Downtown getting facelift as it keeps small-town feel. (Spotlight On Sierra Madre).

TONI Buckner had never heard of Sierra Madre until a job opportunity brought her to this city of 10,500 tucked into the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains.

More than 20 years after she arrived, not much has changed. Director of library services at Sierra Madre's sole public library, Buckner has seen businesses in the downtown area come and go but the place looks pretty much the same. The heart of downtown, the intersection of Baldwin Avenue and Sierra Madre Boulevard, still goes. without a stoplight.

"(Residents) like the charm," said Assistant City Manager Margie Tucker. "It's very homey. It kind of just takes you back 25 years."

But there are projects in the works in and around Sierra Madre that are likely to bring significant changes to downtown, whether or not everyone likes it.

Downtown improvement

In June, the city kicked off a $1.5 million project to freshen up the look of downtown that will include installing new storm drains, benches, and drinking fountains, including some for dogs. The work is scheduled for completion by Nov. 1.

Sue Levoe, president of the Sierra Madre Chamber of Commerce, hopes the changes will help attract outsiders and get local residents to shop in the area.

"It was looking rundown. It was looking tired," said the longtime Sierra Madre resident. "This is going to be nice."

City Manager Tamara Gates says the downtown makeover won't end there. She plans to present proposals for an ordinance that more tightly governs the size and look of business signs in the city and a facade rehabilitation program to the City Council this fall.

The improvements will be introduced in November at a "grand re-opening" ceremony, which also will kick off Sierra Madre's first major public relations effort. The city recently hired L.A.'s Blaze Company to promote the area and some of its major events, such as the Wistaria Festival.

Known as "The Village of the Foothills," Sierra Madre is a 3.2-square-mile community dwarfed by Pasadena and Arcadia, which has the Santa Anita Race Track. Nearby Monrovia has a larger downtown with room to grow.

"You've really got to be intent on coming to Sierra Madre," Levoe said. "We're lost. People don't just happen upon us."

The city is known largely as a bedroom community, with a median income of $79,588, compared with $46,452 in L.A. County. Sierra Madre's media home price was $453,000 in July, according to DataQuick Information Systems Inc.

Sierra Madre's proximity to hiking trails made the area a destination point for fitness enthusiasts long before the city was incorporated in 1907. In subsequent decades, the municipality grew in large part because of the Red Car trolley, which stopped at the intersection of Baldwin and Sierra Madre.

Shops and restaurants began popping up around the trolley station, which was located in what's now known as Kersting Court, a triangle of land near the intersection of Baldwin and Sierra Madre that serves as the downtown's center. Today, many of the city's biggest events take place in Kersting Court, including the annual Wistaria Festival, which celebrates the city's 108-year-old, 250-ton wistaria vine.

Just as the Red Car helped bring people to Sierra Madre, many locals hope the opening of a Metro Gold Line station near the city's western border will do the same.

Transportation study

The city is preparing for the opening of the Sierra Madre Villa Avenue stop, set for July 2003, by re-evaluating its transportation system. The Sierra Madre City Council recently established a transportation commission to consider several issues; including changing bus routes and establishing a park-and-ride program to take people to and from the Gold Line station.

There are few vacancies downtown, but Levoe said that when someone does close up shop, it's sometimes difficult to bring in a new business.

She said some property owners make the mistake of thinking they can charge as much in Sierra Madre as they can in Pasadena or Monrovia. Whereas some locales in Old Pasadena will rent for up to $4 per square foot, only about $1 a square foot is "reasonable" for downtown Sierra Madre, Levoe said.