Center for Needy Wins OK for Site Near Stores

A divided City Council gave the green light Tuesday to a family counseling and food distribution facility to begin operation next to the downtown business district.

The council, on a 3-2 vote, rejected an appeal by two local merchants asking it to overturn the Planning Commission’s earlier decision to grant a conditional-use permit for Unity Center.

During more than two hours of testimony Tuesday night, about 13 residents, members of the clergy and community leaders urged the council to allow the Unity Center to start providing services immediately.

Four business owners spoke against the center, arguing that it would be a magnet for transients.

Mayor Bob Bartlett, who with Councilman John Nobrega supported the appeal against the conditional-use permit, said the location, at 148 E. Colorado Boulevard near Myrtle Avenue, the city’s main retail commercial strip, is inappropriate.

Operating entirely on donations and staffed by volunteers, the Unity Center provides food, clothing, vocational referrals and legal advice to about 14,000 needy individuals from Monrovia and surrounding cities yearly.

Temporary Housing

The 7-year-old nonprofit agency has been temporarily housed at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church on California Avenue since mid-November.

After several burglaries at the church, the center was ousted Aug. 1 from its original location at Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church. But Father John Foley, pastor, said at the time that the church needed more space for its parishioners.

Immaculate Conception parish administrator Bob Sheehy told the Council on Tuesday that Unity had simply “outgrown the space they had” and that clients often spilled over into the corridors.

The center’s new site was found through the Monrovia-Duarte Board of Realtors. The Realtors also donated 49,000 pounds of food and $6,000 in cash to Unity over the holiday season.

L&C; Better Homes and Gardens Realtors, a member of the Board of Realtors, has agreed to pick up the first year’s rent of more than $6,000.

‘Admirable’ Work

The Monrovia Planning Commission on Dec. 14 unanimously approved a conditional-use permit for the center to begin operation at the site despite opposition from 58 business owners who signed a petition that had been circulated by the Monrovia Downtown Merchants Assn.

“There is no question that what they do (at the center) is admirable,” said David Gayman, one of the merchants who filed the appeal to the Planning Commission’s approval. But “the Planning Commission ignored the concerns, fears of neighbors and retailers and chose instead to make a charitable decision.” Gayman owns a hardware and variety store on Myrtle Avenue within a block of the center.

He described the center as inappropriate in a retail area that already faces a “nagging problem” with transients.

“Being in the retail business, we’re always supersensitive about our image,” he said. But he added that he has sometimes had to call police twice in the same day to deal with vagrants loitering outside his store. Customers are intimidated by panhandlers, and the transient clients Unity caters to would only worsen the situation, he said.

“I can’t take the chance of losing any customers, yet we’re supposed to accept (the center) and see if something doesn’t go wrong in six months” when the permit expires.

“I have too much invested in my business,” said Richard Kee, the owner of a nearby photography studio who also appealed the Planning Commission’s decision. He said he has observed eight to 10 transients who are already “regulars” in the area and who sometimes “stand there at midday urinating . . . in the bushes.”

Alternative Suggested

He suggested that a better site for the agency might be an industrial park.

Unity Center Director Josephine Anderson, elated over the council’s decision, said she had been frustrated by what she described as the business owners’ misconceptions of center clients. More than 7,000 of her clients last year were children, according to Unity records. Only about 70 clients are listed as transients.

“They seem to feel we’ll bring every derelict from 100 miles around,” she said, adding that clients must be free from drug or alcohol abuse to receive help.

“Our policy is set. The street people and the alcoholics know it. They must come clean,” Anderson told the council. “I see us as part of the solution instead of the problem.”

To mitigate possible problems with vagrants, the Planning Commission in December ordered Unity to function primarily as an office, and to continue storing its food supply at St. Luke’s. Only one day’s supply of food for registered clients will be stored at the Colorado site. Food will be distributed on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays between 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m.

While Unity will be open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, clients can enter by appointment only for services such as counseling or job placement. A waiting room will be provided and clients will be discouraged from loitering outside, Unity board members told the council.

Oversight Committee

An eight-member oversight committee representing business owners, residents and Unity board members will be formed to monitor the center’s activity.

Planning Commissioner Glen Owens, in an interview before Tuesday’s meeting, acknowledged that “there are a lot of problems involved, but (the center) was something we needed to keep alive. . . . It’s one of those things that nobody wants in their back yard.”

He said the commission will conduct a public review of the operation in three months and “if there are problems at that point, we can revoke (the permit) or put more restrictions on it.”

The Rev. Everett Simson, rector of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, said he felt the business owners’ fears were unfounded.

“They don’t understand the people that are coming,” he said. “I have been watching this for a couple of months, and they are mostly women and children. They’re just families of Monrovia that are in trouble.”