October Is Breast Cancer Awareness Month 

VOLUME 15 NO. 41VOLUME 15 NO. 41 
Walter Cailleteau, DVM Free Exam! 
927 N. Michillinda Ave. For New Clients 
Pasadena, CA 91107 Bring this coupon to save! 
(626) 351-8863 
BREAKING NEWS 
broker lic. #01514230 | source: CoreLogic, Freddie Mac, Bankrate 
Jan Greteman 626.975.4033 
jan@jangreteman.com 
jangreteman.com #01943630 
Judy Webb-Martin 626.688.2273 
jwmartin@dppre.com #00541631 
Katie Orth 626.688.0418 
korth@dppre.com #00942500 
Your Story. Your Home. Your Team. 
Together Stronger. 
THE 
WEBB-MARTIN GROUP 
JUST SOLD 
500 North Michillinda Avenue 
Sierra Madre, 91024 500NMichillinda.com7 Beds | 5.5 Baths | 6,588 sf | 50,113 sf lot 
The Hoover Estate Sold at $3,715,000 
We're doing very well for our clients in 
buying and selling homes. 
Call us today for a free home assessment 
with no obligations. 
IN ESCROW 
650 North Holliston Avenue 
Pasadena, 91106 
2 Beds | 1 Bath | 960 sf | 5,200 sf lot 
1921 Spanish Listed at $629,000 
The first, Senate Bill 9, makes it possible to build 
more than one housing unit on land that was 
previously designated for only one unit. 
The second, Senate Bill 10, allows for denser 
development near public transit corridors, such 
as bus and train lines. 
Two new Bills, effective 
January 1, 2022, will impact 
single-family zoning in California. 
Zoning regulates how land can be used, or what can 
be built where. Can a business be built on a given plot? 
That area is zoned for commercial use. Can a home or 
condo complex be built there? That is residential zoning. 
In a downtown area, you might have mixed-use 
zoning — say, ground-floor retail businesses and 
residential units in the high-rise above. 
Single-family zoning refers to a residential area where 
only one housing unit can be built on a given parcel of 
land. Think of the Southern California suburban staple 
of a home with no shared walls — in other words, not 
a duplex, triplex or multiunit complex. If you live in a 
house with a driveway, garage, three bedrooms, two 
bathrooms, and front, back and side yards, it’s almost 
certainly a single-family home. 
Info Reported from The LA Times 
IN ESCROW WITH MULTIPLE OFFERS 
For full Prop details, Contact Us 
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2021 
By Kevin McGuire 
In a meeting continued from Sep-
tember 16, 2021, the Planning Com-
mission was not only met with the 
arduous task of deciding whether to 
adopt updates to the Housing Ele-
ment, which would include changes 
to land use and zoning affecting manySierra Madre residents, but on top of 
that, were met with more community 
push-back against the large housing 
project contemplated for the Monas-
tery grounds. 
During the September meeting, the 
Commission discussed and reviewed 
proposed updates to the Housing Ele-
ment. This included the state man-
dated Regional Housing Need As-
sessment (RHNA) which pinpoints 
sites across the city for potential new 
housing and proposed rezoning si-
tes after inconsistencies were found 
between the General Plan and the 
Zoning Map set in 2015. Everything 
needs to match, and the deadline to 
meet obligations for the Housing Ele-
ment is creeping up on October 15,2021, though there is a grace period of 
120 days which would push the dead-
line to February 2022. In addition, 
new text is recommended to be added 
to the Municipal Code for Religious 
Housing Overlay and certification of 
the Subsequent Environmental Im-
pact Report (EIR) was also on the 
table. 
Chair William Pevsner led the Octo-
ber 7, 2021 meeting. Senior Planner,
Clare Lin gave an initial presentation. 
The 42-house contemplated pro-
ject on the Monastery grounds has 
been one of the top concerns of Sier-
ra Madre residents for more than a 
year now. The Preserve Sierra Madre 
Steering Committee has reviewed the 
EIR for 2700-4000 square-foot project 
and has brought up many of the same 
concerns the community has broug-
ht before the podium time and time 
again. These concerns include remo-
val of many trees including 10 protec-
ted Oaks, traffic impacts, water usage, 
and fire and earthquake concerns. The 
public was given a 45-day review of 
the EIR which topped out over 1,000 
pages, and yes, some residents trud-
ged through the entire document. 
THE SAFETY ELEMENT 
The Safety Element Updates had 
some folks crying “foul” over langua-
ge changes and interpretation. Objec-
tive Hz-7 on the development in VeryHigh Fire Hazard Severity Zone in the 
Safety Element states: Avoid expan-
ding development into undeveloped 
areas in Very High Fire Hazard Seve-
rity Zones. Some have interpreted this 
to mean the open spaces surrounding 
the grounds at the Monastery. But,
Curtis Zacuto of Eco Tierra Consulti-
ng presented new language (Objective 
Hz-5b) before the Commission which 
reads: Avoid construction of new de-
velopment on land currently unimp-
roved and abutted by natural open 
space areas in Very High Fire Hazard 
Severity Zones. According to Zacuto, 
the new language captures the origi-
nal “intent” of the authors which was 
assumed to mean not adding develop-
ment to land above the Monastery, as 
land below the Monastery is “abutted” 
by houses. Zacuto’s comments were 
met with gasps and muffled objec-
tions from the audience and the Com-
mission persuaded Zacuto to reeva-
luate his definitions of “abutted” and 
“unimproved.” 
