BREA : Residents Voice Gripes at Meeting

City officials got an earful from about 30 residents who attended a town hall meeting this week at Laurel Elementary School.

Although attendance was lower than expected at the meeting Wednesday night, there were spirited discussions about a variety of community issues.

Margie McMillan, president of the Laurel School PTA, said she is worried that single-family houses are giving way to condominium units in the neighborhoods close to the school at 200 S. Flower Ave.

“I want to keep my home here,” McMillan said. “But 10 to 15 years from now, I see this as a blighted area, and it concerns me as a property owner.”

Councilman Glenn G. Parker said the city does not have control over how private properties are developed. But it is trying to encourage single-family houses and ownership, rather than rental of condominium units, he said.

Another resident, Gene Blako, said that while the city has no control over private development, it can influence it through zoning laws.

There were also discussions about the proposed community center, busing for high school students, and the increasing city expense in trying to resolve the problems with the Brea Small Business Coalition over the downtown redevelopment project.

Some residents said they were not happy with the cable television service and one resident, Geraldine Carpenter, said facilities at the Brea Heights Shopping Center on South Brea Boulevard should be improved.

In addition to Parker, Mayor Burnie Dunlap and council members Bev Perry and Kathryn E. Wiser attended the meeting.

The town hall meeting was the second of six scheduled by the council to gain community ideas on various issues. Four others are planned at: William E. Fanning Elementary School, May 26; Arovista Elementary School, June 23; Olinda Elementary School, Aug. 25, and Country Hills School, Oct. 27.