Residents of Timberline came out Thursday night to protest Mount San Antonio College’s plans for a new $45 million parking structure across from their homes in Walnut.
The community college says the five-story garage will solve some of the parking problems at the bustling campus. Neighbors claim it will cause more traffic, crime and pollution.
Mt. SAC presented plans for a large parking garage with 2,200 parking spaces. The structure would be sited on the current 600-spot parking lot along Mountaineer Way at the north-west edge of the campus.
The proposal brought out the ire of homeowners across the street.
“We have been impacted by Mt. SAC’s quest to become the biggest community college in California. You keep adding, adding and adding students,” complained Linda Hiti.
Hiti said Mt. SAC students park in front of their homes on Granite Wells Drive, leaking oil and leaving their garbage.
“Walnut has been a good neighbor, but you keep growing to the detriment of the city,” Hiti concluded.
Mt. SAC President Bill Scroggins disagreed: “California is growing, growth is going to happen.”
Scroggins recalled growing up in La Puente, when they had walnut groves and open space. That’s long gone as the local communities grew.
“The purpose of this meeting is to hear your concerns,” Scroggins said. “Concerns that we have taken into consideration.”
Ellie Anzur of Stockton Pass Road asked if the college would consider busing students to the campus instead of building more parking.
“You have 60,000 students and so many cars, my neighbors are wearing masks when they go for a walk,” Anzur said. “Why not have pick-up spots in Pomona and El Monte to bus the students here. Let them park their cars at home to cut the pollution.”
Scroggins noted the college has extensive plans to cut its pollution. The Mt. SAC president said they already offer free bus passes to students.
“We can’t force students to take buses, but we added 6,000 bus riders this year” Scroggins said.
Many questioned putting the huge garage on the northern edge of the campus. They want to put the garage out by the football stadium.
Mt. SAC’s top administrator said they couldn’t make students walk 30 minutes to get to class or ride a bike from the garage as one resident suggested.
Senior project manager Gary Gidcumb had explained earlier that one of the planning principles had been to put the parking near the classrooms. The new garage abuts the instructional buildings on the western half of the campus behind the bookstore.
Other residents wanted the garage moved to the southern part of the campus. But Scroggins and Gidcumb noted this would only exacerbate the traffic congestion at the busy intersection of Grand Avenue and Temple Avenue.
That congested intersection has already been widened, but remains a bottleneck. Gidcumb said the plan was to spread the traffic out by putting the garage on Mountaineer and Edinger.
“We can’t put the structure where the worst traffic is,” Scroggins said. “It doesn’t work in any other reasonable place.”
The Mt. SAC officials said the college has even designed the parking structure to preserve the views of the nearby homes.
“The structure follows the contour of the land. It’s two stories on the eastern side, three stories in the middle and five stories on the western edge,” Gidcumb said, as residents studied a scale model of the parking garage.
The senior project engineer said only two stories would show above ground level. The college will have to excavate ground to put three stories below the grade.
When residents threatened legal action to stop the project, Mt. SAC officials told them that the necessary permits had already been obtained and the environmental impact report approved.
“We’ve done due diligence on this project,” Scroggins concluded, telling residents that many experts had studied the project.
Mt. SAC wants to begin construction in May of 2015. Construction will take from 18 to 20 months.
The project will be paid with the $353 million generated by the passage of Measure RR bond in November 2008.
That measure was approved by 70 percent of the voters.
