I was just about six months out of college covering a Pico Rivera City Council meeting for the Pico Rivera News when it was announced that Montgomery Ward, then a major department store chain, had given the city a letter of intent to open a store on Whittier Boulevard.
The significance of this announcement in January 1978 was that it was the first step in what had been a mostly unsuccessful effort dating back to the 1960s to redevelop the south side of Whittier Boulevard.
What brought this meeting – and the later successful redevelopment of Whittier Boulevard that I covered for the Whittier Daily News and my former paper – the Pico Rivera News, also known as The Green Sheet – back to my mind was reading about Pico Rivera city’s newest plans for the street.
The Multimodal Plan, adopted by the City Council on April 23 of this year, is designed to exceed state goals for complete streets, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, reduce vehicle miles traveled and enhance safety for vulnerable road user, City Manager Steve Carmona said in a staff report for Tuesday, when the council will be asked to look at the Historic Whittier Boulevard Vision Plan, which guides long-term development on the street.
The council will consider approving an amendment to the Historic Whittier Boulevard Multimodal Plan to include a so-called “Preferred Alternative” for the Pio Pico Park Bikeway Connector Project.
But it’s the bigger picture here is what I’m talking about. Whittier Boulevard has long been the key commercial area of the city. It’s evolution is no small matter in Pico Rivera.
The overall Multimodal plan focuses on improvements to walking, bicycling, and transit access. This will include bike lanes, extension of sidewalks, micro-parks, space for outdoor dining, and a facade program on the north side, Javier Hernandez, director of innovation and communications, told me in a Tuesday, Nov. 5 telephone interview.
This new plan should set Pico Rivera up for the next 30 to 40 years, much like the 1980s development did, Hernandez said.
The development that took place in the 1970s and 1980s spanned from Paramount to Boulevard to just east of the 605 Freeway. Whittier Boulevard also was widened and the city took control of the street from the state.
But when I returned in 1982 to the Pico Rivera News and later to the Whittier Daily News, the city was making little progress on redeveloping Whittier Boulevard.
The area was filled with trailer parks, small 1930s-style commercial buildings and many residents in older homes to the rear of the shopping area.
A story told me by Bill Schlapper, former editor of the Pico Rivera News and later long-time public information officer for the city of Pico Rivera, symbolized the city’s plight.
In the early 1960s, a sign was posted along Whittier Boulevard saying “new shopping center.” But as time passed by nothing happened and the sign withered, Schlapper said.
I never saw the sign, but I assume it was eventually removed.
But Montgomery Ward – it now is a Target – would open in the late 1989s and by the middle 1980s, city officials were negotiating with developers for other sites along Whittier Boulevard.
The big one was The Rainier Fund from Seattle, Wash., which would bring a 100,000-square-foot Home Depot and an Albertsons – now a Superior Grocer – as part of a 19-acre, then $22 million Crossroads Plaza shopping center.
Other agreements would bring another smaller center with a Standard Brands – now a Big 5 sporting goods store – and a 34-unit single-unit single-family housing development on the east end of the city.
But in acquiring the property for the developers, city officials found the price of land skyrocketing, costing in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Pico Rivera sold redevelopment bonds to pay for the acquisition of the land.
The money to pay for land increased, in part because of efforts to buy the land, David Caretto, then assistant city manager told me.
“Unfortunately, we’ve been bitten by our own success,” Caretto said at the time.
The city used the power of eminent domain to acquire shopping centers, trailer parks and many single-family homes.
The most controversial were a gas station and an auto parts store, which went to court to fight the city. Eventually, both settled for the city.
The use of eminent domain is no longer legal and, in fact, city redevelopment agencies no longer can collect money based on increasing property values under a new state law passed in the early 2010s.
Another controversy was over the demolishing of the Mt. Baldy Inn to make way for commercial and residential projects.
Built in 1927, the inn looked like a snowy mountain. The environmental impact report for the project said the Mt. Baldy Inn would qualify for the National Register of Historic Places.
But there was little support to save the inn, which was closed at the time because it was not in good shape.
“I hate to see it go,” the late former Pico Rivera Councilman Bill Loehr, then vice-chairman of the Pico Rivera History and Heritage Society, said at the time.
“However, it’s not really structurally sound,” Loshr said.. You can’t save everything.”
By the late 1980s, new modern shopping centers were operating on Whittier Boulevard.
City officials only focused on the south side because when the city formed the redevelopment agency, little of the north side was included, making the parcels too small to build big-box stores, such as Montgomery Ward and Home Depot.
Later, the city tried to fix that issue by seeking to expand the redevelopment, but the council backed off when thousands of residents signed a referendum opposing the redevelopment expansion.
So, now the city has embarked on another plan to redevelop Whittier Boulevard. But eminent domain won’t be included in this one.
This plan embodies our commitment to safer streets, reducing air pollution, and embracing a multimodal future for residents of all abilities,” Carmona wrote in the executive summary for the plan.
“This vision plan intends to be a model plan to inform the transformation of Whittier Boulevard into a vibrant, mixed-use, walkable neighborhood main street,” Carmona wrote.
There also are plans to improve the alleys on the north side, which have become notorious for illegal dumping, illegal drug use and homelessness, Hernandez said.
The southside of the boulevard already has had some changes with Home Depot closing and partially being replaced with discount retailer Burlington.
Dear readers: I am working on a future column about the widening of the 5 freeway from the Orange County border to the 605 freeway. I’m interested in reader thoughts on how it’s working for commuters. I invite you to email me with your thoughts at mike.sprague90601@gmail.com.
Mike Sprague is a columnist for the Whittier Daily News. He covered the region as a reporter for 45 years. He can be reached by mike.sprague90601@gmail.com.
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