Monterey Hills | |
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Neighborhood of Los Angeles | |
Location within Central Los Angeles | |
Coordinates: 34°05′09″N 118°11′27″W / 34.08587°N 118.190876°W | |
Country | United States |
State | California |
County | Los Angeles |
City | Los Angeles |
Time zone | PST (UTC-8) |
• Summer (DST) | PDT (UTC-7) |
Website | http://www.montereyhills.org http://montereyhills.nextdoor.com |
Monterey Hills is a small, diverse, middle-class community within the city of Los Angeles, California located about 4 miles ENE of Downtown Los Angeles and about 3 miles from Pasadena off the 110 Freeway. It is surrounded by El Sereno to the southeast, Hermon to the north, Montecito Heights to the southwest and the independent city of South Pasadena to the northeast. Monterey Hills is part of the Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council (ASNC).
The Monterey Hills Redevelopment Project, adopted by City Council on July 29, 1971, includes the development of a well planned residential community that provides a variety of housing opportunities for families and individuals from all income levels and the preservation of the physical integrity of the site. Twenty-one condominium and rental complexes totaling 1,781 units have been built in the project area. In the late 1980s, some developments experienced varying degrees of soil settlement, and certain buildings showed signs of structural distress.
From 1989-1990 The Monterey Hills Development on whole was the subject of the longest civil jury trial in Los Angeles County History due to land subsidence. The Castro firm sued the massive 200-unit Eaton Crest project in Monterey Hills, a structure that was constructed on an unstable 100-foot-deep (30 m) landfill. The Los Angeles Times reported that the $62,500,000 award was one of the largest settlements to ever involve the city.
Lawsuits filed by homeowner associations against the Agency and others resulted in a Global Settlement Agreement in 1991. Necessary soil, structural and cosmetic repairs are now the responsibility of individual homeowner associations to be paid by the Global Settlement Fund. Subsequent to the Global Settlement, one additional project, the 16-unit Bradley Court Condominiums, has been completed.
Despite its rocky past, the Monterey Hills neighborhood has enjoyed steadily rising property values, thanks in large part to Southern California's Real Estate boom circa 2001–2005. Most, if not all, of the severe structural subsidence issues that previously afflicted almost all of the associations built in the area have since been remedied and continue to be updated and maintained from funds still held in trust from the Global Settlement fund.