness Preserve increasing its footprint, providing enhanced programs within the preserve. And an opportunity arose where for some years now, the current owners of 347 North Highland have been pursuing a development project to demolish a single family home. with a guest house and a shed, and install three large residential homes. The site is located right adjacent to the Big M, just off Highland Place, and I'll share some additional photos for the public. hard to see from my vantage point excuse me but if you look at the slide here ahead of me 347 north highland is kind of this little beginning of this canyon here just before the big m so it's not necessarily something that you see uh from the southern end of monrovia looking northward but as everyone looks to the north and you can see the big m it's beyond the ridge line right behind the m it's also the the property that provides access directly to the m A little bit about the proposed project. The current owners have been working since at least 2019 on a development proposal, which would, as I mentioned earlier, demolish a single family structure and place three large single family homes totaling over 13,000 square feet. It includes significant grading of the site. It also includes installation of some storm drainage infrastructure to address erosion generated from the site, but also the surrounding area. And so there's some pretty significant infrastructure improvements needed as part of the development proposal. Here are some images of the homes that are proposed to be built. All of this information can be found on the city's development spotlight webpage when they refer to 347 North Highland Development. For the last close to a year, the owners have been moving slowly through the environmental review process. And we're essentially at the point now where do they begin the public hearing process and start collecting feedback from the residents, further feedback in preparation of final environmental documents. And that's really where we are. The site here that you can see, again, the images that I show you are very, very difficult to see, but I'm just going to highlight with my pointer here kind of where the road is that comes onto the site. And it kind of meanders up and comes directly to the house, which is approximately right here on the property. That road continues up and accesses a second home, which as you look up to the M, you can see it on the hillside as well as the M. There's this kind of strange-looking two-tier dog legs that come down on the site as well. Those are all part of this parcel, which represents the full 7.8 acres. The image on the lower right of your screen is an image of the house that is currently there. Here's some additional images. These were all part of the imagery shared when the city reviewed this house prior to, as part of the environmental review, we undertake a pretty thorough look at its potential for historic significance. So we look at the structure, we look at who built it prior to issuing any demolition permit review. We look at all the hillsides and the slopes around it. The lower left, you can see where a tenant had lived there previously. You could see all just the personal belongings. What's kind of interesting is there's a kind of a drainage area, a natural drainage flow that has some infrastructure improvements placed in it. This particular one is a swimming pool that was installed some time ago. The photo on the lower left is actually from the 1950s and shows the then occupants swimming in their little swimming pool in the canyon. which has some neat rock formations that kind of look similar to some of the rock formations we see up at Canyon park. Um, but that structure is still there. It's been maintained. It kind of helps capture some erosion as it comes down that hill. And even in some of the more significant, uh, flooding events we've had recently in 2022 and 2023, um, the current owners have gone up and maintained that infrastructure. So we just have not seen the same kind of erosion problems that we had back in 20, uh, after the 2013 Madison fire, which happened a couple years later. I wanted to show this map just because I think it helps show the city's kind of long-term goals. As you look at this area, I tried to mark out who owns what property in and around the area. So a lot of times residents will look at any potential development on a hillside property or something that's in North Monrovia, and they'll say, you know, you shouldn't be developing in Monrovia. When we're looking at what lands is the city trying to preserve, we typically look at areas that have environmental resources, that have adjacency to the existing wilderness preserve, that have trail access, that have some kind of significance or reason why the city may want to add that to the city's wilderness preserve. So in this case, the large property to the north represents just a large piece of area. You can actually see some of the trail system off Highland Drive or Highland Place that goes up to the water tank and walking trails. You can see the poker jack parcel, which I've highlighted in red right in the center, just to kind of differentiate. A lot of people know the big M property, and so I highlighted that one. You can see the M on the lower right. And then the 347 Highland piece, this is the property that we're purchasing. So immediately to the north is city-owned property, and then continuing north is city-owned property. So this is contiguous with city of Monrovia wilderness preserve properties. You can see other remaining pieces of land to the west, including land that the city has bought previously. There's a property we bought back in the early 2010s from the Poker Jacks that's right there off Madison Avenue. So that just represents some of the surrounding owners of record on these lots. Okay. What's important is when we seek to acquire land, we look at general plan guidelines. We look at the resource management plan of our wilderness preserve. All of these tools and documents that we have point to the city acquiring a property like this. It not only helps prohibit residential development, but it increases our footprint of the wilderness preserve and access to open space, which was pointed out at such importance. an important part of the experience living in Monrovia. When we look at the actual goals of the resource management plan scattered throughout that plan, it lists items like acquiring remaining open space, enhancing and restoring degraded habitats, protecting and preserving cultural resources, views, landscape features, and even providing trail systems. So this property certainly falls within all of that framework.

Excuse me.

