Language Changes proposed by Responsible Land Use:
August 16th 2018, we proposed changes to Diamond Bar's General Plan elements:
• Land Use
• Economic Development
• Resource Conservation
• Public Facilities
• Community Health and Sustainability
• Safety
Our proposed changes are here.
(2,900kb file)
September 10 2018, we sent the GPAC Committee an addendum to the above document.
The addendum explained the What and Why behind our legal and practical reasons for the proposed language changes.
See it here.
(630kb file)
September 13, 2018, we proposed changes to the following elements:
• Circulation
• Community Character and Placemaking
See them here.
(1,300kb file)
October,29 2018, our report outlines problems with the proposed Transit Oriented Development near the Metrolink station.
High density housing in the wrong places creates more car trips, not less.
The TOD area is the wrong place for high density housing. It will make unbearable traffic congestion in the area even worse.
Read our full report here.
(1,500kb file)
Calculating additional vehicle trips per day.
Here's how we arrived at the additional number of vehicle trips per day near the Metrolink station.
Proposed General Plan language designates that area as a "Transit Oriented Development" or TOD:
• The proposed TOD's size is 70 acres.
• Proposed housing density for the TOD is 30 units per acre.
• The Federal Highway Administration estimates that each household is responsible for between 9.6 and 10.2 vehicle trips per day.
• Doing the math, 70 acres x 30 units per acre x 9.6 vehicle trips per day per household comes out to 21,000 additional vehicle trips per day for that area.
Diamond Bar General Plan Update News.
We are now in the General Plan Draft phase, where the city has proposed General Plan language.
A city's general plan is a vision about how a community will grow and evolve over the next 20 years, hopefully reflecting community priorities and values while shaping the future.
Large portions of our proposed language changes (see sidebar) have been approved by the GPAC..
We still have two major areas of concern:
• The city's proposed language has no plan for minimizing or mitigating Diamond Bar's horrible traffic congestion.
• In order to keep Vehicle Miles Traveled to a minimum, any area of high density housing needs vital servicess such as shopping, medical care restaurants and other types of services within walking distance. These types of services are missing in the proposed TOD area.
• Hundreds more car-centric households in the proposed TOD area would add thousands of car trips a day to an area already choked by congestion.
• TOD areas need to be near a transit area with a high volume of trains that connect to essential services. The Metrolink Industry station currently has only 6 trains each way a day into and back from Union Station. As the Metrolink tracks are always busy with a high volume of freight traffic, no opportunity to increase the number of trains each day can be expected.
• A TOD area needs to be walkable. The high volume of vehicular traffic on Brea Canyon and Lemon Avenues is not a pedestrian friendly environment.
• In order to implement the TOD as proposed, a vibrant light industrial area with middle class jobs and many small businesses would need to be destroyed.
We need everyone to stand with us.
Because we either pay with our time and involvement now, or we pay forever with:
• Even worse congestion than we currently experience.
• Loss of our remaining natural open space, undeveloped hillsides and ridges.
• Loss of what's left of our quality of life, and our sense of Country Living..
Please get involved. Diamond Bar's future is literally at stake.