SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2023 VOLUME 17 NO. 06VOLUME 17 NO. 06 
ABOVE & 
BEYOND 
Eileen Benson 
626.278.0187 
CalRE# 01880650 
Barbara Rogers 
626.484.8135 
CalRE# 01169115 
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Rights Reserved. Coldwell Banker and the Coldwell Banker logos are trademarks of Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. The Coldwell Banker® System is comprised of company owned offices which are 
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Act and the Equal Opportunity Act. 
38 Years of Combined Experience Representing Buyers and Sellers 
There are lots of things to 
Wine about…. 
Buying or Selling your home 
shouldn’t be one of them. 
Call us, 
we would love 
to meet with you 
to discuss how 
we can help you 
achieve your 
2023 Real Estate 
Goals. 
In last week's edition of the Moun-
tain Views News, an error was 
made. While introducing MerryMaid Cleaning Business, the head-
ing inadvertently called the com-
pany Molly Maids. Our sincere 
apologies to the proud new owners 
of your local Merry Maids clean-
ing business, servicing your homes 
with their hardworking team, and 
building lasting relationships! 
Call them up today and try their 
services. 
Merry Maids 
(626)788-377328 Windsor Lane 
Sierra Madre 
REMEMBER: 
A GIFT CERTIFICATE WOULD 
BE A SWEET VALENTINE'S 
DAY SURPRISE! 
February is Black History Month: Know the Past, Shape the Future!
WELCOME MERRY MAID 
(not Molly!) 
SIERRA MADRE GAS LEAK AT THE 
HART PARK HOUSE 
Sierra Madre Fire Department was called out to the Hart Park 
House Senior Center on Thursday, February 9, 2023 for smell of 
natural gas. 
City employees on-site immediately called 9-1-1 and cleared the 
building, which did not have any members of the public or pro-
graming during the time of the call. 
City staff working in the Senior Center were evaluated and released. 
SMFD confirmed a gas leak and gas was promptly shut-off to 
the building until the leak could be repaired by an independent 
contractor. 
The leak has since been repaired and the building has been cleared 
to resume public access and programming. 
The Hart Park House will re-open on Monday, Febru-ary 13, 2023 
for normal programming. 
There will be a Special Election on May9, 2023, where voters can decide whether 
or not to repeal Ordinance 1461 after the 
City Council reluctantly adopted four reso-
lutions and agreed to pay approximately$400,000 to make it happen. The unani-
mous decision was made during a Special 
Meeting on February 7, 2023. 
The Special Election is the direct result of a 
proposed referendum summary brought by 
the Protect Sierra Madre PAC (PSMP), led 
by their Steering Committee member Bar-
bara Vellturo. The group obtained enough 
signatures to qualify to get their proposed 
repeal to a vote in an upcoming election. 
Mayor Edward Garcia certified those sig-
natures on January 10, 2023. 
Ordinance 1461 was approved and adopted 
by City Council on September 27, 2022, be-
fore the petition protesting the ordinance 
successfully suspended it on October 3,2022. This action put the “The Meadows” 
project on ice, freezing the Zoning MapAmendment, the Specific Plan, and the 
Development Agreement, all initially ap-
proved by Ordinance 1461. 
But, Resolution 22-58, which City Council 
adopted on September 20, 2022, was not in-
cluded in the PAC’s proposed referendum. 
This resolution approved a General Plan 
land use map amendment, approved a lot 
line adjustment, certified the Environmen-
tal Impact Report (EIR), and approved the 
Mitigation Monitoring and Reporting Pro-
gram for “The Meadows” at Bailey Canyon,
located at 700 North Sunnyside Avenue. 
The omission by the proponents of the 
referendum, gave NUW the opportunity 
to consider an alternative project to The 
Meadows”. On December 20, 2022, NUW 
submitted a preliminary application for a 
50-lot subdivision on the grounds at The 
Monastery. The new project would be larg-
er, 50 homes rather than 42 and the ‘perks’that would accompany The Meadows would 
no longer be available, such as a new park,
conservation easements, $983,500 for net 
zero water, and a $250,000 donation to the 
new public safety building on Sierra MadreBlvd.. (See http://mtnviewsnews.com/v17/
htm/n01/index.htm). Further. Senate Bill 
(SB) 330, passed in 2019, “prevents localgovernments from downzoning unless they 
upzone an equivalent amount elsewhere 
within their boundaries. Suspends the en-
actment of local downzoning and housingconstruction moratoriums. Requires timely 
processing of housing permits that follow 
zoning rules.” 
