Costly face-lift
By Mike Sprague | msprague@scng.com | Whittier Daily News
PUBLISHED: February 26, 2007 at 12:00 am | UPDATED: August 29, 2017 at 2:44 am
WHITTIER – The cost of implementing a proposed plan to renovate Uptown Whittier could range from $40 million to $73 million over a 30-year period.
It's one of many details that Whittier officials – from City Council to planning commissioners to staff – will be discussing over the next few months as they air details of the proposed plan.
The City Council and Planning Commission met Saturday in a joint meeting that council members said Monday gave them another chance to review the document.
"The plan is very good, but how are we going to pay for it?" Councilman Joe Vinatieri asked. "That's why the consultant got peppered. They still have questions to answer."
The plan – a 124-page document – lays out ways to renovate the Uptown area. It calls for new strategies to deal with parking, development, housing and the churches in the area.
It now will go to the Planning Commission for study and public hearings and eventually to the City Council.
The plan proposes up to $60 million for four parking structures and $6.8million for new trees on Greenleaf Avenue and Philadelphia Street.
It also proposes $1.3 million to narrow Hadley Street between Greenleaf Avenue and Painter Street, $1.2 million for a traffic circle at the intersection of Philadelphia and Painter streets and $1 million for a new park in the Uptown area.
Stefanos Polyzoides, partner of Moule and Polyzoides, which is writing the plan, told the council Saturday that the money won't all be spent at once and will be dependent on actual projects being built.
"You're not ready to pull out a check book and write a $75million check," Polyzoides said.
"This is not that kind of plan," Polyzoides said. "This is a pay-as-you-go plan. You only invest when you're certain that doing something will deliver a project to you and bring enough collateral development to continue with the plan as a whole."
Councilman Bob Henderson said he knows that the plan's calculations show the city should generate more than the cost through increased taxes.
"But the thing that is the killer is figuring out how the timeline lays out," Henderson said Monday.
"Do you come out with $15million on Day One and 15 years later you get your money back? That's a huge financial issue."
Mayor Cathy Warner said she agrees with her fellow council members that the plan still needs to be fine-tuned.
"The other thing we have to remember is that we've had some public input, but we still have to continue through the process that provides for more," Warner said. "I'm looking forward to considering what the public has to say."
Councilman Greg Nordbak said the key will be compromise.
"We're at the beginning of a very long race," Nordbak said. "In order for us to move forward, we will need input, compromise and working with each other."
mike.sprague@sgvn.com
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Mike Sprague
Mike Sprague started at the Whittier Daily News in April 1984. Since then, Sprague has covered every city in the Whittier Daily News circulation area, as well as political and water issues. Sprague received a bachelor's degree in communications and a master's degree in political science, both from Cal State Fullerton.
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