Ethnic Split Widens Over Monterey Park Complex

A $20-million shopping center and bank complex being built at one of Monterey Park’s busiest intersections has become embroiled in a bitter dispute in which Chinese developers and city officials have begun hurling angry accusations of racism, intimidation and duplicity.

The dispute centers on differing interpretations of what type of shops, restaurants and department stores should occupy the 90,000-square-foot retail and commercial building now in the final stages of construction at Garvey Avenue and Atlantic Boulevard.

City officials say they fear the three-story project will consist of Chinese-oriented boutiques and discount stores that have dominated the city’s landscape in recent years. They argue that these businesses have created little tax revenue, sizable traffic problems and considerable tension between longtime Anglo and Latino residents and Asian newcomers.

The developer, William Yang, of Tindo Valley Associates in Alhambra, responds that the city does not have the legal right to dictate what kind of tenants will occupy his project.

Yang argues that city officials are motivated by a desire to erase Monterey Park’s image as the nation’s first suburban Chinatown.

‘Trying to Build Wall’

“You have a city in transition, a city that may be 60% to 70% Chinese in the next few years,” said Doug Ring, a Los Angeles attorney representing Yang. “We have a situation where the City Council is trying to build a wall to prevent that change from happening.”

City officials angrily deny the charge of racism.

“That’s a red herring that their attorney has thrown in to detract from the real matter,” City Manager Lloyd de Llamas said. “Our concern has always been the traffic and congestion problems created by a mini-mall-type operation.”

In a larger sense, the dispute, pitting Chinese newcomers against an Anglo-controlled City Hall, mirrors the changes and tensions that have come to define much of what happens in this city of 61,000.

Growing Community

The dispute has implications for the future of Monterey Park, where the architecture has increasingly reflected a growing community of Asians who account for 40% of the city’s population--the highest such concentration in the nation.

City officials contend that Yang’s representatives persuaded a wary City Council in October, 1985, to approve the project by putting forward plans to bring in nationally and regionally known stores and restaurants.

The city had hoped that tenants such as Ann Taylor and Laura Ashley clothes and the Seafood Broiler and Hungry Tiger restaurants would draw customers from throughout the western San Gabriel Valley and pump sales tax revenues into a sagging local economy.

City officials say Yang now has backed away from those original commitments and refuses to identify the types or names of businesses signed up as tenants.

“The law does not permit you to present plans in applying for approval and then turn your back on those plans once approval has been given,” City Atty. Tony Canzoneri said. “That’s not the way you do business.”

‘Balance’ Urged

De Llamas said: “Both parties agreed to avoid traffic and congestion problems by creating a balance between tenants, a synergy that would mix daytime businesses with nighttime businesses. We want a destination shopping center where people will come and stay for a few hours, rather than continuous in-and-out shopping.”

The city has threatened to revoke a conditional-use permit on the project if Yang does not achieve what city officials regard as a proper mix of businesses, combining “chain-type” stores with smaller operations.

The revocation would imperil the project’s financial well-being by forcing Yang to scale back the number of tenants from 59 to nine, making it virtually impossible to fill the complex because each tenant would have to be large enough to occupy an average of 10,000 square feet.

Yang, a wealthy textile manufacturer in Taiwan before emigrating to the United States in 1977, has vowed to fight a revocation. In March, his attorney filed a claim--a precursor to a lawsuit--against Monterey Park alleging that city officials tried to intimidate Tindo Valley by revealing to prospective tenants and creditors the existence of the dispute.

Chains ‘Weren’t Interested’

“We feel the city is asking us for something we can’t deliver,” said Nancy Yang, Yang’s daughter and an officer at Tindo Valley. “We tried to attract a number of chain restaurants and department stores, but they just weren’t interested in our development.”

Ring says Tindo Valley never promised that it could obtain commitments from any particular tenant. He points to transcripts of a public hearing during which he specifically and repeatedly backed away from making any promises.

Ring charges that city officials--using euphemisms such as “mixed tenants,” “regional-shopping draw” and “synergy”--are trying to prevent businesses run by Chinese newcomers from becoming tenants.

The project is already 80% leased. But Ring says he has refused to reveal to the city the identity of the project’s tenants--all of whom are Asian--because to do so would, in effect, tacitly acknowledge the city’s right to reject a tenant.

‘Illegal Interference’

“I don’t want to get into a situation where the city tells us what kind of tenant belongs in this center, “ he said. “That, I would contend, would be an illegal interference.”

Yang first applied for the conditional-use permit in September, 1985, but it was rejected by the city Planning Commission, which cited traffic, parking and congestion problems. The city requires such a permit for any development with nine or more tenants.