City Manager Jose Reynoso has had several 
separate interactions with NUW and Pro-
tect Sierra Madre as a mediator, with ap-
proximately 60 total interactions includingin person meetings with the Protect Sierra 
Madre delegation and e-mail correspon-
dence and telephone communi-cations. 
“Misunderstandings” and “Half-Truths” 
The city received 47 e-mails for public 
comment on this topic and several more 
during the February 7 meeting. City Man-
ager Reynoso stated there were “misunder-
standings” and “half-truths” in those com-
ments. During the special session, he and 
City Attorney Aleks Giragosian addressed 
some falsities. Reynoso said that a Fact 
Sheet would also be circulated to residents 
to clear up misconceptions. Here are a few 
questions addressed. 
1. Why did the City Council put us in 
this position? First, the city did not create 
this situation. City Staff, City Council, andPlanning Commission negotiated and ap-
proved “The Meadows” project after yearsof community input and hearings. But, be-
cause the Protect Sierra Madre PAC pusheda referendum to repeal Ordinance 1461 af-
ter losing another effort to halt the projectat the polls (Measure HR) and when theyfailed to include Resolution 22-58 in their 
referendum filings, this was the only reasonthe developers pursued the SB 330 project,
according to Reynoso. 
2. Why doesn’t the city give the partiesmore time to negotiate?
The city sent a letter to Protect Sierra Madre 
attorneys on Dec 26, 2022, informing themof the SB 330 application and asking themto meet with the City Manager and with-
draw their referendum. On January 3rd,
City Attorney Giragosian received a re-
sponse from the Protect Sierra Madre at-
torney, and conversations about withdraw-
al started taking place. Five weeks havepassed, and Giragosian has not heard fromtheir attorney. Protect Sierra Madre hasasked for eight conditions, and the partiesagreed upon five conditions and more. The 
conditions released at late Friday eveningwhen it was apparent that the Protect SierraMadre group was not going to withdraw theReferendum. 
3. Why is the city going along with 
NUW’s election date? 
The City Council sets election dates. The 
county informed the city of an election on 
April 11, 2023. This would have saved the 
city thousands of dollars. NUW wanted the 
earliest date possible, which was April 11. 
City Council postponed the election to al-
low both parties time to negotiate in good 
faith. NUW offered June as the last month 
for negotiations, but after pressure from in-
vestors, it pushed the date forward to May. 
The city and NUW negotiated and agreed 
upon the May 9 date. 
During the negotations, based on docu-
ments received at press time, NUW and the 
city agreed to most of everthing requested 
including paying PSMP's legal fees, but the 
offers were rejected. Sources have indicated 
that the legal fees, $50,000 were rejected be-
cause PSMP did not want the developer to 
pay the fees, but rather the city should pay 
the legal bills.. 
After it became apparent that agreement 
would not be made by the deadline on Fri-
day evening, City Council unanimously 
voted to adopt the following resolutions. 
RESOLUTION 23-15: A RESOLUTION 
CALLING AND GIVING NOTICE OF THE 
HOLDING OF A SPECIAL MUNICIPAL 
ELECTION TO BE HELD ON MAY 9, 2023,
FOR REPEAL OF CITY COUNCIL ORDI-
NANCE 1461, AS REQUIRED BY THE PRO-
VISION OF THE LAWS OF THE STATE OF 
CALIFORNIA RELATING TO GENERAL 
LAW CITIES; 
RESOLUTION 23-16: A RESOLUTION RE-
QUESTING THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS 
OF THE COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES TO 
RENDER SPECIFIED SERVICES TO THE 
CITY OF SIERRA MADRE RELATING TO 
THE CONDUCT OF A SPECIAL MUNICI-
PAL ELECTION TO BE HELD ON MAY 9,2023; 
RESOLUTION 23-17: A RESOLUTION SET-
TING PRIORITIES FOR FILING WRITTEN 
ARGUMENTS REGARDING A MEASURE 
AND DIRECTING THE CITY ATTORNEY 
TO PREPARE AN IMPARTIAL ANALYSIS; 
AND RESOLUTION 23-18: A RESOLU-
TION PROVIDING FOR THE FILING OF 
REBUTTAL ARGUMENTS FOR BALLOT 
MEASURES SUBMITTED AT MUNICIPAL 
ELECTIONS 
The next regularly scheduled City Council 
meeting will occur on Tuesday, February14, 2023. 
K. McGuire/MVNews 
REFERENDUM NEGOTIATIONS FAIL - SPECIAL ELECTION CONFIRMED 
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