Valley Boulevard ‘Nightmare’ Plan

In your story on development plans for Valley Boulevard in Alhambra (Times, April 2), Parker Williams, who is on the Valley Boulevard steering committee, proposes “a mixture of residential, commercial and retail” to include some apartment and condominium complexes.

As a 20-year resident of Alhambra, I have experienced the negative consequences of poor planning without regard to the impact on residents.

Alhambra is sufficiently saturated with condominiums and apartments in residential areas. As a result, our population has exceeded the maximum number that the city is equipped to handle. Our congested streets and overcrowded schools prove that. The school board has recently been involved in attempts to locate a site for a new high school, which has resulted in much controversy.

We do not need to have residential units in the commercial zones of our city. Picture a combination of residential and commercial-retail complexes on Valley Boulevard, and I guarantee you a parking and traffic nightmare worse than the ones we have on Fremont and Atlantic boulevards.

Who would want to live in these residential complexes? How many of those who support such a plan would themselves actually reside on Valley Boulevard? Valley Boulevard should remain a commercial-retail zone as our city forefathers envisioned.

GLORIA R. SANTILLAN

Alhambra