On Friday, December 15, 2006 the City of Arcadia sent an email titled, “City Dispels Rumor That Slot Machines Are Proposed For Santa Anita Park.” The email includes quotes from City Council members, and directly challenges the credibility of recent Arcadia First! statements that the proposed regional mall and Simulcast Center includes 240 slot machines at the racetrack. In support of these Arcadia First! statements, listed below are a number of referenced quotes from representatives of the racetrack, the City of Arcadia, and related newspaper articles.  read more »

Arcadia First!, A coalition For Sensible Growth, has submitted more than 750 letters and comment forms from Arcadians to the City identifying serious problems with the Revised Draft Environmental Impact Report (RDEIR) for the proposed regional mall on the southern parking lot of the Santa Anita racetrack. In addition to these hundreds of comments from Arcadians, Arcadia First! also submitted a 93 page comment letter on the RDEIR which is available at the group’s office and website (www.ArcadiaFirst.org). The letter has details about why the RDEIR is as bad as and even worse than the original version released a year ago.  read more »

Arcadia First!, A Coalition for Sensible Growth, is very pleased with both the level of participation and the unmistakably clear direction expressed by voters in the November 7, 2006 Arcadia election.  read more »

The June 15 article, "Hearing on Caruso Project Gets Another Go Around," is missing important points about the June 13th public hearing held at the Arcadia Community Center.  read more »

Arcadia First! is not surprised by the Racetrack developer's sudden decision to withdraw his Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) from further review by the City of Arcadia. Given the numerous deficiencies outlined by Arcadia First! and others in the more than 1,000 DEIR comment letters, it is the developer's only option to start all over again.  read more »

Arcadia First!, A Coalition for Sensible Growth, submitted comment forms and letters from hundreds of Arcadians to the City's Development Services Department today. These documents were submitted during the Scoping Hearing held regarding the Revised Draft Environmental Impact Report (RDEIR) for the Racetrack's proposed regional mall development. The community group mailed comment forms city-wide and offered residents an opportunity to personalize their responses, allowing them to participate in the scoping process for the RDEIR and register their support of, or opposition to, the almost 900,000 square foot development and regional retail mall proposed for the Santa Anita Racetrack property.  read more »

In time for this week's comment deadline, Arcadia First!, A Coalition for Sensible Growth, submitted comment forms and letters from more than 1,000 Arcadians to the City's Development Services Department. These documents were submitted in response to the Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) for the proposed Racetrack development. The community group mailed comment forms city-wide and offered residents an opportunity to personalize their responses, allowing them to participate in the DEIR process and register their support of or opposition to the 1.1 million square foot development and retail mall proposed for the Santa Anita Racetrack property.  read more »

Arcadia First!, A Coalition for Sensible Growth, announced today that it has grown to more than 3,600 members and supporters from all areas of Arcadia. In addition, the citizens' group has received dozens and dozens of donations from individual Arcadians in support of its mission to stop the proposed overdevelopment of the Racetrack property.  read more »

Many of our members have asked what role Arcadia First! might play in the upcoming Arcadia City Council elections. While we encourage everyone in Arcadia to participate in the April election, Arcadia First! will not play a role in funding the election of candidates to the Arcadia City Council since we chose to be a non-profit organization that is prohibited from doing so by law.  read more »

Arcadia First! submitted details of its membership including a listing of nearly 2,000 member names at the City of Arcadia's Public Scoping Meeting for the revised Race Track project yesterday. Jerry Durgerian, an Arcadia resident member of the group's executive committee, gave an overview of the group's concerns at the hearing.  read more »