Monterey Park Card Club Plans Are Abandoned

In a surprise announcement, a Los Angeles development company has dropped its pursuit of plans for a card club in Monterey Park.

A spokesman for BCTC Development Corp. announced at this week’s City Council meeting that the company had decided to back off from seeking a ballot measure that would have allowed the company to build a $30-million card club at the Long Beach Freeway and Floral Drive.

After the meeting, BCTC Vice President Richard Myers said that such a petition drive might not have succeeded in the face of strong opposition in the community. If BCTC had decided to proceed, the company would have had 30 days after filing notice to collect 3,466 valid signatures--15% of the city’s registered voters--for a special election.

“It was too close a business decision to invest half a million dollars on a campaign,” Myers said.

The decision was unexpected after a spokesman’s comment two weeks ago that opposition voiced at a council meeting would not affect the company’s decision.

At that Feb. 22 council meeting, a record crowd of more than 700, most of them opponents, showed up for a contentious 4 1/2-hour hearing on a resolution aimed at discouraging BCTC from launching a petition drive to put the gambling center before voters. After the meeting, a BCTC spokesman said the crowd was not a fair reflection of the community’s sentiment.

Some supporters of the card club also spoke at the council meeting, saying the project would bring sorely needed revenue into the city. But opponents said the club would attract criminals and serve as a poor example for youths.

Myers said his company’s decision to back away from the casino project was unrelated to concerns about keeping in the community’s good graces for another BCTC development plan--an $80-million retail and mixed-use project that is scheduled to go before the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency in April.