Yang then appealed the decision to the City Council. A public hearing was held Oct. 14 during which the same environmental concerns were raised by residents and council members.

Yang agreed to alleviate any congestion problems by providing valet parking. At the same time, Yang, represented by the Coldwell Banker real estate firm, indicated an intention to bring in nationally and regionally known department stores and restaurants to safeguard against the kind of mini-malls that have created a lot of stop-and-go traffic in the city.

Sample Tenants Listed

City officials point to an October 4, 1985, letter to Yang from Coldwell Banker, which had been hired to find tenants for the project. The letter, which was forwarded to city officials, expresses a desire to create a “high quality tenant mix that will make your project the focal point for shoppers in the western San Gabriel Valley.”

The letter then lists a sample of tenants that might occupy the project, including the Velvet Turtle, Hungry Tiger, Seafood Broiler, Black Angus and El Torrito restaurants and Alex Sebastian, Gitano, Ann Taylor and Laura Ashley clothing stores.

“The city depended on those representations,” de Llamas said. “We wouldn’t have approved the conditional-use permit if otherwise.”

Transcripts of the public hearing and other correspondence between the city and Yang indicate an effort by the developer to entice the city by holding out the prospect of national chain stores as tenants. But the public record is also filled with numerous instances in which Yang or his representatives backed away from any such promises.

“I have been very explicit this evening in not promising a specific restaurant or anyone else,” Ring told the City Council during the Oct. 14 public hearing, according to official city transcripts. “What I have told you is that Coldwell Banker believes that there is a market for those kind of facilities in this building.

“But I do not have nor does my client have nor does Coldwell Banker have a lease commitment from any of them today. . . . I am not making that kind of promise to you.”

Council Approved

After six hours of hearings, the City Council voted 4 to 1 to approve the conditional-use permit and allow the project to go forward. David Almada, a former council member who was the sole dissenter, said the project would bring too much congestion to an already crowded intersection.

But Almada agrees with Ring that no promises were made concerning the mix of tenants.

“They never guaranteed that X or Y was going to come in,” Almada said. “They only said that given the type of quality development, they might be able to attract a regional or national chain.”

Shortly after approval was given, Yang fired Coldwell Banker because he was unhappy with the firm’s list of prospective tenants. City officials claim that this was a fundamental breach of promise by Yang.

Not on Permit

But Ring said his client is not guilty of any breach because no mention of the types or names of tenants is made in the conditional-use permit. The permit lists only such items as the height limits on boxed trees and light poles and Yang’s agreement to widen the roadway to curb traffic problems.

“The conditional-use permit is the relevant document, the document of record,” Ring said. “They’re suddenly attempting to impose a condition that doesn’t exist on the list of conditions. They’re trying to amend it after the fact with conditions that would not have been legal before the fact.”

City Atty. Canzoneri said Ring is merely thumbing his nose at the city. Canzoneri argues that the legal record includes all the representations Yang made before the granting of the conditional-use permit.

“You have to look at what the applicant said throughout the process,” he said. “I think logic would tell you that you can’t go to a government body and apply for something and after you get it say: ‘It’s mine, and it’s too late for the city to complain.’ ”

Options for City

Canzoneri would not comment on what legal steps the city might take. But de Llamas, after learning that the project was 80% leased, said he has drafted a letter to the City Council recommending that it cancel the revocation hearing scheduled for Monday night.

Because the project is nearly full, De Llamas said, the city may be limited in what it can do. Revocation would force Yang to break those leases, possibly creating an undue hardship and getting the city into a lengthy legal entanglement.

De Llamas has presented the City Council with a list of options that include rescheduling a revocation hearing for a later date, forgoing revocation and pursuing the alleged breach in court or waiting until Yang forwards a list of the secured tenants.

“If the developer would only provide us with a list of tenants, we could decide if the mix is right. It may very well be that the Asian-owned businesses he’s gotten are of the type and quality that will satisfy the city and create a one-stop destination center. But we can’t determine that because he’s stonewalling.”

Posh Restaurant

Nancy Yang said one-half of the top floor has been taken by a posh San Francisco-based Chinese restaurant that food critics have called one of the best in the state. The restaurant has agreed to put $2 million into interior design, Yang said.

In addition, a department store with branches in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles will occupy much of the second floor. The first floor will contain the center’s anchor tenant, Omni Bank; a Taiwan-based department store and a number of smaller stores and shops such as a boutique, a jewelry store, an ice cream parlor and a skin care and beauty salon.

“We could have built this in Westwood or Beverly Hills with the kind of money we’re spending,” Nancy Yang said. “But we built it here because we thought this city needs something that’s quality.”