STAY HEALTHY! STAY SAFE! STAY HOME!


VOLUME 14 NO. 16

 SATURDAY, APRIL 18, 2020 

source: CoreLogic, Freddie Mac, BankrateTHEWEBB-MARTIN GROUPJan Greteman 626.975.4033jan@jangreteman.com 
jangreteman.com #01943630Judy Webb-Martin 626.688.2273jwmartin@dppre.com #00541631 
Katie Orth 626.688.0418korth@dppre.com #00942500Who We Are:
Residents & business owners 
of Sierra Madre selling real estate 
since 1975 & proudly giving back 
to the community.
Your Story. Your Home. Your Team.
Together Stronger.
In this time of grave crisis, 
The Webb-Martin Group sends 
you our love, support, and 
encouragement in facing this 
challenge together. 
We will be maintaining safer, more 
direct and efficient modes of 
communicating with you.
These would entail virtual home 
tours, 3-D floor plan visualizations, 
virtual meetings and making use of 
DocuSign, FaceTime, Google Meet, 
and various mobile messaging appsPlease know that we remain steadfast 
in our mission to support you. 
We will get through this, 
together and stronger. 
Jan, Judy & KatieWe offer over 90 years 
of trusted experience. 
Please reach out to us for any 
of your real estate needs.
MATER DOLOROSA MEMORANDUM OF 
UNDERSTANDING ON COUNCIL AGENDA

BELOVED WESTRIDGE 
EDUCATOR DIES FROM 
COVID 19

 “At the very end of north Sunnyside in Sierra Madre is an 88 acre expanse of 
land which houses one of the city’s most beautiful landmarks, the Mater Dolorosa 
Passionist Retreat Center (aka, The Monastery)".(Mountain Views News 
Archives: http://mtnviewsnews.com/old/mvnews/v07/MVNews_2013_11_16.
pdf). On Tuesday, April 28, 2020 development of that property will once 
again be on the City Council Agenda. For years any plans to develop the site 
have been quite controversial. (mtnviewsnews.com/v14/htm/n10/index.htm). 
At this point, however the city is prepared to consider a Memorandum of Understanding 
with Mater Dolorosa. 

 In 2013, disclosure of plans to develop the site lead to the development of a 
citizens group called, "Stop The Monastery", headed at that time by Matt Bryant. 
The group has evolved into a group concerned with all development in the 
city called Preserve Sierra Madre. It's steering committee, led by residents Pat 
Alcorn and Bryant, are "keeping on open mind" on the latest proposal until the 
Memorandum of Understanding is completed.

 More information on the MOU and the project can be found on page 2.

S. Henderson/Editor


A Word On The Project from Mayor John Capoccia

THE MEADOW

As a thirty-seven year resident of Sierra 
Madre, I want the Meadow at 
the Mater Dolorosa Retreat Center 
to stay the way it is forever and ever. 
I don’t want development at One 
Carter or Stonehouse, I can’t stand it 
when someone demolishes a quaint 
old bungalow and builds a modern 
four bed three bath, and I hate it 
when trees get too big, tear up the 
street and must be removed. There’s 
a lot of things I don’t like about town, 
but there’s some that I must accept.

But I do love Sierra Madre! I think 
it’s the best place to live in Los Angeles 
County. My wife Marta and I 
have done a lot of walking around 
town the past three weeks while 
under “Safer at Home” orders. We 
LOVE the canyon, and the incredible 
diversity of homes in the flat-lands. 
One thing that has changed for the 
better is the proliferation of drought 
tolerant landscaping. It’s refreshing 
to see the beautiful diversity of native 
and drought tolerant flora! And of 
course I love the people! We’ve met 
new neighbors (from a distance) on 
our walks and have had some wonderful 
conversations. Sierra Madre is 
a remarkable town and it’s great that 
over the years we’ve been able to preserve 
its eclectic small-town charm 

