WPRA
West Pasadena Residents' Association 
Neighborhood Update
Saturday, March 7, 2015

Welcome

Founded in 1962, the WPRA is dedicated to maintaining the character of our neighborhoods and enhancing the quality of life in West Pasadena. 

   
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Chuck Hudson
Co-Editor 

 

View the latest and past issues of the WPRA's quarterly magazine, The News, which is mailed to more than 7,000 homes in West Pasadena.
Neighborhood Update
View past issues of this weekly WPRA eNewsletter, which is emailed each Saturday morning to more than 1,100 residents of Pasadena (and beyond).
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City Council and commission meetings
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MONDAY, March 9

City Council - cancelled

Finance task force  (first meeting)

5 p.m.

City Hall

Council Conference Room

100 N. Garfield Ave

On the agenda: Appointed by Mayor Bill Bogaard following the discovery of what is thought to be a multi-million dollar embezzlement scheme over 11 years, this seven-person committee was formed to:

  • Advise Council and the City Manager regarding financial administration and reporting
  • Review the integrity and effectiveness of the City's financial reporting and internal controls
  • Assess the City's internal audit function and the pros and cons of an ongoing citizen-based audit advisory committee
  • Make other recommendations that could strengthen the City's financial administration and internal controls and minimize risk

TUESDAY, March 10

6 p.m.
Hale Building
175 N. Garfield Ave.
Hearing Room #120
On the agenda: Concept design review for the redevelopment of the former Macy's portion of the Paseo Colorado shopping center, which includes demolition of the existing Macy's building and adjacent street-front tenant spaces, and construction of a boutique hotel (Hyatt Place) and a six-story mixed-use residential and commercial building; final design review of Ambassador Garden's final construction phase on the Ambassador West campus (this phase at the corner of W. Green and St. John streets) calling for demolition of the existing "administration" building and construction of a new four-to-five story, 78-unit residential project with subterranean parking.

WEDNESDAY, March 11

5:30 p.m.
Hale Building
175 N. Garfield Ave., Suite 420
On the agenda: Information about the Draft EIR for the General Plan update and Spring 2015 ArtNight

6:30 p.m.
Council Chambers, Room S249
100 N. Garfield Ave.
On the agenda: Information about the Draft EIR for the General Plan update
WPRA in motion
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CALTRANS RELEASES 710 DRAFT EIR, EXTENDS REVIEW PERIOD TO 120 DAYS

With Caltran's and LA Metro's long-awaited release of the SR-710 Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) and Statement (DEIS) finally occurring on Friday, March 6, and the news that Caltrans has extended to 120 days the review period, the WPRA team now begins the difficult task of analyzing the DEIR/DEIS and responding on behalf of west Pasadena residents. 

  • Number of pages: 26,625
  • Comment period: 120 days. Public comments are due prior to July 5

  • Public hearings:

    • Sunday, April 11, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
      • Map viewing: 10-11 a.m.
      • Public hearing: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
      • East Los Angeles College, Rosco Ingalls Auditorium
      • 1301 Avenida Cesar Chavez
      • Monterey Park
    • Tuesday, April 14, 5-9 p.m.
      • Map viewing: 5-6 p.m.
      • Public hearing: 6-9 p.m.
      • Pasadena Convention Center
      • 300 East Green Street
      • Pasadena
    • Third meeting date and location to be determined
  • Click here to view the DEIR/DEIS online
  • In Pasadena, copies of the DEIR/DEIS can be found at:
    • Pasadena Public Library-Central Library, 285 E. Walnut St.
    • Pasadena Public Library-San Rafael Branch, 1240 Nithsdale Rd.
    • Pasadena City College Library, 1570 E. Colorado Blvd.
    • Pasadena Library-Hastings Branch, 3325 E. Orange Grove Blvd.
    • Pasadena Public Library-Hill Avenue Branch, 55 S. Hill Ave.
    • Pasadena Public Library-Lamanda Park, 140 S. Altadena Dr.
    • Pasadena Public Library-La Pintoresca, 1355 N. Raymond Ave.
    • Pasadena Public Library-Linda Vista Branch, 1281 Bryant St.
    • Pasadena Public Library-Villa Parke Branch, 363 E. Villa St.
  • Submit written or electronic comments between March 12 and July 6:
    • Online: through the Caltrans public comment website
    • By U.S. Mail: to Garrett Damrath, Caltrans District 7, Division of Environmental Planning, 100 S. Main St., MS-16, Los Angeles, CA 90012

 

To raise the necessary funds to respond to the SR-710 DEIR/DEIS, the WPRA has activated its Neighborhood Protection Fund. Please consider donating. 

