Sound walls will be built along the 210 Freeway by Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) at a cost of $549 million. Under state rules, walls can be built wherever freeway noise is above 67 decibels.
Freeway sound walls promised for Arcadia and Monrovia appear to be still on schedule, according to the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA). The sound walls scheduled for construction as early as 2005 run from Michillinda Avenue to Santa Anita Avenue in Arcadia, and from Huntington Drive to California Avenue in Monrovia. Lower priority sound wall project locations are also given.
210 Freeway sound wall is finished. The Metro project, which started in 2009, consists of 2 miles of sound walls along westbound and eastbound lanes of the 210 Freeway between Santa Anita Avenue and California Avenue in Arcadia and Monrovia, paid with Measure R funds. The sound walls provide at least 5 decibels of noise reduction. A ribbon cutting ceremony was held. Several Arcadia residents near Victory Chapel on N. First Avenue, where the sound wall ends, are disappointed the barrier doesn't extend farther west.
The City Council has decided to spend about $100,000 for vines on the 4.5 miles of sound walls the Metropolitan Transportation Authority will build along the 210 Freeway in 2004-2005.
About 1000 feet of sound walls will be built by the westbound lanes of the 210 Foothill Freeway between Second Avenue and Fifth Avenue. There is also discussion of future sound wall construction projects.
Construction is stalled on a $11.9 million project to build sound walls on a stretch of the westbound 210 Foothill Freeway, between Baldwin Avenue and Rosemead Boulevard, but work is expected to resume soon. The delay is due to inaccurate design plans that are being modified.
A bill that could generate an estimated $700,000 yearly in additional race track revenue for Arcadia cleared the State Assembly on Thursday and now heads for the Senate. The bill, AB 2780, seeks to authorize Arcadia and other cities to collect up to 1/3 of 1% of the total amount bet at a race track within their boundaries if the city were willing to forego any tax on admissions or parking. Arcadia has never charged a parking tax at Santa Anita Park. Arcadia city officials are neutral at this point, according to City Manager George Watts.
A study by the Department of Public Works suggested that the city yards (currently located south of Huntington Drive between 3rd and 5th Avenues) should be split up and moved to the south side of La Porte Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues.
Despite concerns from some local businesses that a Saturday farmers' market is hurting their sales, the City Council voted 3-2 to fund the market for another six months.
Three new laws have been recently passed by the City Council: 1. Noise - aimed primarily to curtail amplified sound. 2. Garage sales - must be held in a rear yard and be able to establish title to the goods. No signs may be placed on public property.
3. smoking - banned in theaters, etc.
Eighty signed petitions urging construction of a sound wall barrier from Santa Anita Avenue east to Fifth Avenue were presented at a recent Arcadia City Council meeting.
The Arcadia School Board accepted $26,365 in state funding to prevent alcohol and drug use among elementary school students. The money, available on 1/0/90, is being allocated under the Comprehensive Alcohol and Drug Prevention Education Program (CADPE), targeting 4th, 5th, and 6th graders in every district in California.
Arcadia had a job growth of 3 percent from 1991 to 1999, according to a report from the San Gabriel Council of Governments. Arcadia job growth netted out at 652.
Maps shift election shapes. Redistricting offers little for Democrats to fear but comes as retirements open doors. Final maps were released yesterday to redraw boundaries for California's elected seats in Sacramento and Washington DC. The 14-member independent California Citizens Redistricting Commission's maps set up newly drawn Assembly, State Senate and Congressional maps, which must be formally approved. The maps did little to loosen Democrats' hold on Los Angeles County's state and federal districts. On the State Senate level, where the Commission is tasked with creating districts with 1 million people each, state Senator Susan Rubio's vast San Gabriel Valley District 22 loses several heavily Asian American communities, including San Gabriel, Alhambra, Monterey Park, Rosemead and Arcadia. Those communities would join Pasadena, Glendale and Altadena in Senator Anthony Portantino's District 25.
Senate Bill 1287, introduced by State Senator H. L. Richardson, is designed to ease the method of bringing the formation of a new county to a vote. The article explains the present laws for such a vote and delineates how Senate Bill 1287 would streamline this procedure.