Council Rebuffs Mayor on Azusa Renewal

Over strong objections from Mayor Eugene Moses and Councilwoman Jennie Avila, the Azusa City Council has directed its staff to work out an agreement that would allow the Irwindale Community Redevelopment Agency to redevelop about 120 acres in Azusa.

In an emotional speech before the council acted Monday, Moses called the arrangement a “land grab” and said it is based on the assumption that Azusa is composed of “a bunch of yokels who don’t understand a good land opportunity when we see it.”

He said the city is fully capable of handling redevelopment by itself and charged that the agreement would chiefly benefit Irwindale “insiders.”

But Azusa Councilman Bruce Latta said Irwindale can provide “the expertise, contacts and financing” needed to rebuild part of Azusa. And Azusa councilmen Jim Cook and Lucio Cruz said the offer, outlined in a letter from Charles Martin, Irwindale city manager and executive director of its redevelopment agency, is worth exploring in detail.

Cook noted that Irwindale is prepared to spend $65 million to improve an area that Azusa could not afford to redevelop for many years.

The Irwindale City Council, meeting as the redevelopment agency board, endorsed the redevelopment proposal in principle Thursday night and instructed its staff to negotiate an agreement with Azusa.

The proposed redevelopment area consists of 100 acres along Irwindale and Motor avenues between Gladstone and 1st streets. The area, bordered on three sides by Irwindale, is occupied by 120 businesses, including machine shops, a furniture factory, tire stores and truck and auto repair businesses. The businesses have an estimated 1,000 to 1,800 employees. Both Azusa and Irwindale officials said many buildings are unsightly and should be replaced.

The proposed agreement also would cover about 18 acres of vacant land on the north side of the Foothill Freeway between Todd and Irwindale avenues and several acres on the south side of the freeway.

The proposal would give the Irwindale Redevelopment Agency the exclusive right to plan, finance, acquire and resell land for redevelopment within the targeted areas.

Irwindale would sell bonds and advance funds for redevelopment, recovering its costs by taking revenue from increased property taxes that new construction would generate. Property-tax revenue in excess of Irwindale’s expenses would be shared equally by the two cities. Azusa would continue to receive all sales taxes and business-license fees.

Martin had proposed that Irwindale also take control of 600 acres in Azusa’s existing West End redevelopment project area, but the Azusa council rejected that offer.

The Azusa council directed its staff to negotiate an agreement with Irwindale that would retain Azusa’s control over architectural design and require the Irwindale Redevelopment Agency to seek new locations in Azusa for any businesses that are displaced.

Fred Lyte, Irwindale redevelopment consultant, said the architectural provision could be a stumbling block. He said the redevelopment effort cannot succeed under two masters.

“Unless we have complete control, we can’t do it,” Lyte said.

Councilwoman Avila said last week that the plan could be stymied by the opposition of Mayor Moses and herself because the five-member Azusa City Council would lack the four votes needed to initiate condemnation actions to acquire property for redevelopment. But Lyte said that under Irwindale’s proposal, the Irwindale redevelopment board, not the Azusa City Council, would act on condemnation matters.

Cook said the question of who would have the authority to condemn property is one of many legal and technical issues that must be resolved before the Azusa City Council can give final approval to the proposed arrangement.

Insufficient Information

At present, he said, “we don’t have enough information to decide whether it’s good or bad.”

Although eminent domain is essential to assembling land for redevelopment, Lyte said Irwindale has used the power of condemnation sparingly and has never carried a condemnation action to trial. “People have been treated very fairly,” he said.

Lyte said Irwindale’s chief interest is to improve the blighted area along Irwindale Avenue which lies in Azusa but appears to passing motorists to be part of Irwindale.

“We’re offering to clean up the community,” Lyte said.

In addition, he said, he has been talking to a developer about building a 200-room hotel in the area, but Irwindale is reluctant to have the hotel within its boundaries for political reasons. Irwindale has only 475 registered voters, and it would be theoretically possible for people to move into the hotel, register to vote and assume political control of the city, he said.

Artificial Lake

Lyte said Irwindale would like to put the hotel in Azusa at the edge of a lake that could be created in a gravel pit straddling the Azusa-Irwindale border on the north side of the Foothill Freeway. The lake would occupy about eight acres and the hotel would sit on a 13-acre site. A restaurant is already under construction on Irwindale land next to the gravel pit.

Lyte said the developer is interested in building the hotel at that location only if he can work with the Irwindale Redevelopment Agency.

Azusa Mayor Moses said Irwindale claims to have “genius developers,” but their special talent seems to be “to attract unhealthy businesses that can’t find a home elsewhere.” He referred specifically to the proposed waste-to-energy plant that Pacific Waste Management Corp. is seeking to build with Irwindale’s assistance despite opposition from neighboring cities, including Azusa.

“If good businesses out there want to come and work in Azusa, we have land ready and available to them and they can arrange that without promoters,” he said. “Azusa’s land that Irwindale wants to grab is prime land . . . easily accessible to and from three major freeways.”

Moses said that the expertise Irwindale claims to offer is expensive. For example, Lyte is paid 3% of the building-permit valuation of any project he claims credit for bringing into the city. The Irwindale redevelopment agency paid Lyte $302,348 in fees last year.

Similar Agreement

Moses noted that this arrangement is similar to an agreement that was proposed by Martin, Lyte and another consultant when they were hired by the city of Azusa as a team in 1983 to take over administrative, legal and redevelopment responsibilities.

The contract, which was never put into effect, would have paid them a finder’s fee of 4% of the increased assessed valuation from redevelopment. The state attorney general’s office reviewed the proposed arrangement and said it violated state law, noting that conflicts of interest arise when consultants must advise on projects on which they stand to receive commissions.

Both Martin and Lyte wound up working for the city of Azusa for monthly fees unconnected to development.

Martin resigned in September, 1983, and Lyte was fired in May, 1984. Lyte sued Azusa for breach of contract and won a $75,000 settlement last year.

As a result of the attorney general’s opinion, Lyte’s subsequent contract with the Irwindale Redevelopment Agency was rewritten in 1985 to specify that he cannot recommend his projects to the redevelopment agency board.

Martin, who is also city attorney as well as city manager and executive director of the Irwindale Redevelopment Agency, said he included that provision so that Lyte could collect fees from projects without making any recommendations that could present conflicts of interest.

In the proposal that Martin has submitted to Azusa, neither Lyte nor any other employee of the Irwindale Redevelopment Agency would have any contact with the Azusa City Council. The proposal specifies that “working relationships between Azusa and Irwindale will be at the staff level.”