 

 

Change your clock, smoke alarms and batteries 

When you "spring forward" an hour on Sunday, March 8, consider:

  • Checking the batteries in your smoke alarms and ensure they are working by activating the safety test button
  • Checking the batteries in your emergency flashlights
  • Practicing your family's emergency escape plans and making sure your children recognize the sound of your home's smoke alarms 

Pasadena votes: March 10
City of Pasadena voters on March 10 will cast ballots to elect a new Mayor, Councilmembers for Districts 1, 2, 4 and 6, and members of the Pasadena Unified School District Board of Education Districts 2, 4 and 6.
 

BREAKING NEWS: La Loma Bridge closure meeting set for March 18
District 6 Councilmember Steve Madison and representatives from the City Public Works Department will convene a special public meeting on Wednesday, March 18, 6:30-7:30 p.m., at La Casita Del Arroyo, 131-199 South Arroyo Blvd., to inform residents of the sequence of events, nature of the work and ways in which the staff has considered neighborhood needs as the La Loma Bridge is retrofitted, renovated and restored at a cost of $16 million. The project is slated to begin in April of this year, when the bridge will be closed to all traffic. During construction, all traffic will be detoured to either the Colorado Boulevard Bridge, to the north, or the San Rafael Bridge, to the south. Public Works is creating a traffic management plan to assist the flow of traffic. The bridge is schedule to reopen in the winter of 2016. For updates on the project, visit the City's website.

 

Mills Act applications now being accepted

The Application Submittal Period for the Mills Act program in Pasadena closes on Monday, May 4. The program offers a financial incentive to encourage rehabilitation of historic properties. As a result, owners may receive a substantial reduction in their property taxes. Applications are processed through the Office of the City Manager and administered by the Planning & Community Development Department. Typically 15 residential properties and five commercial properties are selected per year. (Source: Pasadena Heritage)

 

Interim moratorium precedes adoption of new city-wide single-family home development standards to address "mansionization"

City Council recently approved a 45-day development moratorium to prevent demolition and construction in the Lower Hastings Ranch neighborhood while City staff creates new development standards for single-family residential construction across the city. Council action was prompted by recent single-family home construction on S. Los Robles Avenue and Glen Summer Road, which some consider mansionization. Mansionization is defined by the City of Los Angeles' Planning Department as "new construction or additions on residentially zoned lots that are out-of-scale with the surrounding neighborhood, but which comply with the current City zoning regulations." Pasadena Heritage notes in its most recent newsletter that "Our great city is rich with quality urban spaces and historic architecture of high integrity, qualities that define Pasadena and make it the desirable location that it is today. Infill construction that radically disrupts this context impacts the entire community. The moratorium is a step toward protecting undesignated but intact neighborhoods that demonstrate consistent character." (Source: Pasadena Heritage) 


 

Neighborhoods in motion
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The Rose Bowl Aquatics Center invites the public to attend its Community Day event from 2 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, March 7. The event will be held in the Arroyo Room on the second floor of the Aquatics Center Clubhouse, 360 N. Arroyo Blvd.


LACFCD releases PEIR for the Enhanced Watershed Management Program (EWMP) 

LA County Department of Public Works has just released the Enhanced Watershed Management Programs Draft Program Environmental Impact Report (PEIR) on behalf of the Los Angeles County Flood Control District. The program is being developed to improve water quality of rivers, creeks and beaches throughout LA County. All comments must be made by Monday, March 9. Copies of the report are available for review at more than 40 public venues. Visit the LA Public Works website for a list of these locations and to view the report and comment online.

 

Celebrate the best of Pasadena's creative, artistic community during the 2015 ArtNight Pasadena from 6-10 p.m., on Friday, March 13. Admission is free to 17 exceptional arts and cultural venues, which will feature a wide array of dance, music, visual arts and other activities for people of all ages and walks of life. Free City shuttle buses will provide transportation to each location.

The public has until Tuesday, March 24 to review and comment on the Draft General Plan Update and the associated Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR). The Draft General Plan Update includes major revisions to the Land Use and Mobility elements. City commissions will review the documents through June, while City Council will review the documents and commission comments in July.

 

Pasadena Heritage hosts Spanish Colonial Revival house tour

On Sunday, March 29, docent-guided tours will be given at selected Pasadena and La Cañada private residences for Pasadena Heritage's "Spectacular Spanish!" Spring home tour. The tour is self-driving, and visitors will tour four to five privately owned homes. A lecture preceding the tour on Thursday, March 26, at the Pasadena Playhouse, will feature architect Michael Burch.

 

Rose Bowl invites the public to its first-ever Easter egg hunt

Enjoy fun for the whole family on April 4, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., with games and activities such as teen and senior scavenger hunts, face painting, live entertainment, balloon animals, a trackless train, food, pictures with the Easter Bunny, Stadium tours and more. Children will hip-hop their way onto the Rose Bowl field through more than 40,000 eggs in search of the lucky golden egg. Admission is free. Stadium tours will be offered at special resident rate of $5.

