500-Acre Project in Azusa Voters’ Hands

Azusa voters will punch their ballots Tuesday to determine whether to continue with a planned housing development on 500 acres of verdant land in the city’s northeast corner.

The Monrovia Nursery plan -- so named because of the location it would transform -- was designed by more than 200 residents at community meetings and approved by the City Council early last year. According to a fiscal analysis a consultant prepared for the city, the 1,250-house development would bring in about $1.7 million annually in new revenue, along with many other benefits.

But not one of the planned single-family detached homes, condominiums or townhouses has been built.

The plan has been tangled up in court because a community group wants fewer homes built on the site and is suing the city, the council, the city clerk and the nursery to put the issue before voters.

The City Council preempted the community group’s courtroom efforts when it voted in January to put the issue on a special ballot. The lawsuit is ongoing.

Eligible Azusa residents will be voting whether to approve both the specific plan and a development agreement that awards the city certain benefits. The specific plan must pass by a simple majority for the development to move forward.

Since the council’s decision, residents on both sides of the issue have been jockeying for voters’ support. It’s been a battle of lawn signs, door-to-door campaigns and neighborhood coffee gatherings.

The community group Azusans for Responsible Growth, along with an online offshoot at www.AzusaVoteNo.com, has mobilized members to post signs and go door to door to encourage voters to defeat the development plan, said spokeswoman Lana Grizzell.

Azusans for Responsible Growth originally protested the development by circulating a petition against it. The City Council’s rejection of the signatures as invalid spurred the lawsuit.

The group’s current efforts, said Grizzell, are “to ensure that the 2,400 people who have signed the petition know that we are still alive.”

Roman Seano, who organized the online effort against the development, said the project has too many homes crammed on too small a parcel of land.

“Those are basically homes with just enough room to walk around in,” he said of the 4,000-square-foot minimum lot size for single-family houses.

Seano, who is Grizzell’s son, agreed with his mother that they were not against all building on the site, which is home to the sprawling Monrovia Nursery.

“This is a beautiful piece of land and beautiful neighborhoods can be built on [the land],” Seano said. But this development is “all concrete.”

Preliminary maps of the project depict colorful neighborhoods that surround parks, radiating out like flower petals. The center of the development would contain a recreation facility and retail stores.

A “promenade district” would include a retail area, a transit plaza and an elementary school. Two hundred acres of open space would be included in the development.

Developer Miles Rosedale, the owner of Monrovia Nursery, said that despite the delays, he believed voters will support the plan. His supporters have organized door-to-door campaigns and neighborhood coffee chats.

“Our goal is to get as many people informed as possible and then let the vote proceed,” Rosedale said. He said the current efforts reflect an “outpouring of support” from citizens who helped design the project during community meetings.