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Unlike Sierra Madre, where shutting down any opportunities for mansionization has led to a powerful resurgence in home equity values and sales, out of town developers and similarly retrograde elements are doing everything they can to stop any similar reforms in Arcadia considered necessary for salvaging property values there.
Here are some of the current unfavorable real estates comparisons:
On Tuesday evening the Arcadia City Council attempted to consider a moratorium that would help to correct the conditions driving the real estate slump there. Unfortunately, the councilmembers pawned by the big developers, Sho"The Man with the Miss America Smile"Tay and Jolly Roger Chandler, stood in the way. Here is how a correspondent from Saving Arcadia described this unfortunate situation:
Last night about 100 people attended the study session on moratoriums. These people were realtors, developers and contractors. Approximately 20 of them spoke against a moratorium. They didn’t state that they were realtors, developers or contractors. Those that don’t live in Arcadia, failed to mention that fact.
Luckily we now have 3 City Councilmen who saw through it. Mayor Kovacic, Councilmember Beck and Segal were in favor of a moratorium in exchange for a suspension of the ballot initiative. It was a peace offering to allow the focus to be redirected from signature collecting to consensus building with the “Citizens Committee.” It was a good idea but it takes 4 votes to adopt a moratorium and Councilmembers Tay and Chandler refused to consider those terms.
It looks like the moratorium initiative will just have to go on the ballot after all. When that does happen, and the voters then approve it, Chandler and Tay will end up looking like two of the biggest fools ever.
The Pasadena Star News picked up on this story yesterday and filed the following report:
Arcadia lacks votes to adopt temporary residential development moratorium - The City Council will not consider a temporary moratorium on any stage of residential development because they don’t have enough votes to pass the proposed ordinance, officials said.
Four votes are required to adopt an urgency ordinance, and Councilmen Roger Chandler and Sho Tay indicated during a study session on Tuesday that they would not vote in favor of a moratorium so officials decided not to place it on a future agenda for consideration.
Recently appointed Councilman Mickey Segal suggested the city consider a temporary moratorium on demolition permits at an Oct. 20 City Council meeting, which was supported by Mayor Gary Kovacic and Councilman Tom Beck.
A moratorium would have initially been in place for 45 days, with an option to extend it, while the city updates its residential and commercial development standards and conducts a historic preservation study.
A staff report prepared for the study session indicates that there are 226 homes in the “pipeline” that could have been affected by a moratorium, all in various stages of review. Of these, there are eight homes that have been granted demolition permits and 23 homes that have been issued building permits, but not yet issued demolition permits.
You can link to that entire article by clicking here.
Good luck selling your homes, Arcadia. Apparently you aren't quite as house rich as certain invested individuals have told you. And that smoke you have been smelling lately? It could be from all the fire sales it takes to move those things.
Sho Tay Comments On WeChat
Arcadia City Councilman Sho Tay, who apparently never leaves home without first putting on his happy socks, has been talking up a storm on WeChat lately. The topic is those garish McMansions his friends in the development community favor, and how some people have allowed their emotions to get in the way of reason on this topic. Or at least that is Sho Tay's somewhat cloying interpretation.
Here is a screenshot of some of that action.
For those of you who are not fluent Mandarin speakers, we have obtained the following translation.
Tay: Tue 11/3 5pm, city council is discussing whether to pause the zoning issue. This is related to property value. If you have an opinion, you have to raise it . If not raised, that's equal to no opinion. City council won't guess. If other's opinion is opposite to yours, it would be pretty bad.
Mei: We are pro-development. We bought a small, old house with our life-time savings, compared to other new houses, it's 100 years behind. From fire prevention to air conditioning, it's full of problems. If we want to rebuild, someone can say "no". Those living in new houses would never know the suffering of living in old houses. Please support us, Mr. Councilman, to develop!
Tay: There are 5 members on the council, the other 4 have not heard your voice. I cannot relay the message because of regulations. If you can go to speak tomorrow at 5pm, the other 4 can hear you. Thanks.
Grace: If your house is destroyed by fire or earthquake and you need to rebuild, if referendum is passed, then your new house will be smaller, maybe 40% smaller. Really a joke.
Guy with painting icon: This is a strange question. To stop development or tear down is a very important issue. Wouldn't it be necessary to have a committee to study before any decision? At least to start from the current development rate, vacancy rate, property value trend, etc. Shouldn't you analyze various factors and have an evaluation by a professional before any decision.
Tay: Yes, I agree, but too many are nice about "too much development" and "too big houses". Some councilmen cannot stand the noise and ask for a pause.
Tay: Because of this, I am being scolded, yelled at.
Guy: Tough job man! Guess they can only make some noise.
Couple icon: Officials in Taiwan are being scolded all the time.
Tay: They also threaten to recall me.
We will have more on all of the current excitement in Arcadia soon.
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