Azusa Residents Reject Housing Development

Azusa residents have resoundingly defeated three measures that would have allowed 1,602 homes to be built on one of the world’s largest commercial nursery sites.

The vote came late Tuesday, more than six months after the City Council originally approved the so-called Rosedale project on a 3-2 vote.

More than 60% of nearly 4,000 voters rejected the project, a development by Upland-based Lewis Homes and the Monrovia Nursery. It would have covered the city’s last major stretch of agricultural land.

The nursery spent about $3 million to design the project and $200,000 to win public approval, but residents turned thumbs down on the plan because of worries that the new homes would bring added traffic and pollution. In doing so, they defeated three separate measures, to change the zoning, to ratify the project’s specific plan and to approve the development agreement between the city and builder.

“This project was all based on greed,” said Azusa Mayor Christina Cruz Madrid, a vocal opponent. “It wasn’t based on the community.”

Madrid led the push for a referendum--the city’s first in 15 years--after she was on the losing side of the vote at City Hall. She said the project would have put 3,200 cars onto city streets and destroyed cherished bluffs, streams and trees. The land had been zoned for agricultural use until January, when the City Council approved the project.

The owners of Monrovia Nursery want to sell the land and transfer operations, possibly to one of their more state-of-the-art sites in the San Joaquin Valley or Oregon. A spokesman for the nursery said the company is still committed to building homes on its property and might seek county approval.

About 90% of the property is in an unincorporated part of the county, said nursery spokesman David Linden. Linden said the nursery is considering simply building on the unincorporated territory with the approval of county planners.

Linden said the commercial nursery industry has changed so much since the 1950s, when the Monrovia Nursery moved to Azusa, that it no longer makes sense to operate on such an old facility. He cited problems with drainage as an example.

‘We have great respect for the mayor’s political abilities,’ said Linden. “But the opponents never seemed to set forth any alternatives that were viable.”