ZONING 
Switching topics back to the HousingElement, Philip Burns of the Arroyo 
Group discussed potential residential 
development at the 200 block of Ma-
riposa Ave (20 proposed units) and 
the Park Avenue Apartments at 491 
W. Sierra Madre Blvd (18 proposedunits). Talk of changing height al-
lowance to 3-story homes diminishedas a study found that 2-story homeswere sufficient to meet density requi-
rements. Proposals offer sufficient 
parking and garden fronts. Picturesof the proposed projects were alsoshown. 
Other proposals imagine affordable 
housing on several church parkinglots in town, up to 91 units on three 
lots, but just because the City is requi-
red to show proposed housing spots 
doesn’t mean all or any projects will 
come to fruition. They are “aspira-
tional,” as Commissioner Bob Spears 
put it. But, the fears from community 
members is that the small-town feel 
of Sierra Madre is slowly, but surelydiminishing. 
Furthermore, the rezoning as a result 
of 2015 inconsistencies would change 
land use designations on a number 
(continued on page 3) 
PLANNING COMMISSION TABLES ZONE CHANGES; 
PUSHES HOUSING ELEMENT TO CITY COUNCIL 
Community steps up to stop Monastery projectSIERRA MADRE POLICE AND 
INTERNET CRIMES AGAINST 
CHILDREN TASK FORCE MAKE 
SECOND ARREST IN LESS THAN 
12 MONTHS 
22 Year Old Sierra Madre resident arrested and 
charged with possession of child pornography. 
On Thursday morning, the 
Sierra Madre Police Depart-
ment and the Federal Inter-
net Crimes Against Children 
Task Force arrested Jared 
Ryan Mason. He was trans-
ported to the Pasadena Police 
Department for booking. 
According to sources fami-
liar with the arrest, several 
charges are pending, howe-
ver at press time, the District 
Attorney's Office had only 
charged him with Section 
311.11(a) of the California 
Penal Code which reads,
"Every person who knowingly 
possesses or controls any mat-
ter, representation of informa-
tion, data, or image, including,
but not limited to, any film,
filmstrip, photograph, negati-
ve, slide, photocopy, videota-
pe, video laser disc, computer 
hardware, computer software, 
computer floppy disc, data sto-
rage media, CD-ROM, or com-
puter-generated equipment or 
any other computer-generated 
image that contains or incor-
porates in any manner, anyfilm or filmstrip, the produc-
tion of which involves the use 
of a person under 18 years of 
age, knowing that the matter 
depicts a person under 18 ye-
ars of age personally engagingin or simulating sexual con-
duct, as defined in subdivision 
(d) of Section 311.4, is guilty ofa felony..." 
The arrest was made at Ma-
son's home in the 00 block of 
W. Laurel Avenue in Sierra 
Madre. 
At press time, Mason was 
released from custody on a 
$20,000 bail by the District 
Attorney's office. The date of 
his next court appearance has 
not yet been set. 
Last year, Robert Nesler,
a longtime Sierra Madre re-
sident was also arrested on 
similar charges. Nesler, also 
out of custody, is awaiting tri-
al. His next court appearance 
is scheduled in November.. 
MVNews 
FORMER SMPD OFFICER FACING 
CHARGES FOR SHOOTING OF A 
YOUNG MOTHER IN LONG BEACH 
Eddie F. Gonzalez, who was a 
member of the Sierra Madre 
Police Department from Sep-
tember 2019 until July, 2020has been fired from his posi-
tion as a Long Beach Unified 
School District Safety Officerfor violating district policy on 
the use of force according to 
LBPUSD. The Long Beach Po-
lice Department has also an-
nounced murder investigation 
into the incident. 
On September 27th, Gonzalez 
shot 18 year old Mona Rodri-
guez, mother of a 5 month 
old son. According to videos 
and various other news reports 
the incident occurred after 
Gonzalez attempted to 'break 
up a fight between Rodriguez, 
who was not a student, and a 
15-year-old girl near campuswhen Rodriguez fled with herboyfriend—20-year-old Rafeul 
Chowdhury—and his 16-ye-
ar-old brother, who were alsoallegedly involved in the fight.
Gonzalez fired as the trio tried 
to flee the scene in a gray sedan, 
officials said.' 
On October 6, Ms. Rodriguez 
was taken off life support and 
her organs were donated to 
help others.
Interim Sierra Madre Police 
Chief Jim Hunt hired Gonza-
lez and his employment ended 
a few months after the arrival 
of current Police Chief Rod-
rick Armalin. He also worked 
for a brief period for the Los 
Alamitos PD before coming to 
Sierra Madre. 
The reasons for the departure 
are not public knowledge,