Goals & Policies for Five - Ten

Goal 5.0

Maintain South Atlantic Avenue as a successful retail commercial destination.

Policy 5.1: Create new opportunities for complementary retail development.
Policy 5.2: Accommodate shared parking arrangements as appropriate to maximize land use potential.

North Garfield

The Garfield Medical Center on North Garfield Avenue represents the focal point of a successful medical district extending south toward Downtown. Despite the many medical facilities surrounding the hospital, demand continues to exist for additional medical offices, diagnostic centers, laboratories, and related uses. To accommodate demand, the Land Use Element provides for an extended professional office/medical district from Hellman Avenue south to Garcelon Avenue, and for entire blocks between Atlantic Boulevard and Baltimore Avenue north of Hilliard Avenue. Designated Commercial and Baltimore Avenue Mixed Use (MU III) on the Land Use Policy Map (Figure LU-2 (PDF)), this is a focus area for medical offices and medical- related facilities. Zoning regulations will specify the range of uses permitted, as well as development standards and design considerations appropriate to reduce building massing adjacent to homes and to avoid traffic intrusion into surrounding residential neighborhoods.

Goal 6.0

Create a diverse medical district within the North Garfield Avenue corridor.

Policy 6.1: Expand opportunities for development of new medical offices and facilities surrounding the Garfield Medical Center.

Monterey Pass Road

Monterey Pass Road has historic significance as the first arterial roadway traversing the city. The roadway also has long served as a business corridor, supporting a diverse range of industrial enterprises. Businesses historically have consisted of independently owned companies operating from small facilities. The scale of operations is influenced in large measure by the lot sizes and configurations along Monterey Pass Road. The steep hillslopes defining the pass somewhat constrain physical development opportunities. However, these smaller properties continue to offer new start-up businesses the ability to operate efficiently from appropriately sized facilities. Also, because Monterey Pass Road lies within a redevelopment project area, the city has the ability to combine properties to create suitable sites for larger operations.

The location of Monterey Pass Road relative to the Corporate Center area and the relative ease of access to the I-710 and I-10 freeways make the corridor a prime location for new, small-scale technology businesses. The city's goal is to recreate Monterey Pass Road as a business/technology corridor through zoning regulations, development incentives, and redevelopment efforts. Technology businesses provide job opportunities for skilled workers, minimize adverse environmental conditions such as heavy truck traffic and excessive noise, and create an overall positive image for this important business district.

Goal 7.0

Establish Monterey Pass Road as a prime location for new technology-oriented businesses, and create a business district that offers opportunities for a range of complementary businesses.

Policy 7.1:Ensure that zoning regulations applicable to the Monterey Pass Road corridor permit the range of uses necessary to achieve land use goals, and prohibit uses that conflict with the goals.
Policy 7.2:Use Redevelopment Agency actions as appropriate to attract and accommodate new businesses seeking to locate within the Monterey Pass Road technology corridor.
Policy 7.3:Consider limited use of amortization provisions in the zoning ordinance to eliminate businesses incompatible with long-term land use objectives for the Monterey Pass Road technology corridor.

OII / Edison

In the southeast corner of the city, a former landfill and multi-acreage properties supporting electric utility facilities offer new opportunities for commercial development. Two significant events in the 1990s, the closure of portions of the landfill and the deregulation of the utility industry in California, created development potential on long-neglected properties which benefit from tremendous freeway exposure.

The OII (Operating Industries Incorporated) landfill straddles the Pomona Freeway. While that portion of the landfill south of the freeway remains unavailable for development through the year 2040 or beyond due to extensive contamination, north of the freeway the landfill has been closed and environmentally cleared for reuse. The Land Use Policy Map (Figure LU-2 (PDF)) designates the northern portion Commercial. The site's proximity to the freeway and access via the Paramount Boulevard freeway ramps in Montebello make the site highly desirable for regional-serving retail commercial and related uses.

West of the former landfill, Southern California Edison maintains a major electric power substation, the Mesa Substation. Edison also owns properties east of Saturn Street and north of Potrero Grande Drive. Edison could potentially consolidate operations on the property to create potential development sites, utilizing areas beneath power lines for parking. Edison's incentive to pursue consolidation and development opportunities arises from utility industry deregulation and market pressures to become more competitive in overall company operations. Properties adjacent to the Pomona Freeway, with good access via Potrero Grande Drive, are well suited for commercial uses and thus are designated Commercial on the Land Use Policy Map.

Goal 8.0

Create a major regional-serving commercial center south of Potrero Grande Drive, north of the Pomona Freeway.

