NIMBYs step up your game, 'cause a group in Sierra Madre is putting your websites and lawsuits to shame, offering $10 million to the Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center for 20 acres of its developable land. It wasn't exactly their money—their proposal was for a ballot measure that would've raised the cash via some kind of tax on their fellow citizens—and it didn't work at all, but still that's some nice moxy. The Coalition to Preserve Mater Dolorosa and Stop the Housing Project apparently failed to consider how much Mater Dolorosa actually wanted to preserve these 20 acres (it has 88 total, dating back to 1924); the monastery turned the group down on its weird tax offer and is going ahead with proposals from eight different developers, reports the Pasadena Star-News. Now hear the wail of the thwarted NIMBY, whose only thought is of his fellow man: "It's not in the best interest of the neighbors or the community at large … Right now so many things are changing. We thought the one thing that wouldn't change is Mater Dolorosa." Mater Dolorosa, which is hoping to raise money "for the retirement and care" of its aging brotherhood, will probably build a bunch of single-family houses on the land, but work won't start for at least three years.
· Sierra Madre monastery declines $10 million offer for 20 acres of unused land [PSN]
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