Tuesday, February 26, 2019

Still Coming Soon!

Sometimes things don’t always go as planned. Sometimes, there are bumps in the road, or the road isn’t paved... 

Ok, it might feel like off-roading, however that does not stop us from getting to our destination here in Monrovia.


It has been a long road for the project at the corner of Chestnut and Magnolia (soon to be 239 West Chestnut Avenue). After years of the winding, sometimes bumpy road, the developers are closer to the finish line! Hurray! The project will be the product of a 16,349 square foot 10-unit industrial condominium complex and the first industrial condominium development to be built in the City since 1980!! (As astounding as it may seem, some of our Planners weren't even born in 1980!  On the other hand, some were already working here...talk about institutional memory!)  
The project was approved by the Planning Commission in April...of 2008! As you can imagine 11 years is a long time to be off-roading and it was probably not the smoothest ride. But sometimes there are turns, road blocks, flat tires, bad weather (Is that rain!???), the Tentative Tract Map needed some adjustment. Luckily, “new routes” were created and the “map” was updated...oh, yes, then there was that little "event"...The Great Recession.

Thankfully, this wasn’t a “time trial” and time extensions were granted to help “pave the road” to “drive it home.” Whew, what a journey!


This is a prime example that perseverance wins the day. The hearts of these developers are something to be admired, as they persevered to keep moving forward through the bumpy road knowing that the finish line was a great project located here in our wonderful City of Monrovia. Stay tuned and you might see some construction on the horizon!

Oh, and if you know of any small businesses looking for a place to call home...we know just the place.

Wednesday, February 13, 2019

A Completely Normal Blog That Is Not Written in Breaking News Format

HELLO MONROVIA!

We're trying to think up a signature greeting Good Morning Vietnam style, but we haven't come up with the right phrase just yet. "Hi guys" seems too casual. "Good Day to you Ladies and Gentlemen" seems too formal. "What's up, buddies?" seems too Paulie Shore circa 1998. Do you have any suggestions? We'd love to hear --- 


***** We interrupt this broadcast to bring you late breaking news...
This just in... In a stunning turn of events, the Monrovia Development Review Committee (DRC) has voted to change their regular meeting time from 2:00 p.m. every other Wednesday to 4:00 p.m. every other Wednesday! In a unanimous vote, the representatives of the City of Monrovia stated that it may better serve the community to move the meeting back two hours. We're live on the scene of this unprecedented move (actually, it's super precedented, but where's the dramatic effect in that?) to get the reaction of bystanders.

Reporter/Monrovia Planner (we wear many hats here):  Sir, can I get your reaction to the change of meeting time for the DRC?

Bystander #1:  I like the change. Sometimes it's hard to get away from work for a mid-day meeting.

Reporter:  Thank you, sir, that's great feedback... And you, Ma'am, what did you think about this change of time?

Bystander #2:  I also like it... it's really cool that the DRC is so committed to reviewing these projects and that they want to make it easier for all of us to be there.

Reporter:  Well, it seems like everyone here is on board with the change... young man, may I ask how you feel about the change in DRC's meeting time?

5-year-old Bystander:  What's DRC? Is that a dinosaur? My teacher likes dinosaurs and she said that we're going to the La Brea Tar Pits and look at the bones and maybe we can even see what it was like back when the dinosaurs were here.
Image result for dinosaur
Reporter:  Another enthusiastic response! Seems like everyone here feels like this is a good idea. Oh, and if you don't know what DRC is or what it does, check out this link https://www.cityofmonrovia.org/your-government/boards-and-commissions/development-review-committee. Since we've been utterly unable to drum up some controversy here, we'll now return you to your regular programming.



***** We now return to our regularly scheduled programming...


--- can come up with a standard way to end our blogs, too.

Editor's Note:  For the sake of full disclosure, all bystanders interviewed for this story are completely biased with the exception of the 5-year-old.