 

Pasadena Heritage invites Pasadenans to a presentation on Wednesday, April 8 at the Ganahl Lumber Lecture Space, 3003 E. Colorado Blvd., exploring "form-based" zoning codes. Architect Stefanos Polyzoides (Moule & Polyzoides), consulting professional planner Tony Perez (Opticos), and urbanist Juan Gomez-Novy (Sargent Town Planning) will discuss how conventional zoning has caused countless community battles over proposed development in Pasadena. Conventional zoning defines zones by use, is car centric and entitles the volume of new buildings in mathematical, rather than visual terms. By contrast, form-based codes are place-based and use urban and architectural forms (rather than the separation of uses) as a key organizing principle. The presentation will answer many related questions, including what is the potential of establishing a form-based code for Pasadena? Would it produce a functional and vital architecture and urbanism? Would it be enforceable, applicable everywhere and easy to use? How would existing codes be translated into a FBC? Tickets are $25 for non-members of Pasadena heritage, $20 for members and $12 for students with identification cards.
 

Mayor Bill Bogaard Celebration Day

The public is invited to join Mayor Bill Bogaard and his wife, Claire, from 3 to 5 p.m. on Saturday, April 25, for a casual afternoon of music, art, children's activities, food trucks and more to celebrate Bill's 16 years of service as our first city-wide elected Mayor. The event will be held in Centennial Square at City Hall. Share your personal reflections of "Moments with the Mayor" in letters or notes and drop them off at any public library in Pasadena prior to the celebration, write in a special memory book during the celebration or send your reflections send your reflections electronically.

 

Pasadena appoints new Health Officer

The City of Pasadena has appointed Dr. Ying­Ying Goh as the City's new Health Officer. Prior to her new role, Dr. Goh served as Pasadena's Interim Health Officer from May 2014 to Jan. 2015.

Editor's top news picks
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Pasadena Council finally set to vote on 710 freeway extension

"The Pasadena City Council will finally take an official position on extending the Long Beach (710) Freeway by sometime in April. The decision came after [District 6] Councilmember Steve Madison requested the Council place a discussion item on Monday's agenda in response to a notice from the Metro announcing the imminent release of an environmental impact report (EIR) on the project." Pasadena Weekly

 

Holden reacts to Caltrans' decision to extend Sr-710 freeway DEIR review period

"Assemblymember Chris Holden (D-Pasadena) reacted to the extension of the public comment period for the 710-freeway draft environmental impact report." Pasadena Now

  

Rose Bowl could be temporary option for NFL teams while stadium is built

"With the San Diego Chargers and the Oakland Raiders the latest teams to move toward reclaiming Los Angeles as an NFL city, the question is: Where would they play while their proposed $1.7 billion stadium in Carson is built? The Rose Bowl could be a possible temporary home for an NFL team." LA Times

 

Leisure
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Looking for other ways to entertain or educate yourself and your family? 

For current events around the area, we encourage you to visit our local news outlets. Click on the publication title to visit that publication's events section (alphabetical order).

Attend WPRA board meetings each month 

Monthly WPRA board meeting dates and locations are on the WPRA website. Click on the headline above or visit our website and look under "Meetings and Events."


The WPRA needs you ... 

If you'd like to serve your community and do it with a group of your neighbors who are equally dedicated, the WPRA encourages you to join your neighborhood residents' association. If you live within our service area, we'd welcome your help. 

  • Got the local news bug? Just curious about your city (and would like to share news with 1,000 or so of your closest friends), consider serving as a co-editor of Neighborhood Update. It will only take a few hours a week (on your own schedule) in the month or two a year in which you'd serve. We'll train you.  
  • We have lots of opportunities to serve on one of our many committees:
    • Land use and planning
      If you care about how we use our land  
    • Education
      If you want to help save public education for West Pasadena  
    • Open space & conservation
      If you care about preserving open space and conservation of land and resources 
    • Membership
      If you'd like to help us continue to build our membership so we can do more  
If you'd like to chat about ways we could help you become more involved or, more likely, more effective (by helping us), send an email to WPRA President. Tell him about your interests.   
To learn more

Visit wpra.net and "like" our Facebook page  

To submit information for the Neighborhood Update, send it to update@wpra.net. 

 

Joseph Stoddard's watercolors: The WPRA is grateful to local artist Joseph Stoddard, who has generously allowed us to display his watercolors in our quarterly newsletter, The (WPRA) News; on the WPRA website; and in this publication. To explore Mr. Stoddard's work, visit josephstoddard.com.