San Gabriel : Split on Redevelopment

The City Council on Tuesday remained snagged over how large an area to include in a redevelopment effort to attract large businesses.

The council rejected 3 to 2 a proposal by a city economic development committee to study neighborhoods along the main commercial avenues: San Gabriel and Valley boulevards, Las Tunas Drive and portions of Del Mar Avenue and Mission Drive, an area estimated to be about a third of the city.

After also discussing whether to include the entire city in a possible redevelopment study, the council decided to review a proposal by Councilman John Tapp that would narrow any study to a smaller area of neighborhoods he considered blighted.

Although in accord on the city’s need for a new supermarket or other tax-paying commercial tenants, council members have for months been unable to decide what area to include in the initial study. Some residents, who fear that redevelopment may mean lost neighborhoods, have appeared before the council to try to prevent their streets from being included even in the study phase.