Mountain Views News          Saturday, May 19, 2012

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Mountain Views-News Saturday, May 19, 2012 

PLANNING COMMISSION AGAIN ASKS ASSISTED 
LIVING DEVELOPER TO CHANGE PLANS by Bill Coburn

REMEMBRANCE

FREDERICK ALFARO 1947-2012

Frederick 
("Fred") Alfaro 
was a Sierra 
Madre resident 
since the early 
1970's, with a 
hair-cutting 
business in town 
where he served 
numerous clients 
and had a 
major positive 
influence on all 
whom he came 
in contact with. 

He is survived 
not only by his human relatives, cousins Grace and Gus 
Paredes, Lucy Townsend and several other family members 
who still live in his original homeland of Peru, but he 
is also survived 

by his precious dog "Molly" whom he loved dearly and 
cared for beyond expectation. 

A memorial service will held in his honor at Saint Rita's 
Church next week, at a date and time to be determined. 
May he rest in peace, in the arms of the angels.


FRIENDS OF THE SIERRA 
MADRE LIBRARY BOOK SALE

The lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer are upon us and if you’re 
looking for a good book to bring with you to the beach, the 
mountains, on the plane, or to that lawn chair under the tree 
in your back yard, the best place to find one is at the Friends of 
the Sierra Madre Library’s Best Used Book Sale. Held on Friday, 
June 1, from 3:00-7:00pm and Saturday, June 2, from 10:00am-
2:00pm at the Sierra Madre Library, 440 W. Sierra Madre Blvd, 
Sierra Madre, the sale offers high-quality books that have been 
culled from the library’s shelves or donated.

June’s sale features a large collection of books about American 
Bungalows and the Arts and Crafts movement in home 
furnishings, many sports books, including several about the 
great American pastime, baseball, and an assortment of coffee 
table books about artists and art including a two-volume set of 
Landsdowne’s Birds of the West Coast and Georgia O’Keefe: 
100 Flowers. A diverse assortment of reference books from the 
Library’s reference room and a collection of Life and Saturday 
Evening Post magazines in library bindings are also available. In 
addition, we have a large number of contemporary and classic 
fiction books, current non-fiction books, children’s classics and 
pop-up books as well as DVDs, audiobooks, and collectibles. 
As always, in the back parking lot there will be $1.00 books on 
every subject, together with paperbacks, 5/$1.00, and children’s 
books 25 cents each.

Proceeds from the Best Used Book Sales benefit the resources 
and programs of the Sierra Madre Public Library. For more 
information, visit our website at sierramadrelibraryfriends.org 
or call 626 355-7186.

(Author’s Note: There was so much that happened 
during this nearly 4 hour meeting 
that it has taken me longer than it should 
have to write anything about this meeting. 
I still haven’t written all I’m going to about 
the meeting, but I’ve written enough to give 
something of an update about what happened 
For instance, chairperson Kevin Paschall 
suggested that the City’s definition of a 
dwelling unit could be interpreted that 2 bedroom 
units can be classified as two dwelling 
units, a move that would make most of the 
structures in R-1 zones illegal. And another 
Commissioner suggested twice that the voters 
should decide if the project conforms to Measure 
V, despite the fact that the Commission 
has been told numerous times that the people 
can’t vote on that issue. Expect to see more 
from me regarding this meeting).

 

The Planning Commission continued its 
public hearing on the proposed Kensington 
Assisted Living project at its Thursday, May 
10th, meeting. The proposed 59,600 sq. ft. 
building (it has grown by 1,600 sq. ft. since 
the original proposal so the developer could 
add 1,300 sq. ft. of commercial floor space 
at the request of the Planning Commission) 
will sit on 1.84 acres of land covering 2 parcels 
of land, one designated commercial and 
one designated R-3.

 

As of that meeting, the project called for a 
total of 75 total suites planned, to accommodate 
up to 96 residents. The developer is 
proposing 43 parking spaces, 2 short of the 
requirements of the Sierra Madre Municipal 
Code. The two story project has been 
re-designed from its original Craftsman 
style appearance to respond to the Planning 
Commission’s request that the developer 
make it look more commercial/urban in appearance. 
In response to previous requests/
concerns of the Commission about trying 
to make the appearance more commercial 
and less residential, a rotunda has been 
added to the Southeast corner of the project, 
and three commercial units that would 
be accessible from the street as well as from 
the Facility have been added.

 

At the request of the developer, the City 
Council recently passed a resolution to 
place the project on the November ballot. 
There are several ways the project can 
be placed on the ballot. One is to amend 
Measure V, should it be determined that 
the project does not comply with Measure 
V. The amendment could be to remove the 
two parcels from the Measure V zone, but 
contingent upon the project being used as 
defined in a Specific Plan for the project. 
Should it be determined that the project 
does comply with Measure V, there would 
be no need to vote on an amendment to it. 
However, the residents could vote on the 
legal aspects of the proposed project, for 
instance to amend the General Plan, or to 
approve the Specific Plan for the project. 
These are just some of the options regarding 
an election, there could be other ways that 
the Council chooses to structure the election. 
For that matter, they could also pass a 
resolution rescinding the earlier resolution, 
meaning there would be no vote at all. 

