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01-10-2012 - General Plan Amendment No. 11-01Zone Change No. 11 - No 2 attach 22 (2).pdfNovember 28, 2011 Office of the City Clerk City Council West Covina City Hall 1444 West Garvey Avenue West Covina, CA 91790 RECEIVED DEC - 1 .2011 CITY CLERK'S OFFICE CITY OF WEST COVII,L. Re: General Plan Amendment No. 11-01, Zone Change No. 11-01, Precise Plan No. 11-02, Tree Removal Permit No. 11-04, -Variance No. 11-08, Tentative Tract Map No. 71595, Mitigated Negative Declaration of Environmental Impact Dear Honorable Mayor and members of the City Council: CGM Development, Inc. ("CGM") respectfully submits by way of this letter an appeal of the Planning Commission denial of the above subject resolutions at its public hearing held on November 22, 2011 (Agenda Item - Cl). Although CGM respects the decision of the Planning Commission, CGM believes that merits of the Parkway Corporate Center project is worthy of consideration by the City Council. In summary, the proposed Parkway Corporate Center project would build a high quality 55,000 square feet and four-story professional/medical office building at the intersection of Garvey Avenue and West Covina Parkway. The office building would consist of 39-condominium units that would afford ownership opportunities to members of the medical profession, something that is generally lacking in the region. As with homeownership, CGM believes that the condominium ownership would yield pride in ownership of the development and thus ensuring that the property is maintained at a high standard many years in the future. CGM also believes that the Parkway Corporate Center project would benefit the City, the County and the library in the following matter: • Job creation — The development is anticipated to generate 180 permanent jobs and 114 construction jobs. In today's tough economic climate, CGM believes that the number of jobs created by the project would have a significant benefit to the City and its residents. • Property tax — The development would generate approximately $183,000 annual tax revenue. • General Plan — The project is consistent with the City General Plan's goal to "develop and expand the local economy in order to create new employment opportunities, attract new investment and strengthen the tax base of the City." 17528 East Rowland Street, City of Industry, CA . 91748 Tel 626 913 8939 Fax 626 913 1911 www.cgmdevelopment.com Office of the City Clerk — City Council November 28, 2011 Page 2 • Services — West Covina residents .will have access to new medical services. The project will attract new doctors, dentists, medical specialists, as well as other professional services including accountants and insurance brokers. • Library parking — The development will construct .a new 129-space library parking lot at no cost to the County or the City. Because the new library parking lot will be on County's property, the County will realize annual savings as it would no longer need to lease the 100- parking spaces from the City. In addition,.the new 129-space parking lot will be owned by the County and made available to the library patrons in perpetuity. CGM understands that the current 100-space library parking lot is leased from the City and the lease will expire in the year 2023. CGM believes that the County and the library will significantly benefit from the new 129-parking lot because it will be provided at no cost and also because it will ensure perpetual secure parking amenities to the library patrons. In addition, CGM has designed a gate and validation system for the new library parking lot at the request of the County. By incorporating the validation system, the library will be able to better control the use of the parking lot for its patrons. The gate and validation system are also provided by CUM to the County at no cost. • Office parking lot — The 218-space office parking lot will be made available for public parking, including visitors to the Civic Center and the library. The development will not limit or restrict use of the office parking lot. The project has also designed accessible parking spaces adjacent to the library building and these spaces will be available to the library patrons. Additionally, traffic and parking study was conducted as part of the environmental review process. According to the study, which analyzed the project using the Institute of Transportation Engineers ("ITE") guidelines, the office project is sufficiently parked requiring 177-parking spaces. Therefore, the office development project would provide sufficient number of parking spaces according to parking professional standards. • Landscaping — The development will replace the trees proposed to be removed on a one to one basis, and additional trees will be planted. CGM will also install high quality replacement trees. Once these trees mature, CGM believes that the Civic Center will be aesthetically pleasing to the surrounding area. It should be noted that lawn area directly in front of the library entrance, between the library and the City Hall building will remain. There may be some confusion by the pUblic that this area will be removed, but this is not the case. If the City desires, the replacement trees may also be installed in this area. Therefore, CGM respectfully requests that the City Council consider its proposed Parkway Corporate Center development for the upcoming scheduled hearing on December 20, 2011. In the meantime, if there are any matters or concerns, please contact me directly at (626) 354-8843. Sincerely, Peichin Lee\--,1)-residairt an CGM Development, Inc.