The Glendora City Council approved last week the hiring of a firm to provide guidance for the creation of a document to aid in the development along Arrow Highway.
The firm, MIG, was awarded a contract for $321,097 to prepare a Specific Plan to transform and revitalize Glendora’s stretch of the Arrow Highway Corridor, by providing policy for uses that will be responsive to market forces, while supporting economic development and livability goals.
The creation of the Specific Plan will be prepared with the involvement of city residents, Arrow Highway business owners, County entities, the city of Covina, Foothill Transit, the Los Angeles County Flood Control District and others, city staff said.
Creation of the Specific Plan is expected to take 12 to 15 months.
The Glendora City Council adopted a recommendation to hire MIG to undertake the development of an Arrow Highway Corridor Specific Plan during the last two of its Strategic Planning Retreats held at America’s Christian Credit Union, city staff said, with initial funding being allocated for the 2014-2015 fiscal year.
MIG was chosen because of the company’s experience in “transformative land use planning … innovative zoning standards, infrastructure planning, design guidelines,” city staff said.
Before MIG is to deliver the Specific Plan before city legislative bodies, a comprehensive Environmental Impact Report will be prepared by the city that will adhere to city and stand standards to outline project-level analysis of individual projects within the plan.
“Through the plan itself, we will look at revitalizing the sites themselves,” said Lisa Brownfield, director of planning services with MIG.
MIG will develop ways the city can enliven the streets, by possibly bringing in additional foot traffic to the corridor. General examples used elsewhere, Bownfield discussed, include parks, pocket parks, greening, urban plazas and bike routes.
In a manner similar to the formation of the Route 66 Specific Plan, an Arrow Highway Corridor Steering Committee will be created. The Committee will include up to 15 community members and stakeholders of possibly six residents from within 500 feet of the corridor, three to four property owners/business tenants, two to three Glendora residents at large one county representative and one transportation representative, said Emily Stadnicki, Glendora city planner.
Meetings will be open to the public.
To also create better transparency and provide opportunities for public input, city staff requested MIG to launch a dedicated webpage for the Arrow Highway Corridor Specific Plan. The future site will provide progress updates, downloadable documents and a way to provide input to Glendora’s project manager.
The initial idea to transform the Arrow Highway Corridor went back to 2007 when Azusa, Glendora, Covina, Baldwin Park, Irwindale and Los Angeles County officials developed the Arrow Highway Corridor Report with funding from the Southern California Association of Governments.
The report sought to improve the Arrow Highway Corridor by establishing land use guidelines, in addition to economic, design and implementation strategies while increasing the connection between land use and transportation.
A Joint Powers Authority formed between the mentioned cities never came to fruition when Redevelopment Agencies were dissolved in 2012.
