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New high density housing can tower over our homes.
Today
Illustrative concept
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Monterey Highlands · Monterey Park, California, USA · November 3, 2026
HOM ActDestroys OurNeighborhoods
Voters rejected housing on Corporate Center Drive in 2020;HOM act doubles down, adding high density housing and mixed-use buildings on Corporate Center Drive and Monterey Pass Road.
HOM act buriesMonterey Highlandsunder high-rise housingand mixed-use development
01 / We warned you in 2020
We defeated Measure II in 2020. Now sneaky City Hall is trying it again.
City Hall is ignoring the will of the people.
The recent Vacant-to-Vibrant committee defies the citizens who rejected high-density housing overlays in 2020.
See what’s at stake
How HOM actCan Affect Youand Yours
These are the nightmares we are facing. Vote NO on the HOM Actto preserve your views and quality of life.
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High rise development ruins the landscape and jams traffic.
HOM’s housing and mixed-use overlays would add development capacity, traffic, pollution, noise, and more car and transit trips to an already busy corridor.
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Illustrative concept
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What about YOUR tranquility and property values?
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Illustrative concept
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The golf-course hillside in the Corporate Center corridor is in play.
The Council discussed expanding it
More hillside parcels were proposed.
During the August 5, 2026 City Council meeting, the Council discussed adding more parcels around Luminarias and the former Monterey Hill Steakhouse to the HOM map. The discussion also made clear that HOM could provide mixed-use flexibility in addition to housing.
Those additional parcels were not adopted. The Council ultimately moved forward with the staff-recommended map, which already shades limited parcels beside the golf course.
Purple cross-hatching marks the HOM-eligible parcels on the hillside beside Monterey Park Golf Club. The main golf-course greens are not shaded. The staff-recommended map places limited adjacent parcels in the Corporate Center corridor into play; proposals to add more of the former Monterey Hill Steakhouse/Luminarias hillside were discussed but not adopted.
Concept images are advocacy visualizations—not City renderings, predictions of allowable height or depictions of an approved project.
Official City mailer · decoded
Pretty fountain.
Missing consequences.
The City calls HOM “optional” and “locally controlled”—but its mailer leaves out the overlay map, the affected corridors and the development standards voters are being asked to authorize.
No HOM map inside
One vote. Two City Hall steps.
Voters authorize HOM. The Council then writes the zoning rules and approves or rejects specific projects—without another citywide vote.
“Optional” does not mean harmless.
It is optional for property owners to pursue and for the Council to approve. Traffic, views, noise and service impacts do not stop at the overlay boundary.
The missing information matters.
No parcel map. No adopted height, density, setback or transition standards. No explanation of the 2020 vote rejecting Corporate Center housing overlays.
August 5, 2026 City Council meeting
Watch them redraw the map.
This is where parts of the Highlands were being carved up on the map. The discussion shows interest in expanding the overlay and taking land-use authority back to the Council from voter-approved rules.
02 / Read the map
Two neighborhoods overwhelmed with rampant over-development
Purple cross-hatching marks the commercial and industrial areas the HOM map identifies as eligible.
The land-use conflict
The HOM map does not match the authorized land use map the voters approved.
Measure JJ’s voter-approved 2040 map assigns Corporate Center to higher-intensity and high-rise offices, corporate headquarters, research-and-development facilities, hotels and hospitality, conference facilities, and supporting restaurants and retail. It assigns Monterey Pass Road to Innovation / Technology uses: research and development, light manufacturing, professional offices, service-commercial and entertainment uses, breweries, wineries and distilleries, and clean-technology and creative industries—not housing or residential mixed use. HOM’s own text says it must amend JJ, create a new designation allowing housing and mixed-use development that includes housing, and supersede conflicting voter-approved rules.
The HOM overlay has no legal force today. The City needs voters to change JJ before the Council can activate HOM or approve a project under it.Honor the 2040 plan through 2040. “2040” is the plan’s horizon—not a statutory moratorium—but it is the long-range plan voters authorized. It should remain intact unless voters themselves choose to replace it.
03 / Key changes to land-use policy
New on Monterey Pass.
Back on Corporate Center.
Measure II put housing overlays on Corporate Center. The people said NO housing overlays and defeated Measure II. Measure JJ removed them and established the voter-authorized uses through the 2040 planning horizon. Corporate Center was designated for higher-intensity and high-rise offices, corporate headquarters, research and development, hotels and hospitality, conference facilities, and supporting restaurants and retail. Monterey Pass Road was designated for research and development, light manufacturing, professional offices, service-commercial and entertainment uses, breweries, wineries and distilleries, and clean-technology and creative industries. HOM would layer a new housing and residential mixed-use designation over both districts. Those uses conflict with the voter-approved plan unless voters agree to amend it.
New territory
Monterey Pass Road
Approved use: Innovation / Technology
The voter-approved designation provides for research and development, light manufacturing, professional offices, service-commercial and entertainment uses, breweries, wineries and distilleries, and clean-technology and creative industries. The City currently markets Monterey Pass Road for light manufacturing.
