By Mikaela STONE

The recently held West San Gabriel Valley Area Plan (WSGVAP) progress update meeting outlined the steps taken to educate the public on land use intentions, including those people who live in the Los Angeles unincorporated communities of La Crescenta-Montrose, Altadena, East Pasadena, Kinneloa Mesa, San Pasqual, South El Monte Islands, South San Gabriel and Whittier Narrows. To promote community engagement, the planning team employed methods that included a community survey in 2023, email distribution lists, project postcards, outreach to community leaders in advocacy and non-profit groups, focus group meetings, five vision workshops, open workshops to review preliminary drafts and a presence on digital platforms. Evan Sensibile, regional planner at LA County Dept. of Regional Planning and WSGVAP team member, noted that it is the team’s goal to “establish relationships and have an ongoing dialogue” and welcomes feedback.

So far community members have expressed an interest in the increased number of mom-and-pop shops in their local communities. Sensibile expressed that there has been some pushback to the plan itself, which intends to emphasize retrofitting the communities with walkable features when available and exploring options for supporting increasing populations with opponents citing “densification” efforts. However, during public comments a community member said that she and her peers were “not against high density in the right areas” but rather were frustrated with “hideous … stucco box buildings” that are not the promised affordable housing called for by community members. Concerned about resources, the commenter asserted that individual parking lots for units would prevent further parking frustrations and hoped solar panels could be used throughout the area. The area plan team assured the public that it will focus growth along areas with existing infrastructure. Currently, the team’s focus is facilitating discussion from across jurisdictions so that concrete plans will please the largest demographic.

As of now, land use surveys have shown that the La Crescenta-Montrose area has a high population of citizens under 18 and over 65, a higher Korean population than surrounding areas, and an “above average number of stone houses.” Considering the community’s affectionate area nickname of “Rock Crescenta,” this comes as no surprise to longtime residents.

The next committee meeting is Wednesday, June 26 at 9 a.m. More information can be found at https://planning.lacounty.gov/.