Duarte Voters to Decide Lay of Their Land

Voters in Duarte will choose between new housing or pristine hillsides in a special election Tuesday that could give a strong boost to the burgeoning land conservation movement in the San Gabriel Valley.

Duarte voters--following the lead of voters last year in neighboring Monrovia--will decide whether to tax most homeowners $48 a year to preserve large expanses of the San Gabriel Mountains foothills that reach like chubby fingers into their city of 22,000.

If approved by two-thirds of the voters, Measure A would provide up to $5 million in city bond money to help buy all or portions of privately owned land slated for luxury homes.

The vote is being closely watched by mountain conservancy groups and other San Gabriel Valley foothill cities that are also grappling with hillside and river conservation issues.

“I think this vote will definitely hold a lot of symbolism for other cities,” said Mary Angle, executive officer of the state’s newly formed San Gabriel and Lower Los Angeles Rivers and Mountains Conservancy. “If Duarte passes their measure after Monrovia, then cities will say maybe we can do it, too. If it fails, some may be reluctant to take up such [a] tax.”

From Sierra Madre to Glendora, a patchwork of 15 cities and unincorporated Los Angeles County land is nestled in the San Gabriel Mountains foothills. As housing developments have pushed deeper into the mountainside, cities have begun to strike back, passing strict hillside protection ordinances and forming local conservancy groups to preserve land for parks and recreation.

Duarte’s Measure A was born out of a two-year City Council-ordered task force charged with coming up with recommendations for the future of the city’s last untouched hillsides.

As in most foothill communities, many residents live in Duarte for the awesome mountain vistas that shadow their homes. They like to tell stories about the last bear or mountain lion sighting. They exchange warnings about rattlesnake season. Rather than take a walk around a high school track field, many enjoy a hike through a meadow or forest trail.

When two landowners filed plans more than two years ago to build houses on the same land where many hike or take in clear mountain views, the city imposed a moratorium on building in the foothills until the task force’s work was complete.

Task force member Hal Firth, who is also a leader in the Measure A campaign, said not only did the committee decide that it wanted to preserve the land, but it wanted the city to buy it to ensure preservation.

Along with the $48 tax for the average homeowner, mobile home owners would be assessed $3.70 and apartment owners charged $18.38 per unit. Other property owners would be taxed less than 1 cent per square foot of their building.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said City Councilman George Chapjian. “If we don’t save the foothills now, those hillsides will never look the same again.”

The measure targets more than 700 acres--much of it steep mountain terrain--owned by four property owners. One chunk isn’t even in the city of Duarte, but in adjacent Azusa.

Two landowners have submitted plans to build houses, one intends to build in the future and the Azusa site is used as an equestrian facility.

Nelson Chung, president of Pacific Properties, wants to build up to 50 homes priced at $600,000 to $700,000 on 30 acres of canyon land in the western portion of Duarte. He said he intends to donate about 300 acres of the mountainside to a conservancy and promises to allow public access to any trail heads.

These would be the most expensive homes by far in Duarte, a largely middle-class city where the median home value in 2000 was $169,000, below the county median of $205,000. Duarte homes higher in the hills sell in the mid-$300,000 range, a local real estate agent said.

Philip Attalla’s family owns 33 acres of largely flat land. Sale of the property to a developer who intends to build up to 22 homes on nine acres is in escrow. The steeper terrain would also be donated to the city or a conservancy, Attalla said.

The three Duarte landowners said they would be interested in selling to the city for a fair market price if Measure A passes. But that cost has yet to be determined and there is already debate over the land’s value.

A preliminary appraisal ordered by the city valued the land at $17 million. Additional appraisals would be undertaken if the measure passes.

What’s clear is that the tax will not raise enough money to buy all the land. Supporters say the tax revenue will be used as seed money in hopes of obtaining other state, federal and private donations.

Opponents of the measure contend that Duarteans should not tax themselves to pay for land that developers are already promising to give to the city. Also, a strict city hillside ordinance will preserve ridges and prevent massive grading.

The measure calls for “preservation or partial preservation of open space,” which opponents believe is a red-flag warning to voters that not all the land will be preserved.

“There is no guarantee that the city can get all the money to buy the land,” said Henry Baltazar, who wrote the ballot opposition statement. “Why should we pay for something that we are going to get for free anyway?”

Firth counters that the developers will build on the most valuable land, leaving little for the enjoyment of Duarteans. “Have you ever hiked on a mountain cliff? That is all that will remain,” he said.

Angle, of the conservancy, said a voter-imposed tax would be a powerful message to send to potential funding agencies, many of which require matching funds.

State Sen. Bob Margett (R-Arcadia) wrote a letter to two Duarte council members calling “the preservation of our last vestige of undeveloped land a laudable goal.”

His chief of staff, Jodie Day, said that although Margett does not advocate tax increases, “our office will make every effort to help” Duarte secure additional funding, but the city “will have to work very hard to get the additional money they need.”