Arcadia : Suit Filed on Water Hookup

The city has filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court seeking a court order compelling the city of El Monte to permit a water hookup for Public Storage Inc., which is constructing a self-storage facility in an industrial zone of Arcadia bordering a residential neighborhood in El Monte.

El Monte has long opposed any commercial or industrial use of the land, and earlier denied Public Storage permission to connect to the city water or sewer system. El Monte also is appealing its loss of a lawsuit against Arcadia over the proposed use of the site south of Lower Azusa Road.

The most recent suit by Arcadia, filed this week, also accuses El Monte of interfering with the exclusive authority of Arcadia to regulate land use within its boundaries. Public Storage and E. O. Rodeffer, who sold the land to Public Storage and owns adjoining undeveloped property, have joined Arcadia in the suit.

The rift between the two cities heated up last week when Arcadia Mayor Mary Young responded to a letter from El Monte Mayor Don McMillen seeking discussion of the matter. “We are not receptive to attempts at coercion and that is the path you have chosen,” Young wrote. The Arcadia mayor called an emergency ordinance denying water hookup to Public Storage “a poorly disguised attempt to force Arcadia to make the land-use decisions that you desire.”