Bell Gardens : Moratorium Enacted on High-Density Development

In the midst of a continuing controversy over the city’s plan to rezone portions of Bell Gardens, the City Council this week passed an emergency moratorium limiting high-density development.

For the last several months, officials have been mulling over extensive revisions to the city’s zoning code that would take effect over the next 20 years. If the revisions are adopted, several neighborhoods would be completely rezoned--a prospect that has residents and business owners in targeted areas in an uproar because their property values could decline and they eventually may be forced to move.

In the meantime, developers, fearing that the zoning changes will be adopted, have been besieging City Hall with plans for multifamily dwellings, City Manager Claude Booker said.

“We have a lot of people coming in trying to get in under the line,” Booker said. “What the moratorium does is stop high-density development where there is some potential that the area will be rezoned.”

The moratorium went into effect this week and will stand for the next 45 days, Booker said. By that time the decision on zoning revisions should be made. If the Planning Commission and City Council still have not taken action on the proposed changes by then, the moratorium may be extended for a year, he said.