Monterey Park Sees Gold in Former Dump

Chinese immigrants and their businesses may have made Monterey Park the bustling place that it is today, but city officials say an influx of mainstream chain stores, such as Target, Best Buy and Home Depot, will be needed to keep the budget in the black.

With major state deficits looming, city officials say that, more than ever, they hope to develop the site of a former garbage dump, one of the few large parcels available for development in the city.

Some residents say the project has moved at the pace of kidney stones and has been just as painful. Set on top of a federal Superfund site, the so-called Market Place development has required the city to negotiate with a slew of parties, including the Environmental Protection Agency, Caltrans, Southern California Edison and neighboring Montebello.

In addition, three potential developers have backed out of the project because of financial and time constraints.

The project has tested the resolve of the city, which for years has watched while nearby municipalities with lower land values lured lucrative “big-box” stores.

Monterey Park, built as a bedroom community, is struggling to meet the demands of its residents, who are proving that immigrant families and their second-generation children are no strangers to typical American retail establishments, city planners say.

And though the largely immigrant community has opened scores of markets, shops and restaurants, those businesses don’t bring in the kind of tax revenues that can be generated by car dealerships or big-box stores.

“It’s long overdue,” said Shirley Hwong, who volunteers as a liaison between the city government and residents.

The Market Place was first expected to be completed in 2001, but now the most optimistic predictions have pushed that date back to late 2005.

The Market Place would be built on the northern edge of a former 190-acre landfill run by Operating Industries Inc. from the late 1940s to 1986, when the highly contaminated dump prompted the EPA to designate it a Superfund site.

The project would occupy 40 acres along the Pomona Freeway at Paramount Boulevard. Most of the remaining acreage lies outside Monterey Park and is so polluted there are no plans to develop it.

Even when the dump was still operating, Monterey Park officials had talked about developing the land. After several failed attempts, city officials again drew up plans to build there in the late 1990s. That’s when things started getting complicated.

First, Montebello had to agree to let developers build an access road on its land to reach a freeway on-ramp. In return, Monterey Park agreed in 1999 to give Montebello 18% of the projected $800,000 in sales tax the Market Place is expected to generate annually. There is no sunset clause in the agreement.

In 2001, the energy crisis struck. Negotiations with Edison over the use of easements underneath power poles stalled. The delay proved too expensive for a development firm called Greenfield, which pulled out.

It took a letter-writing campaign a year later by 10,000 city residents to revive the talks with Edison. By that time, a second developer, Ezralow, had exited the project. Eclipse, the last development firm, also left when it disagreed over the value of the land.

“I don’t know how many times I thought that we were near completion and the deal would close,” said former Greenfield President Jim Towne. “Then one more obstacle got in the way that would delay it another two, four months.... It just went on and on and on. It was just painful.”

Today, the fate of the project hinges on an assessment of the site’s worth, a study being conducted by New Cure, a coalition representing the companies that used the landfill. Only then can New Cure begin capping the soil and start building a gas-extraction system to mediate the toxic soil.

The city also must finalize agreements with Edison over its easements and with Caltrans, which must have its sand berms along the freeway moved. City officials say potential developers are calling on a weekly basis.

If built, the Market Place will probably include 15 stores on 507,000 square feet of space. The project will complement another retail development on the north side of the city that will include a multiplex. Combined, the two could boost sales tax revenue in the city by 30%.