 

At the May 10th Planning Commission 
meeting, which was missing Commissioner 
Bill Pevsner, the Commissioners in attendance 
voted unanimously to designate the 
project as Residential. In doing so, they 
seemingly removed the need to amend the 
General Plan, which would have been necessary 
if the project were designated Institutional. 
Because the General Plan prohibits 
additional new Institutional uses in the 
downtown area, an amendment would have 
been required to allow the Institutional use 
that the project had originally been designated, 
at the suggestion of City staff.

 

Also, five of the six commissioners stated 
that they did not feel that the 75 suites that 
are proposed should be considered dwelling 
units. However, they fell short of stating 
that the proposed project complies with 
Measure V, which states that no project 
in the Measure V zone can exceed 2 stories 
in height (it doesn’t), 30 feet in height 
(it doesn’t), or 13 dwelling units per acre. 
While the commissioners agreed that they 
were not dwelling units, they did not adopt 
the position that because they are not dwelling 
units, the project is in compliance. 

 

The project has been held over to the June 
7th meeting for further discussion. At that 
time, the developer is expected to respond 
to the Commission’s stated request that he 
A) make the commercial component of the 
project more robust, B) remove any bedrooms 
or living quarters from the Sierra 
Madre Blvd.frontage, and C) bring the front 
of the project to the same level as the Sierra 
Madre Blvd.sidewalk.

“SAVE OUR STORIES” LOCAL 
HISTORY PROJECT LAUNCHED 
WITH CIVIC CLUB GRANT

The Sierra Madre Historical Archives is pleased to announce 
that it has received a $400 grant from the Sierra Madre Civic 
Club to launch the Save Our Stories Project. Library Archivist 
Debbie Henderson, who applied for the grant, explained that 
the purpose of the project is to preserve and provide public 
access to selected analog recordings captured as part of the 
Sierra Madre Oral History Project, which was started by Jayne 
Kistner in 1988. Jayne and 15 other interviewers recorded the 
stories of 110 Sierra Madre residents on audio cassette tapes in 
interviews conducted from 1989-1991 and in 1994 and 1996. 
One such interview is with Althea Butler, the first President of 
the Civic Club. Each interview is approximately one hour long.

Duplicate tapes will be sent to the Center for Oral and Public 
History at Cal State Fullerton for transfer to a digital format. 
Once the project in complete, Library staff will enhance the 
sound quality of the interviews using Audacity, an audio 
rendering software. A link to an MP3 file (digital audio file) 
will be created in the Library catalog so that interviews may be 
accessed immediately via the Library website or downloaded to 
a portable digital device. 

The grant will make it possible to preserve many historically 
valuable archival interviews and to provide the public with easy 
access to the Library’s original oral history collection. 

GENERAL PLAN STEERING 
COMMITTEE MEETING – 

SUNDAY, JUNE 3, 2012

The General Plan Steering Committee (GPSC) will hold a special 
meeting on Sunday, June 3, 2012, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., in 
the City Council Chambers, 232 W. Sierra Madre Blvd. At this 
special meeting, the GPSC will discuss and review a number of 
draft written language items for the new General Plan, including 
historic preservation, parking and traffic, dark sky provisions, 
economic development, building bulk and mass issues, seismic 
considerations for buildings, group living, and identification of 
opportunity sites for the land use projection/build-out to be prepared 
for the environmental impact report (EIR) associated with 
the General Plan. 

The GPSC will also assign subcommittees to edit the new General 
Plan, create an implementation chart, and recommend revisions 
to the land use designation map. The meeting is open to 
the public and any public input is welcome. The meeting will 
also be broadcast live on SMTV-3 cable (Channel 3 for Time 
Warner customers).

SIERRA MADRE HOLIDAY CLOSURES 
MONDAY, MAY 28, 2012

MEMORIAL DAY

Please note Sierra Madre City Hall and Community Services 
will be closed on Monday, May 28, 2012, for 

Memorial Day.

Sierra Madre Library Holiday Closure

Please note the Sierra Madre Library will be closed on 
Monday, May 28, 20212, for Memorial day.

 

Library materials to be returned may be place in the 

outside Book Drop.

 


KIWANIANS DANCE AND 
COOK THE NIGHT AWAY

 The Sierra Madre Kiwanis Club held 
its second annual Boot Skootin’ Dance 
and Chili Cook Off in the Sierra Madre 
Room on Saturday, featuring 7 chili 
contestants, judged by restaurant critic 
Peter Dills, host of Dining with Dills on 
KABC 790 and columnist with The Mountain Views News, a silent auction, a live auction, 
raffles and line dancing lessons by Henry Dumas. Nearly one hundred guests turned out 
to dance, dine and raise money for Sierra Madre programs that are funded each year by 
Kiwanis. Chili winners: - Food Critics Choice: (selected by Peter Dills)

 

Linda Webber – Russ’s Banjo Chili 1st Place (pictured on the left)

John Johnson – 2nd Place

Hattie Harris’ Cincinnati Chili - 3rd Place

JerriAnne Latham and Lisa Brandley – Special Award – Most Enthusiastic

 

People’s Choice Winners: (Voted on by attendees) 

JerriAnne Latham and Lisa Brandley - 1st Place

Hattie Harris’ Cincinnati Chili - 2nd Place


Veterans of Foreign Wars

Post 3208

Invites the Public

To

Memorial Day Ceremonies 

At

Sierra Madre Pioneer Cemetery

Monday May 28, 2012

11 a.m.

Speaker Former Mayor

MaryAnn McGillivary

Refreshments and Sandwiches to follow