Will The City Council Shut Down 'Loophole Housing' At Tonight's Special Meeting?

Does your new neighbor have big metal teeth?

There was a very special addition tagged onto tonight's City Council Special Meeting. That being the discussion of a Moratorium on Residential Demolition Permits. This is apparently getting treated with a high level of urgency because of the large amount of properties that have been purchased by investors recently. You might have noticed that there have been houses sold in your neighborhood that nobody seems to ever move into. A very Arcadia kind of occurrence, and becoming much more prevalent here. Cash only purchases and all.

Think of it as a loophole. Between the final approval of the General Plan (EIR included) and where we are today, there is a two year loophole where an extraordinary amount of damage can be done to this community. This City Council recognizes that and will apparently take a bold step forward to remedy this parlous situation by approving a two year moratorium on permits to demo older houses.

Apparently slow growth mania is now sweeping the City of Sierra Madre. So used am I to a City Hall that seemingly wants to mulch the entire Foothill Village for the purpose of building SCAG housing of one sort or another (you know, to reach our RHNA numbers or some such foul Sacramento state centralized development travesties), or turn downtown into a knockoff version of Rancho Cucamonga meets Walt Disney, or fill the skyline with an array of looming McMansions, that I am having trouble getting my mind around any of this.

It all seems almost too good to be true, and I can't quite bring myself to accept that this is actually happening. Can it be that maybe the city has moved on in a more resident friendly direction and I am still fighting for things that are a part of the past? Did we win everything and I somehow forgot to notice?

Here is how this evening's Agenda Report describes a possible Moratorium on Residential Demolition Permits:

Think about it, the City Council is now moving quickly towards approving a decidedly "slow growth"General Plan with an immediate moratorium on tear downs to fill in the remaining two year time loophole, and there is NO OPPOSITION to any of this. None.

Not one single gnarly old Bob the Builder miscreant has wafted out of the Canyon and shown up at any City Council meeting lately to complain about the abolition of all American freedoms in Sierra Madre because they can't clearcut 100 year old oak groves to build Brobdingnagian bumper buildings on 1,600 square foot lots. A rather unprecedented event that would have been inconceivable just a few short years ago.

Of course, I can take some comfort in the fact that there is a long ways to go before all of the threatened damage is undone. We still haven't resolved the One Carter incursion, or even begun to address the atrocities being planned for Mater Dolorosa and Stone whatever, so there is still some continued relevance here for barricades thinking. But I have to tell you, the prospect of complete victory and the resulting peace that could follow does have me feeling just a little bit nervous.

But somehow I will survive. This meeting will conclude with more revisions to the new General Plan. It is good that they have sped all of this up, but we really needed it 4 years ago.

Maybe they should just approve the General Plan tonight. Or at least the land use parts. That would be nice. But I'm not complaining. At least right now. The tear down moratorium is a nice start. Just don't stop there.

See you this evening.
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