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Monrovia announces $2 million hillside land purchase plan and wins regional funds for Peck Road Lake Park
Summary
City officials said July 7 the city has a verbal agreement to buy an 8-acre parcel at 347 Highland Place for $2,000,000 to add to the Hillside Wilderness Preserve and announced regional awards totaling roughly $19 million (and $32 million overall) for Peck Road Lake Park to improve water quality and active-transportation connections.
Monrovia officials announced on July 7 that the city has reached a verbal agreement to purchase an 8-acre property at 347 Highland Place for $2,000,000, a move they said would add the parcel to the Hillside Wilderness Preserve and prevent proposed residential development adjacent to the preserve.
The update came during the city manager’s report when a council speaker said the property owner agreed to demolish the existing single-family home and sell the land to the city using restricted open-space acquisition funds. “The owners have agreed to demolish the existing single family residence and sell the property to the city of Monrovia for $2,000,000,” the speaker said, adding that staff will pursue necessary acquisition steps including review by the Design Review Committee, the Planning Commission and a future council hearing.
Why it matters: The parcel provides access to the city’s Hillside Wilderness Preserve and the Big M trail system, and council members framed the purchase as preserving public access and protecting steep hillside open space from private development. Council said the acquisition will use funds already set aside for open-space purchases and that the next steps will publicly walk through environmental and planning reviews.
In the same report, council members and staff highlighted a major regional funding award for Peck Road Lake Park. Council members said the Rio Hondo Watershed Management Authority and LA County have secured approximately $19,000,000 toward the Peck Road Lake Park project and that the JPA has assembled nearly $32,000,000 in total funding toward the project’s estimated costs. The council described the awards as enabling hazardous-fuel-reduction work, water-quality improvements, drought-tolerant landscaping and a new multi-use and bicycle path to support active transportation.
Council members credited regional partners and named staff who helped secure the funding. One council member said the award “will help improve water quality in the region, increase our local water supply, install drought-tolerant landscaping at Peck Road Lake Park, and also install a new multi-use path and bicycle path for active transportation users.”
What’s next: City staff said they will bring formal acquisition items for 347 Highland Place back to the Design Review Committee, Planning Commission and city council for public hearings and required findings. For Peck Road Lake Park, the JPA and county will continue project design and permitting work as funding agreements and project schedules are finalized.
No formal council action to complete the Highland Place purchase was recorded at the July 7 meeting; council described a verbal agreement and committed to follow the normal public-review steps before any final sale or related land-use approvals.
