Attorney Sues Monrovia Again in Another Attempt to Thwart $120 Million Gold Line Project

An attorney with a history of filing lawsuits against Monrovia has sued the city again in another attempt to thwart the $120 million Gold Line maintenance yard that would encroach on his client's property.

Pasadena lawyer Robert P. Silverstein, who also has a pending and recently , alleges that Monrovia officials will breach a 2004 settlement agreement with his client that barred the city from using eminent domain to take his land if they sell city-owned property to the GLCA.

Silverstein's client, George Brokate, owns a strip of property along Evergreen Avenue that the GLCA would need to erect a maintenance yard for the Gold Line. Silverstein said during a special redevelopment agenct meeting Tuesday that the City of Monrovia has an obligation “not to cause another to bring an eminent domain action” against Brokate under a 2004 settlement agreement from another lawsuit.

The GLCA has to purchase 50 percent of the 24 acres it will need for the maintenance yard before it can move forward in acquiring the rest of the needed land. By selling about 12 acres of city-0wned land to the GLCA, Monrovia would effectively be allowing the GLCA to use eminent domain against Brokate, Silverstein argues.

"You cannot sell (land) to a party that will then use eminent domain against my client," Silverstein said at Tuesday's meeting.

Monrovia City Manager Scott Ochoa briefly addressed Silverstein's argument in the meeting, calling it "quite a bit of a stretch" that will have to be litigated in court.

Silverstein filed a separate lawsuit against the GLCA last month where he alleged that Gold Line officials failed to properly conduct an Environmental Impact Report for the maintenance facility.

He also lost an open records lawsuit against the city in February. In that lawsuit, he argued that the city violated the Brown Act in putting together a plan for the , a massive mixed-use development planned in anticipation of the Gold Line. Superior Court Judge Ann Jones was not swayed, ruling that the city "fully complied with both the letter and the spirit of the act."

Silverstein filed yet another lawsuit against the city on behalf of another resident that he won last year. The city had to for its Hillside Wilderness Preserve after a judge ruled in favor of Silverstein's client, Tom Suess, last September.

The maintenance yard at issue is a part of Phase 2A of the foothill extension.  This 11.5-mile extension of the Gold Line will add six stations in the cities of Arcadia, Monrovia, Duarte, Irwindale, and Azusa.

The Arcadia Station would be built on the northwest corner of North First Avenue and East Santa Clara Street, a short walk away from Santa Anita Park and Westfield Santa Anita Mall. A 300-car parking structure is planned to be built in conjunction with the station.