City Reaches Tolling Agreement on Development Projects
By Sameea Kamal
Published: Wednesday, October 14th, 2009
After considering their own concerns with the Stonehouse and One Carter projects in Sierra Madre and those of the community, the City Council approved a tolling agreement last night that would put the litigation on hold pending approval of the application for a subdivision.
If the application for a subdivision is approved, the settlement will proceed to be finalized. If it fails to pass, the city and developers will return to negotiations.
The approval came after multiple discussions among the council members, questions to the developers and comments during the public hearing and resulted in a number of amendments to the agreement with the developers.
The development group Manatt, Phelps and Phillips, LLP. stepped in to take over the litigation for prior developer Dorn-Platz, who city council members said left a big mess to be cleaned up.
According to City Attorney Sandra Levin, the basic structure of the application has been modified over the past year.
Representatives from Manatt said they have scaled back on the amount of grading and build-able lots that their predecessor had originally planned, reducing the original amount of lots from 35 to the current 20.
“It is not our intent to grade anything more than we have to,” said Susan Hori, partner for the firm. “A framework starts with a settlement agreement, it’s a tentative map. We’re here in good faith and we’re willing to work with the neighbors.”
Though the council felt some requests, such as a preliminary agreement to allow certain building exceptions, was too early to approve with in-depth analysis on the area, the developers said they needed to lay out certain guidelines in order to move forward.
Councilmembers called their experience with the Pasadena-based Dorn-Platz a “nightmare” and a “horror”, and said they did not want to take more risks with a new developer.
Residents living next to the developments spoke at the meeting regarding the impacts of the construction on their homes, such as large amounts of dust, noise, and ground vibrations.
The motion to approve the tolling agreement included stipulations to restrict grading and height on certain lots, and to require the developer to meet directly with neighbors as soon as possible to lessen the impact on their homes.
The agreement also requires that Lot 3 of the property be left as open space, which the developers said would be a huge financial loss.
Having addressed many doubts on part of the council and community, the motion was passed unanimously.
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