Monterey Park Ends Dispute With Builder, OKs Project

MONTEREY PARK —  After months of up-and-down negotiations and angry charges of racism, the city and a Chinese developer have reached an agreement that will allow a $20-million shopping center and bank complex to open without major restrictions.

In a 4-0 vote during a closed session Monday, the City Council approved a list of businesses that will occupy 80% of the project, which is in the final stages of construction at Garvey Avenue and Atlantic Boulevard, the city’s busiest intersection.

The city and the developer, William Yang, president of Tindo Valley Associates in Alhambra, have also agreed to work together to find tenants to fill the remaining 20% of the 90,000-square-foot retail and commercial center.

“I am delighted that we and the city were able to come to a peaceful solution which meets both of our objectives,” said Doug Ring, a Los Angeles attorney representing Yang. “I’m sure the project will be a positive addition to the city.”

‘Done Everything Possible’

“I’m very glad that it was settled. But I’m sad it took so long,” said Mayor Cam Briglio, who had supported the developer’s position since the dispute arose. “The developer has done everything possible to meet the city’s objectives.”

Other city officials refused to discuss the settlement until a press conference scheduled for today.

The mood of cooperation ends months of acrimony during which angry accusations of racism, intimidation and duplicity were hurled. At issue was what type of shops, department stores and restaurants would occupy the three-story center.

Among the city’s dwindling Anglo community, there is a belief that Monterey Park has become dominated in recent years by Chinese-oriented boutiques and mini-malls that serve only a portion of the city’s 61,000 residents. Longtime residents argue that these businesses have created little tax revenue, sizable traffic problems and tension between Anglos and Asian newcomers, whose arrival has transformed Monterey Park into what has been called the nation’s first suburban Chinatown.

A majority of the City Council agreed and wanted assurances from Yang that his project would not duplicate such development. City officials asked Yang to reveal the type and size of the prospective businesses. Without a list of businesses, officials said, they could not determine whether Yang was living up to earlier indications that he would bring in nationally and regionally known stores and restaurants that would serve the broader community.

But Yang, maintaining that the city was motivated by a racist desire to prohibit any new Chinese-owned businesses from locating here, refused to reveal either the identity or the ownership of the prospective businesses.

The city responded by taking steps to revoke a conditional use permit awarded to Yang in October, 1985.

Nancy Yang, a partner in the project, said revocation would have imperiled the project’s financial well-being by forcing Tindo Valley to scale back the number of tenants from 59 to nine. This would have made it virtually impossible to fill the complex because each tenant would have to occupy an average of 10,000 square feet.

Yang said the threat of revocation frightened several tenants, who in recent weeks indicated a desire to back out of the deal if the city withdrew the permit.

“We wouldn’t have been able to deliver what we promised,” Yang said. “They could have broken the lease and sued us.”

The agreement between the city and Yang, which was to be signed at today’s press conference, lists the businesses that have signed leases--thus ending the city’s threat of revocation. And by allowing the city to become a partner in choosing one remaining restaurant and five shops, the agreement attempts to reconcile two strikingly different views of what the project was supposed to bring to the city when it was conceived two years ago.

City officials contend that Yang’s representatives persuaded a wary City Council to approve the project by putting forward plans to bring in chain stores along the lines of Laura Ashley fashions and the Hungry Tiger restaurant.

Yang, a wealthy textile manufacturer in Taiwan before emigrating to the United States in 1977, said Tindo Valley never promised that it could obtain commitments from any particular tenant. He said that his only obligation was to attract quality businesses, and that this could be achieved by going after Chinese-owned department stores and restaurants.

Yang first applied for the conditional use permit in September, 1985, but his application was rejected by the city Planning Commission, which cited traffic, parking and congestion problems. The city requires such a permit for any development with nine or more tenants.

Yang then appealed the decision to the City Council. A public hearing was held a month later, during which the same environmental concerns were raised by citizens and council members.

Yang agreed to alleviate any congestion problems by providing valet parking. At the same time, Yang, represented by the Coldwell Banker real estate firm, indicated an intention to bring in nationally and regionally known department stores and restaurants to safeguard against the kind of mini-malls that have created a lot of stop-and-go traffic in the city. But the public record also shows that Yang never expressly promised he could deliver any one store or restaurant.

After six hours of hearings, the City Council in October, 1985, voted 4 to 1 to approve the conditional use permit and allow the project.

Soon afterward, Yang fired Coldwell Banker because he was unhappy with the firm’s list of prospective tenants. City officials claimed that the firing and failure to bring in nationally and regionally known stores were fundamental breaches of the permit conditions by Yang.

But Ring said his client was not guilty of any breach because no mention of the type or name of tenants is made in the conditional use permit. The permit--which Ring argued was the only binding agreement--lists only such items as the height limits on boxed trees and light poles and Yang’s agreement to widen the roadway to curb traffic problems.

Nancy Yang said Tuesday that the project should be completed in October. Half of the top floor has been taken by a posh San Francisco-based Chinese restaurant that food critics have called one of the best in the state. The restaurant has agreed to put $2 million into interior design, Yang said.

A department store with branches in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles will occupy much of the second floor. The first floor will contain the center’s anchor tenant, Omni Bank; a Taiwan-based department store; and a number of smaller shops, such as a boutique, jewelry store, ice cream parlor and skin care and beauty salon.