Around Alhambra: January 2024

Happy New Year 2024, Alhambra! Wishing you and your loved ones peace, prosperity, and health. I hope you all enjoyed the holidays.

We have a lot happening around our beautiful town. Alhambra’s zoning code update should be complete soon, giving our city a clearer path to economic development opportunities and more sensible building guidelines. The zoning code has not been updated in nearly 35 years.

Our city staff continues to work on the city’s Historic Preservation Ordinance, which we hope will be completed by the end of 2024. The work around this ordinance will give us an opportunity to identify many of the city’s structures with historic significance. It will also help inform us of the importance and benefits of preserving these structures for generations to come. A number of city-organized informational workshops will take place in 2024. I encourage you to attend these meetings and share your thoughts and feedback. This will affect us all for many years to come.

Planning for Alhambra’s new community center — which we hope will be built by July 2026 at the previous site of the locally famous Shorb Clinic — continues. As I’ve shared in previous publications, Alhambra received a very generous grant of $25 million from the State of California through the offices of Senator Susan Rubio and Assemblymember Mike Fong to build a new community center. The goal of this center is to provide much-needed multi-use space for all of

our residents, especially our seniors and youth, including classroom space, large meeting spaces, exercise rooms, outdoor meeting areas, and, of course, all of the latest available technology.

With everything taking place, I encourage you all to get involved and stay informed so that you can share your valuable feedback with city staff and the Council. As always, I am available to you at any time. Feel free to reach out with your comments or concerns. Whether it is a broken street light or clarification on more involved topics, I am always available to you.

Again, best wishes for a wonderful 2024. I look forward to meeting many more of you around town in the coming months.