As Mayor and a Council Member 
for the last eight years, my vision 
and goals centered around ensuring 
Sierra Madre remains a special 
haven for its residents. Of course, 
land-use issues are front and center, 
Sierra Madre being Sierra Madre, 
but more mundane things are part 
of keeping the city intact. Keeping 
our independent Police and Fire departments 
was certainly challenging 
given the lack of K-Marts, Rusnaks, 
malls, race tracks, hotels, and other 
things that provide the lucrative 
revenue streams that our neighboring 
cities enjoy. And, we have no 
property tax assessments supporting 
the General Fund. Our city government 
runs with incredible efficiency. 
Rebuilding water infrastructure has 
been confounding, but we’ve turned 
the corner and have heavily invested 
in improvements the last few years. 
We’ve been successful on land-use 
issues, repeatedly modifying our municipal 
zoning codes over the years to 
protect our 

hillsides and 
preventing the 
over-development 
that 
has dramatically 
changed 
the nature of 
our neighboring 
cities. But 
there are limits 
to what can be 
done to keep 
things the way 
they were here 
in Sierra Madre.

Unfortunately, what I personally 
want as a resident is often incompatible 
with my responsibilities as an 
elected official. For those of us who 
would like to keep things the way 
they were, we have a problem - The 
private property rights that are imbedded 
in our municipal code and 
state and federal law overrule our 
personal desires.

It wasn’t long ago that development 
of the Kensington was a raging topic. 
The planned seventy-two dwelling 
units exceeded the maximum 
allowed by Measure V. The City 
Council was accused of “pushing 
this through” and undermining the 
sacrosanct Measure V. Proponents 
suggested that maybe the dwelling 
units weren’t really dwelling units 
because they didn’t have a kitchen, 
which raises questions: What do 
people do in their rented units if not 
dwelling? If they don’t dwell there, 
where do they dwell? Do they even 
dwell at all? On the other hand, opponents 
of the development wailed 
that the two-story building would 
block the mountain views! The traffic 
will forever change Sierra Madre! 
Parking would be overwhelmed! So 
on and so forth. We worked through 
the noise and now we have a beautiful 
development that accommodates 
many Sierra Madre seniors who can 
no longer take care of themselves, 
and a long-standing vacant, blighted 
eye-sore was replaced by beautifully-
designed senior living establishment, 
while preserving the sanctity of Measure 
V. I might add that citizen input 
during the lengthy public hearings 
resulted in a vastly improved 
product.

 (continued on page 2)


CAROL VAN ZALINGEN Passed away on April 14,
2020 in Pasadena, California, United States.

Carol van Zalingen, the Lower and Middle School dean of 
student support at Westridge School, died on Tuesday, April 
14 just after 4 am in Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena 
from complications related to COVID–19. 

Carol joined Westridge in 2008 as the 8th grade English 
teacher and in 2015 transitioned to the role of dean of Lower 
and Middle School student support. This latter role combined 
her exquisite talent as an educator and her seemingly 
bottomless capacity for empathy and caring. In the classroom 
she was known to connect in a very special way with each 
of her students. Her colleagues describe her as "a safe space 
for students and adults." She was known as gentle and wise, 
always reaching out to help others in a supportive and non-
judgmental manner. She never wanted a light shined in her 
direction, but her ability to listen, be present, and hold time 
and space for students and friends was uncanny. And Carol 
was a master at helping girls progress along a path to being 
independent learners and finding and following a positive 
personal narrative. Over the years, Westridge Upper School 
students consistently cited Carol as one of the faculty members 
who made a significant impact on their lives. She indeed 
changed lives and made a mark on our hearts.

Carol was born in Kampala, Uganda and lived in Tehran, 
Iran before moving to the United States. She was a huge animal 
lover with two dogs, Abby and Sparky. Prior to coming 
to Westridge, she taught 8th grade language arts at Simmons 
Middle School in Hoover, Alabama and 7th grade language 
arts in Hilliard, Ohio at both Weaver Middle School and Memorial 
Middle School. She held a B.A. in English and Anthropology 
from Rice University and an M.Ed. from the University 
of Montevallo. She was also a gifted Young Adult novelist 
with a passion for writing intelligent young heroines coming 
into their own; her two books Chiron's Descent and the sequel 
Crossing Charon (a paranormal romance series) can be 
read on Swoonreads.com.

As we are currently unable to gather together physically, we 
have created this space for Carol's Westridge community to 
leave tributes, stories, photos, videos, etc. to honor and celebrate 
her. When we are able to return to campus, we will 
commemorate Carol and the deep impact she made on our 
community. 

Forevermissed.com

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Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com