HOM would overlay this district with eligibility for multifamily housing, townhomes, condominiums and mixed-use development that includes housing.Back again
Corporate Center
Approved use: Corporate Center
The voter-approved plan calls this a premier regional location for higher-intensity and high-rise offices, corporate headquarters, research-and-development facilities, hotels and hospitality, conference facilities, and supporting restaurants and retail.
HOM would overlay this voter-approved district with housing and residential mixed-use eligibility that the City removed after Measure II was defeated.HOM would authorize eligibility, not approve a particular project. A parcel overlay would still require Planning Commission review, public hearings and City Council approval.
What the measure would authorize
Housing eligibility near existing hillside neighborhoods
HOM would create a land-use designation allowing multifamily housing—including apartments, condominiums and townhomes—and projects mixing housing with other uses on mapped parcels. The mapped Corporate Center and Monterey Pass areas sit beside existing single-family hillside streets.
Fact check: The ballot measure would not approve a specific high-rise “by right.” It would establish housing eligibility; later parcel designation and project review would still require the procedures stated in the measure.
Read the HOM ballot text ↗Demand answers first
No impact study?
NO over-development!
Voters already decided the authorized land uses for these sectors in Measure JJ. Housing and residential mixed-use overlays over Corporate Center and Monterey Pass Road conflict with the decisions rendered by the people. Before voters are asked to undo that choice, the City should disclose what future implementation could mean for both school hills.
Views & scale
Taller residential and mixed-use projects could replace open sky, hillside views and the scale residents see today.
More car trips
More homes can mean more daily trips on Monterey Pass, Corporate Center, Floral, Fremont and neighborhood cut-throughs.
Transit gap
These are freeway-edge employment corridors, not rail-station districts. Where is the plan to prevent added car dependence?
Police & fire
More residents and structures increase service demand and hillside fire and evacuation complexity. Show the staffing and response-time plan first.
Schools
The map reaches the hills around Monterey Highlands and Brightwood schools. Disclose enrollment and capacity impacts before changing eligibility.
Infrastructure
Show the water, sewer, stormwater, road, slope-stability and evacuation capacity before voters give the Council this authority.
Property & character
Do not gamble with neighborhood expectations, views and traffic exposure without parcel-specific height, setback and transition limits.
Public safety
Population and activity increase calls for service. Publish a police staffing, prevention and response plan—not unsupported promises about crime.
Know the history
The City admitted they know what happened. They’ve heard the will of the people, but they’re doing their tricks anyway.
The strongest case uses the City’s words, not ours.
- March 2020
Voters rejected Measure II.
Measure II was defeated by Monterey Park voters. It included housing overlays in the Corporate Center Drive area.
“Measure II was not approved by the voters.” ↗
“This revised Plan will remove all housing overlays on Corporate Center Dr. which were included in the previous plan and which were rejected by voters in the March 2020 election.”
City of Monterey Park · October 2020 newsletter ↗ - October 2020
The City removed Corporate Center housing overlays.
The City told residents the revised plan removed overlays that voters rejected in March.
“This revised Plan will remove all housing overlays on Corporate Center Dr.” ↗
- November 2020
Voters approved revised Measure JJ.
Final result: 9,021 YES to 8,326 NO.
“This Measure is NOT the same as Measure II.” ↗
- November 2026
HOM returns—and expands.
It again identifies Corporate Center for housing eligibility and adds large stretches of Monterey Pass Road.
04 / A public-land choice
Why are we rebuilding prisons instead of houses on this land?
That question needs an accurate, current answer. Los Angeles County says the women’s jail was severely damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake. A separate site record dates its formal closure to 1997 and describes later use primarily as a filming location.
Closure date: two records
Damaged in 1994; formally closed in 1997
The County says inmate housing ended there after the 1994 earthquake. The Center for Land Use Interpretation identifies 1997 as the facility’s formal closure year.
Old prison-reopening proposal
A 2001 plan proposed 900 jail beds
California’s CEQAnet records a 2001 Sheriff’s Department proposal to renovate the existing structures and add parking so the facility could reopen for approximately 900 women. That 25-year-old record does not establish that construction is approved or underway today.
A housing alternative
Should the County evaluate housing here?
Before pursuing detention reuse, the County can publicly compare demolition, environmental remediation, infrastructure, emergency access, housing capacity and other public uses for this 23.18-acre site.
The bottom line
HOM asks voters to override the 2040 plan, put housing back on Corporate Center and divide our low-build homes with high-density high-rises.
05 / Verify every claim
Read the official record
Official Measure II election resultsVoter-approved Measure JJ — Ordinance No. 2198City’s certified Revised 2040 Land Use Element pageVoter-approved Land Use Policy Map (Figure LU-3)Approved land-use goals summarized in City Ordinance 2278City description: Monterey Pass light manufacturing corridorCity business profile: Los Angeles Corporate CenterCity Attorney’s official Measure JJ analysisCity’s October 2020 General Plan newsletterOfficial Measure JJ election resultsCity’s 2026 HOM ballot resolution and measure textOfficial City Council video — discussion of additional golf-hill parcelsLA County: Sybil Brand Institute history and post-earthquake statusCalifornia CEQAnet: 2001 Sybil Brand Institute upgrade proposalCenter for Land Use Interpretation: Sybil Brand Institute site record