Policy 8.1: Work with the city of Montebello to ensure good access to the OII/Edison area via Paramount Boulevard.
Policy 8.2: Encourage development of retail businesses within the OII/Edison area which serve a regional market and maximize tax revenue potential.
Policy 8.3: Work closely with Southern California Edison to create a reuse plan for Edison properties that optimizes potential for retail commercial and complementary development.
Policy 8.4: Pursue public infrastructure improvements that will support and facilitate redevelopment of the OII/Edison area.
Policy 8.5: Work with Caltrans to enhance the appearance of Pomona Freeway frontage bordering the OII/Edison area.

Saturn Park

The Saturn Park Focus Area (see Figure LU-3 (PDF)) contains some of Monterey Park's newest industrial development. Established as a cohesive business park in the 1970s and '80s, this area accommodates a range of professional office, laboratory, light manufacturing, and warehousing uses. The city intends for Saturn Park to continue to provide diverse business and employment opportunities, with an emphasis on businesses that employ skilled workers.

Because low-density residential neighborhoods surround three sides of Saturn Park, the city is concerned with protecting residents from any hazardous conditions that may be associated with certain industrial processes or manufacturing practices. Thus, zoning regulations applicable to Saturn Park will include regulations and standards that address the use, storage, manufacture, and transfer of hazardous materials.

Goal 9.0

Maintain Saturn Park as suitable location for diverse industrial and professional office activity, while ensuring that permitted uses do not pose substantial risk to surrounding residential neighborhoods.

Policy 9.1: Establish and maintain zoning regulations applicable to the Saturn Park area that address the use, storage, manufacture, and transfer of hazardous materials.

Residential Neighborhoods

Housing covers almost 60 percent of Monterey Park's land area, offering residents diverse housing choices: houses, duplexes, townhomes, condominiums, apartments, and housing designed to meet the special needs of the city's older residents. Long-time residents and newcomers to the community value the range of housing choices available, and well-kept neighborhoods show the pride people have in calling Monterey Park home.

Housing represents a key city asset, and the Housing Element addresses in detail the city's key goals with regard to housing:

Maintain and enhance the quality of existing residential neighborhoods.
Remove or reduce market and governmental constraints on affordable housing development.
Provide adequate housing by location, type of unit, and price to meet existing and future needs of city residents.
Provide adequate housing opportunities for homeless persons and persons with special needs.
Promote equal opportunity for all residents to reside in housing of their choice.
Broad housing options, both in terms of type and cost, can encourage generations of families to remain in the Monterey Park and continue to build "community."

Focus on Maintaining Patterns and Densities

The Land Use Policy Map provides for long-established single-family residential neighborhoods to retain their densities and character, and for neighborhoods historically zoned for higher densities also to maintain the Medium Density Residential and High Density Residential designations, with the following exceptions:

Opportunities for Mixed Use and New Housing: The Mixed Use I and Mixed Use II land use designations apply to residential properties adjoining the North Atlantic and East Garvey corridors, as well as surrounding Downtown. These designations accommodate existing residential units and also create opportunities for new housing development, either as stand-alone projects or integrated with commercial uses.
Pomona Boulevard Frontage: Properties fronting Pomona Boulevard between Bella Vista Park and Fulton Avenue are designated Mixed Use II. This designation provides for existing residential units to remain but encourages their gradual replacement with commercial businesses. Traffic noise from Pomona Boulevard and the Pomona Freeway, together with the constant flow of traffic along Pomona Boulevard, create a less-than-optimal environment for residential uses at this location.

Addressing Housing Trends in Northeast Neighborhoods

Northeast Monterey Park contains several neighborhoods designated Medium Density Residential and High Density Residential. Driving along any street in these neighborhoods, a person would notice that development type varies greatly from lot to lot, with an older house next to an apartment complex next to a duplex next to a small subdivision of new single-family homes. These patterns reflect the age of the community and changing housing market conditions over time. During the 1980s and '90s, as land use values rose, property owners found great financial return in acquiring adjoining lots, tearing down existing units, and building new homes in a new configuration, often with a net loss in units.

The city recognizes the importance of maintaining higher density housing developments ?and encouraging new, quality developments to be built ?to provide housing for households of more limited means. Thus, the Mixed Use I and Mixed Use II designations apply to several subareas within the Northeast area to encourage new higher density housing developments.

Neighborhood Character

As described above, neighborhoods designated for higher densities support a range of housing types, including newer small lot single-family subdivisions. If not thoughtfully designed, new housing development can adversely affect the character of a neighborhood. Maintaining neighborhood character and providing for quality design in all residential areas strengthens neighborhoods. Thus, through zoning regulations and residential design guidelines, the city will continue to address neighborhood character.

Goal 10.0

Maintain the quality and character of Monterey Park's residential neighborhoods.

Policy 10.1: Ensure that the city's zoning regulations, subdivision regulations, and design guidelines are crafted to achieve compatibility between established residential dwellings and new residential developments within the same neighborhood.
Policy 10.2: Pursue code enforcement efforts that simultaneously work to enhance the visual quality of residential neighborhoods and to ensure safe, decent housing for all city residents.