So over the course of the last several months, we've been working with the owners of the property. And essentially, we have come to a verbal agreement on the city acquiring the land. So under this framework, I want to go over these next two slides, kind of what this means for both the city and the property owner. So the terms, should the city council proceed, the city agrees to purchase the property for $2 million. This is consistent with appraisals obtained by the city of Monrovia. There would be no brokerage or realtor fees paid. We would share in the costs of escrow fees. The city would waive any permit fees associated with the actual demolition of the single family structure or guest house in the shed. through our franchise agreement with Athens we would arrange for the for Athens services to provide the debris bins and the removal of all the demolition debris and we'll cover those costs and then we'll also continue our review of title reports any other property related studies just for any additional matters or items that we would need to determine before we close on the property The seller would agree to the sale price, of course, but also delivering the property free of encumbrances that did not exist on title prior to this. At the time I drafted this slide, I listed July 1st. We're going to look at this date, but this is an item we just want to make sure that we're looking at all encumbrances on the property This property is pretty old. We are looking at encumbrances that go back into the 40s, and so we just want to make sure that everything between that time, even prior, and even up until the day we purchase, we have a full understanding of what those are. The current owners will also demolish and remove the single family structure, the guest house, and the shed, including all the foundations, and they'll do their best to restore it to the natural grade. And they'll cover those costs of demolition. They'll remove any existing K rail on site, will leave the property in its natural state. And then we're going to review and ensure that existing access or easements or rights that are provided to neighboring property owners that existed prior to us purchasing can continue into the future. And we'll want to make sure that we just have all that approved in a form by the city attorney and his team. That's kind of beyond the capabilities of me and my staff. What's also very important for considerations like this is we understand how's the city going to pay for it. The action before you, which I'll go over the formal action later, is $2 million for the purchase price plus a 5% contingency. The city of Monrovia has a couple sources of funds that are specifically and kind of restricted to uses like this. So first is our open space impact fees. On large new development projects, the city charges an open space impact fee. So this particular $831,124 came from the Station Square South project. This is the project at the now the terminus of Peck Road and Duarte. where we have that development on the southern side of the metro line. They had to pay this sum of money as part of their development impact fee. And that money has to be used on open space acquisition elsewhere in the city. We also have funds that come from the parcel tax that residents voted on in favor of acquiring hillside lands. Anytime there's an increase in development, you go from a single-family unit to a duplex or a triplex, or as we pay off existing bonds, the residual or excess surplus revenues from that parcel tax are just set aside. And those can be used for additional hillside acquisition once they become available. So over the last several years, the city has been just setting these monies aside for future open space acquisition. And so at this time, we have almost $2.2 million that we've set aside in a restricted fund that must be used for open space acquisition. And if this is something the council wants to proceed with, we would use these funds to pay for the project. The way the staff report is written is $831,124 comes from open space impact fees. The balance of the $2 million comes from the Hillside Acquisition Capital Project Fund. And then the contingency amount will be spent also from the Hillside Acquisition Capital Project Fund. Next steps at this point is we have a few additional approvals in addition to City Council approval. The Planning Commission made a determination last week that this conforms with the general plan. That's a government code requirement. The Development Review Committee also has to review the demolition permit. That will be done at their next meeting prior to issuance of that permit. We will finalize the letter of intent as well as draft a purchase and sale agreement. We would open an escrow account. Again, there would be no broker's fees or commissions. The seller will proceed with demolition of existing structures. We talked about waiver of fees and who pays what costs. Once the purchase is complete, I'd like to point this out. We get a lot of questions on what are you going to do and when does it open up? The first thing we'll do is we'll install some temporary fencing and signage just until we determine that future use and plan for the property. We want to make sure that we're securing it, that people aren't going up there just to hang out until we've actually identified any safety hazards. We've installed trails or we've done whatever work it is we're going to do, whatever that ends up being. Also, and this is probably one of the most important factors, the city will initiate a zoning amendment to hillside wilderness preserve designation. So when the city acquires land and then when we zone it as HWP, that's the protective measure that comes with the wilderness preserve. So once a property is zoned HWP, it requires a vote of the public to change it back to something else. And so that's that protection that comes with every time we acquire property, we rezone it. That way, if we're ever going to change it back, it just requires a public vote. All right. I believe this is the last slide of the presentation. So the item before you tonight will certainly answer or invite any questions or any feedback you have. But for council consideration is to approve a letter of intent to purchase the property at 347 Highland Place and authorize the city manager to execute a purchase and sale agreement with the owners in an amount not to exceed $2 million in a form approved by the city attorney. Also approve a 5% contingency amount to address necessary costs and fees associated with this. I would like to point out as well that based on the schedule that we have, we have this council meeting tonight. We have a very limited meeting at our August 4th council meeting. There is no second meeting in August. The city won't be holding another regular meeting until early September, where at that time we'll also be discussing significant bond items as well as community center renovation project items. And so we're going to have a very busy schedule when we return in September. And so the city attorney and I have discussed this and rather wait for several months and then come back to city council with a draft purchase and sale agreement. We're essentially asking the city council to basically approve a letter of intent and a purchase and sale agreement subject to forms approved by both myself as well as the city attorney. I'd be happy to answer any questions you have. You also have the options before you of not to approve letter of intent, or we can certainly wait longer if needed, or you can ask for any additional feedback or information you might have. And that's my report this evening. I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Did we receive any public comment on this purchase, proposed purchase?

