City Council Election Turns on 1 Issue: Size of Snow Creek Plaza

The past year has been one of the most contentious in sleepy Walnut’s history, as a proposed shopping mall became a symbol of change and shattered ideals for the family-oriented community, tucked amid horse trails and open space.

Recent City Council approval of the 26-acre Snow Creek Plaza--anchored by a Target store--came as a shock to those who fought to downscale the project. The council decision even sparked a lawsuit to block the mall.

When voters go to the polls Tuesday to fill two council seats, the Snow Creek Plaza may be the only issue that divides candidates in a city where common goals are normally paraded as evidence of Walnut’s elite status.

The dialogue comes down to this: just how much change is acceptable to residents who chose Walnut as a private haven from outsiders and commercial development, and how much is necessary in the face of dwindling development fees, shrinking city coffers and an increasingly diverse population.

Facing off for the two seats are Mayor William T. Choctaw, Planning Commissioner June Wentworth, accountant Mei Mei Ho-Hilger and business consultant Darlene Kellogg. Councilman Drexel L. Smith chose not to run for reelection.

Choctaw says Snow Creek spells needed sales tax revenue, and the kind of change Walnut residents should accept to ensure a secure future.

To Wentworth, Walnut’s rustic qualities and community-oriented emphasis are worth protecting, even if that would have meant scaling back the shopping mall or putting the issue to voters.

To Ho-Hilger, residents--especially senior citizens--need the shopping convenience and sales tax dollars of the new mall. She sees herself as speaking for Walnut’s more recent residents, eclipsed on the political scene for years by the city’s myriad old-timers.

As for Kellogg, grass-roots community involvement and an emphasis on Walnut’s family values come first. While she supports Snow Creek, a scaled back version would have suited her better.

Some issues still do unite Walnut residents and candidates. All are uniformly alarmed at the prospect of a proposed materials recovery facility in the City of Industry that would recycle waste a stone’s throw from Walnut’s southern boundary. Fears of declining community safety and concerns about Walnut’s sour business climate have also become campaign issues.

For Choctaw, Walnut’s increasing diversity is an indication that times are changing, and the city needs to change to accommodate everyone, he said.

“The more people you get involved, not as a Chinese-American or an African-American or Catholic or Protestant, but as residents, the more you improve the city all around. I see that as a real strength of the city,” said Choctaw, a 10-year Walnut resident who has served on the council the past four years.

During his one-year tenure as mayor, he has set up numerous committees to lure Walnut’s newcomers and ethnic minorities into the fold of government, and held monthly meetings at homes throughout the city to hear residents’ concerns, he said.

Choctaw stands apart from the other candidates in his steadfast support for Snow Creek Plaza.

“I have taken a very strong position in favor of the Target project and voted that way. I have taken a strong position against groups and/or individuals who sue the city of Walnut,” Choctaw said.

While opponents of Snow Creek Plaza gathered more than 2,000 signatures in the spring opposing its size and scope, Choctaw said he believes the mall’s foes do not constitute a majority of Walnut’s 29,000 residents.

Planning Commissioner Wentworth, meanwhile, says the Snow Creek project has polarized the community and deviates from the “ideals” of Walnut’s General Plan. While the Planning Commission struggled to achieve a compromise, listening to residents well into the morning hours on several occasions, many of their recommendations were disregarded by the council, said Wentworth, who believes the project should have gone to voters.

“I feel very strongly that if they had downsized it, we would not have a lawsuit in the city. I was looking for a compromise,” said Wentworth, who has served on the planning board more than five years and lived in Walnut 28 years.

Wentworth’s goals for Walnut if elected to the council: fighting the nearby waste retrieval project, preservation of Walnut’s open space, community safety, and youth and recreation services. Wentworth, who serves on the city’s Business Assistance Committee, says she is also eager to decrease Walnut’s commercial vacancy rate and improve the business climate.

Running on a campaign of sound fiscal management is Ho-Hilger, 40, a CPA who tried unsuccessfully last year for a council seat vacated when a councilman died in office.

Ho-Hilger says she has something else to offer Walnut residents besides accounting skills: a voice for the newcomers who have made Walnut their home over the past decade, many of them first generation immigrants.

“There’s a dividing line in Walnut, not really between minorities and Caucasians, but between older residents and newer residents,” said Ho-Hilger, who moved to the city 4 1/2 years ago and moved her business there last month. “A lot of newer residents feel that we don’t have a voice. If we haven’t lived in Walnut 20 or 30 years, we don’t have a voice.”

Ho-Hilger is chair of the mayor’s Economic Advisory Cabinet and one of 23 members on the Mayor’s Advisory Board. She also has been active with the County Sheriff’s Department, encouraging Asian community members to report crimes and improve communication with law enforcement agencies.

Fighting to keep the waste retrieval project far from Walnut residents also tops Ho-Hilger’s list of priorities, as does improving the local business climate. Snow Creek Plaza, she said, will benefit Walnut residents who are now forced to shop elsewhere, and will bring in needed resources.

“The city of Walnut has been a bedroom city, which is what people want. But I think the residents have to understand that somewhere down the road we are just not going to have enough revenue,” she said.

The newcomer to politics in the council race is Kellogg, a 27-year Walnut resident who describes her campaign as low-key and grass-roots.

A client specialist with the Mt. San Antonio College Small Business Development Center, Kellogg said she hopes to reach out to small business and take government directly to Walnut’s diverse population, holding town meetings and forming committees to discuss issues of importance to all residents.

While Kellogg, 52, has never served on government committees, she raised six children in Walnut, owned a dress shop there, attends City Council and Planning Commission meetings regularly, and donates her time to many youth organizations, including the Girl Scouts and Cub Scouts.

“I love my town, and I’d like to keep the town the way it is. I feel it was a good environment for my family,” Kellogg said.

She places fighting the waste retrieval project at the top of her priority list, but also thinks the Snow Creek project was “a very intense” issue for the people of Walnut. While she believes the shopping center is an “asset” that belongs in Walnut, Kellogg said it would have been more palatable if it had been downscaled.

Also among her concerns are meeting state standards for low-income housing when the city reviews its housing situation in January. The city needs senior citizen housing and more moderate-priced housing, Kellogg said.

According to campaign statements filed Oct. 16, Choctaw and Ho-Hilger have been the big spenders in the race, with Choctaw listing $14,518 in expenditures and Ho-Hilger topping that with $14,916. Wentworth had spent $4,220, Kellogg $2,251, according to their reports.