I can see by the rising stats for this blog that folks must be mighty curious about what happened at Wednesday night's special meeting of the Montebello Community Redevelopment Agency and City Council.
Truth be told, I'm still puzzling over what was so special about this meeting. Perhaps I am mistaken about what actually takes place at "budget" meetings but don't such things usually involve a lot of numbers, charts, and spreadsheet thingys? Well, this particular meeting looked more like a high school pep rally than a stuffy ole budget meeting. Go teamwork!
Anyhow, maybe Wednesday night was more like the "opening day ceremonies" to the real "meat and potato" budget meetings the city council has agreed to hold over the next month or so. We'll have to wait and see.
If you missed Wednesday's meeting, you might be able to catch it on MTB TV 3 Community Channel or you can always go down to city hall to purchase your own dvd copy of any meeting.
Now for folks who might've been worrying their heads over how the Montebello hills fit into this puzzle, there was some good news and some not-so-good news:
The Good News
Several local folks spoke in defense of keeping the Montebello hills free from development.
The Not-So-Good News
The Montebello Hills Specific Plan (MHSP) wasn't mentioned in the agenda or in any of the paperwork that was passed out at the meeting but like one of those annoying jingles that get stuck in your head, the kind you find yourself humming out loud when you're not paying attention, the MHSP must've been in the back of somebody's mind because it found a way to "sneak out."
One keen-eyed feller from the Save the Montebello Hills Task Force commented on a page in the 32 page handout, "City of Montebello Budget Presentation, April 6 2011, Prepared by Department Heads." The page in question has the words "Development Project Revenues" written at the top along with two columns listing the "pros" and "cons."
No specific "development projects" are named in the handout but in the bottom right corner of the page is a drawing of three little houses arranged like this:
Now doesn't that look suspiciously like they were built on the side of a hill? Uh, somebody's Freudian slip is showing!
Well, once the cat was outta the bag, the city's planning director admitted the MHSP is still in among the "active" development projects the city is considering.
Well, shucks, we all knew that! I mean, we're still waiting for the Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR) aren't we?
It's a good thing folks in Montebello are paying attention.
Daisy Mae
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