Alice, do you have any formal? So in the time since we shared the information on the city manager update and on social media, we have received several positive comments. Those were just done informally, not through this public comment process.

Do we hear any discussion?

I think it's a really great opportunity. I want to thank Bowdoin Development and Bowdoin Family, of course, for the support of allowing the community to have this opportunity. I did have some questions, and I'm not sure if Dylan or Craig might have some suggestions here. I mean, I think there's just some questions I had still that are outstanding that I'd like to figure out how we can follow up on and maybe do it.

So one of the items that, I'll just mention, one of the items that we are aware of, we became aware of yesterday, has to do with the title report. And so an example on the title report is shown a, you know, covenants, commitments related to solar panels on the rental unit, which we'll want to make sure that those are cleaned up before the city takes title of the property. Another item is in relation to an easement for an existing road. We were made aware of some recent title report changes. And prior to that time, the city had agreed with the property owners that the existing rights and access easements that existed prior to us having discussions were, we would expect those to continue with the land. There's a neighboring homeowner there. And if the city's coming in to buy a property, we want to make sure that that neighboring homeowner still has access to get to their property to maintain the road, so on and so forth. We also want to make sure that the the uses like roads and the maintenance of those roads and the utilities may be underneath the roads that those are also typical and common within the wilderness within the HWP designation as well as other zoning designations around I think from from our perspective prior to the city reaching final agreement on purchase we also want to make sure craig and i have discussed this internally we want to make sure that both of us feel comfortable and confident in the latest title report and what's been recorded and why and i think that's going to just require us to have some conversations with the current owners that we just don't have the information and based on the timing of when we received this information we just didn't have enough time to do our due diligence prior to tonight

So I understand that if you had concerns, you'd bring those back to us before we have a final agreement and a final actual purchase, or is this letter of intent? I mean, maybe Craig can help us. Once we send that, we're settled.

Well, the letter of intent, and ultimately the purchase agreement are gonna be contingent on the city being approving and accepting title exceptions. So whatever's on the title report, we're gonna either accept it or not accept it and the transaction won't go forward. So as Dylan said, we saw the current title report this morning and we have the city engineer has been assigned to plot what's recorded on title and what it all means. And then we'll sort of consider that going forward. But that's one of the contingencies for want of a better term is approval of the title report.

No questions.

All right. At this time, I'd like to ask for a public comment from members of the audience.

Good evening, council members. Todd Bowden, representing 347 Highland Place, LLC. Just wanted to thank Dylan for, you know, our You know, we've come to an agreement on this thing, and we've been working on this project for a long time. There's a time and a place for everything, and I think we are developers, but I think there's a good common-sense approach to a property like this, especially when it's continuous to HWP. We had a meeting internally and decided this was going to be the best move forward for Not only the property, but also for the neighborhood. You know, we could press forward, get our project going. But I think in the light of the direction we want to go, this is where we want to go. And we're willing to work with the city, and we're happy to work with the city and put this together. And I think it's going to be great for the whole community. So happy to answer any questions if you have any. Otherwise, I'll take a seat.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any more public comment? Seeing no other public comment, close the public comment section. Council?

I'd like to make a motion to approve the proposed letter of intent to purchase the property at 347 North Highland Place and authorize the city manager To execute a purchase and sell agreement with 347 North Highland Place LLC for the property at 347 North Highland Place in amount not to exceed $2 million in a form approved by the city attorney and approve a 5% contingency amount to address necessary costs and fees associated therewith.

Do I hear a second?

I'll second it with the amendment that just with follow-up conversations based on our City Council our City Manager and City Attorney in terms of the follow-up they'll have with that letter intent And the title report thank you.

Yes We'll call Council members Belden. Yes. Spicer. Yes. And Mayor Pro Tem Jimenez.

Yes at this at this point I'd like to call Mayor Shevlin back into the chamber and No.

thank you Sergio that does do it for our agenda this evening and fortunately we don't have anyone there were no notes or anything we we don't have anyone to acknowledge its passing the month of July so far so so far so so good that's always a good thing and it was so nice to to welcome little Elliot Emerson Leo so always happy to do that but at any rate then at this time there's there no further there's no further business before us and I want to wish everybody a great rest of their summer we do have the meeting as Dylan pointed out on August 4th and I hope everyone can come out for national night out in a library park it is in library park right great great opportunity to participate with our police department. So come on out, have a great time. Go to a summer concert or a movie in the park. And until we see each other on June 4th, then we are adjourned at 8.32. Thank you for joining us.

I'm waiting for you to wear the mosquito outfit again.