'Residents 1, Metro 0'
With Avenue 64 off the table, West Pas residents now say ‘no freeway anywhere’
Pasadena Weekly -- http://www.pasadenaweekly.com/cms/story/detail/residents_1_metro_0/11445/
By
André Coleman
08/29/2012
Even after the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation
Authority (Metro) last week took proposed plans off the table that would
have extended the Long Beach 710 Freeway through their neighborhood,
some local residents say the fight against the freeway remains far from
over.
On Monday, homeowners from one affluent
West Pasadena neighborhood said they oppose alternative plans by Metro
and Caltrans to build a tunnel that would start in Alhambra and end in
Pasadena, near Huntington Hospital.
“We want the 710 nowhere
to be found,” San Rafael Neighborhoods Association (SRNA) Vice President
and local businessman Robin Salzer told the Pasadena Weekly. “There is
no financial benefit to this going anywhere through Pasadena. It never
should have been proposed, and it never should have gotten this far.”
The
association was created specifically to oppose two alternatives being
considered by the two transit agencies. One called for the creation of
two 4.5-mile tunnels, approximately 100 feet blow the surface of Avenue
64, a two-lane street that provides a southern route from Pasadena to
Highland Park, Garvanza and other neighborhoods in northeastern Los
Angeles.
The other plan called for turning the
largely residential street into a six-lane highway from the 710 terminus
in Alhambra to the Ventura 134 Freeway. Both options, if approved,
would have ultimately led to the destruction of hundreds of area homes.
Last
week, Metro narrowed the number of proposals for the extension from 12
to five, taking those two options out of the running. The remaining
proposals include only one freeway route — the tunnel from Alhambra to
Pasadena.
Other options still on the table include: creation
of a light-rail route from East Los Angeles to South Pasadena; creation
of a bus line from Alhambra to Pasadena via Fair Oaks Avenue; 50 traffic
improvement projects; and encouraging ride sharing. The options will be
examined as part of an environmental impact study currently being
prepared by transit planners.
Metro staff was scheduled to discuss the options Wednesday at its technical advisory committee meeting in Los Angeles.
In
an Aug. 23 statement, Metro attributed public opposition to the plans
as one of the reasons the agency removed the proposed routes along
Avenue 64 from consideration.
“Metro staff,
working in conjunction with Caltrans, is recommending that the list of
alternatives being studied for the SR 710 north-south connection from
Alhambra to Pasadena be pared from 12 to five for further environmental
study based on operational, engineering, financial and environmental
considerations as well as public input,” according to the statement.
Salzer
said the neighborhood was steadfast in its conviction to stop the
extension. For several weeks, signs opposing the 710 extension plans
were posted on the front porches and lawns of nearly every home in the
affected neighborhoods.
“I said this would create
a fury unlike anything ever seen in Pasadena, and it did,” said Salzer,
who, along with his wife, former Councilwoman Ann-Marie Villicana, is
relocating a historic home in an area of San Rafael in the path of the
now-scuttled connector.
“The neighborhoods won.
We took it to the streets,” said Salzer, who also owns Robin’s BBQ &
Woodfire Grill. “It’s not completely over, but if I was scoring, I
would say residents 1, Metro 0.”
Salzer was
correct: Opposition to the Avenue 64 was virtually universal, unlike
anything seen in Pasadena’s recent history. More than 300 angry
residents attended a Town Hall meeting at the Church of the Angels in
Pasadena last week, one day before Metro made its decision. Other
meetings drew similar large turnouts, including an Aug. 13 Pasadena City
Council meeting at the Pasadena Convention Center attended by more than
700 people — nearly all opposed to Metro’s plans.
That outrage continued simmering well into this week.
On
Monday, El Sereno residents and members of the No 710 Action Committee
showed up in full force at a Los Angeles City Council Transportation
Committee meeting to protest the proposed extension. The committee voted
unanimously to oppose any form of a freeway extension. The full LA City
Council followed suit Tuesday.
“We are going to
fight all the routes. We want to continue to work with surrounding
communities like Glendale and Highland Park,” said San Rafael Residents’
Association President Ron Paler. “Everyone is affected negatively by
any 710 Freeway extension. When your quality of life is in jeopardy and
you find out about a freeway 12 weeks before a decision is made, this
came out of the blue for the majority of people who never received
notification from Metro or the city. We are awaiting the review of the
final recommendations.”
Local politicians,
however, are not waiting for the review. In published reports, Los
Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich called the Avenue 64 proposal
senseless, adding that it never should have been on the table.
Last
week, Assemblyman Anthony Portantino (D–La Cañada Flintridge) called
for an end to the proposed 4.5-mile extension and an investigation into
Caltrans, which, since the 1950s and ’60s, has owned more than 500 homes
it seized through eminent domain in Pasadena, South Pasadena and the
Los Angeles neighborhood of El Sereno — all in the path of the original
overland freeway connector route.
The overland
route has long been shelved due to a lack of federal funding, and four
years ago, local transit planners came up with the idea of building a
tunnel to connect the 710 and the 210 freeways. Before the homes could
be sold, Caltrans would have to first declare them surplus properties,
which it has not yet done.
The Pasadena City
Council and the South Pasadena City Council have both voted to support a
bill that would force Caltrans to sell the homes seized for the freeway
extension. Co-authored by state Sens. Carol Liu (D-La Cañada
Flintridge) and Mike Gatto (D-Glendale), the bill would require Caltrans
to sell more than 300 homes and use revenue from the sales for local
transportation projects.
A small number of
residents of the Caltrans-owned homes would be able to purchase the
properties at below market rates, due largely to provisions of the
Roberti Bill. Named for former state Sen. David Roberti, the law allows
tenants inhabiting those dwellings to buy them at affordable rates. The
tenant, in turn, would not be able to sell the home for at least 20
years.
The Weekly first began reporting on
complaints by tenants living in those properties in a series of stories
by author and reporter Chip Jacobs called “Corridor of Shame.”
An
audit of the Caltrans homes by the California State Auditor found that,
between July 2007 and December 2011, Caltrans lost $22 million in rent
due to underpayment by tenants. The state agency had been charging
tenants below-market rate rents. The report also found that Caltrans
paid out $22.5 million for questionable repairs.
West Pasadena Resident Association President Bill Urban said he and his neighbors support LA’s efforts to stop the extension.
“We’re
happier but we’re not quite happy,” Urban told the Weekly. “The tunnel
would be a disaster for various reasons. The same residents that were
fighting before will show up at the council meeting in Los Angeles to
support the resolution the council is adopting. Metro thinks that
everybody is going to go home, since Pasadena is off the table, but we
are not going to go home.”