Newly chosen mayor Robert Harbicht outlines his goals for the city. The single accomplishment he most hopes to achieve during his term is completing designs, finding funding, and going out to bid on a contract to build a new City Hall.
Writer Richard P. McKee, a past president of Californians Aware, an open-government advocacy group, thinks Arcadia City Council closed session meetings about the "southerly parking area of the Santa Anita Park race track property" are suspect.
The Arcadia City Council is considering changes to fees charged by the city through the Development Services Department. One change might be a $25 fee for new business license applications. The fees may increase for design review of new commercial projects and appeals from an architectural review board to the Planning Commission. The General plan amendment fee may drop and tentative tract maps for condos may drop. The city plans to increase fines for code violations.
The City Council has approved a contract with Keyser Marston Associates to analyze city housing projects, including senior housing on the Marketowne site on Las Tunas and another senior project at the Elite Westerner site on Colorado Street.
City councils from Arcadia and Sierra Madre met in a joint session to discuss federal lobbying efforts, the Gold Line Rail project, water and open space.