Pasadena approves affordable housing for fire survivors despite opposition from residents<\/p>\n
The Pasadena City Council voted this week to clear the way for new apartments for low-income fire survivors. But some council members noted their hesitancy to approve the project, saying their hands were tied by state law.<\/p>\n
The Pasadena City Council voted this week to clear the way for new apartments for low-income fire survivors. <\/a> But some council members noted their hesitancy to approve the project, saying their hands were tied by state law.<\/p>\n The council denied an appeal from a homeowners group who opposed the project, which plans to bring 133 units of low-income housing to East Pasadena. The nearby residents said it was too tall, too dense and had too little parking.<\/p>\n Mayor Victor Gordo expressed reluctance about denying the appeal. He blamed state lawmakers for pitting local elected leaders against the interests of existing residents.<\/p>\n \u201cWe’re going to see more and more of these frustrating hearings, where the local elected body essentially has little to no discretion, little to no say, and that’s wrong,\u201d Gordo said during the Monday night meeting.<\/p>\n Learn the ins and outs behind L.A.’s housing crisis.<\/p>\n Sign up for Building Your Block, a seven-issue newsletter course from LAist that explains the obstacles around housing development in L.A. and what you can do to make things better.<\/p>\n The developer\u2019s plans for the project include adapting a former office building into 50 units of permanent supportive housing for tenants, including formerly unhoused people. A new five-story building will include another 81 units of income-restricted housing. Two units will be for property managers.<\/p>\n Neighbors fought to block the project<\/p>\n Members of the Lower Hastings Ranch Association appealed an approval of the project by the city\u2019s Design Commission. They argued the development wasn\u2019t suitable for the neighborhood.<\/p>\n Ronnie Po, the association\u2019s president, said nearby homeowners felt \u201cblindsided\u201d by the plans. Their appeal wasn\u2019t really about the project\u2019s aesthetics, he said. They were mainly opposed to the development\u2019s height, density and reduced parking<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI wouldn’t call this a design issue,\u201d Po said. \u201cThis project will literally rise up to the backyards of some of our neighbors up there. So this is literally in someone’s backyard.\u201d<\/p>\n The development team countered those complaints in a presentation to the City Council, saying the project complied with all relevant laws and did not impinge on single-family homes.<\/p>\n \u201cThe building is no closer than 25 feet to the nearest property line, and no closer than 110 feet away to the nearest home,\u201d said Dana Sayles, who is with the land use firm three6ixty.<\/p>\n Who is the project designed to house?<\/p>\n The project at 600 N. Rosemead Blvd. will be reserved for renters who earn no more than 80% of the area\u2019s median income. By current standards, that would include individuals earning up to $84,850 per year and families of four earning up to $121,150.<\/p>\n Many units will be set aside for renters with even lower incomes. And under state funding agreements, preference will be given to tenants displaced by the Eaton Fire.<\/p>\n \u201cMore than half of the units are two and three bedrooms, so this project is very much focused on families,\u201d said Stephanie DeWolfe, a consultant on the project. \u201cGetting family-sized units has been a challenge for the city in the past, and especially now with all the people displaced from the fires.”<\/p>\n State law overrides local limits<\/p>\n Because of the state\u2019s density bonus law \u2014 which allows larger projects when units are kept affordable \u2014 the developer is allowed to build taller than would normally be allowed under Pasadena codes. The project is within a half-mile of the Sierra Madre Villa stop on Metro\u2019s A Line, qualifying it as near a \u201cmajor transit stop\u201d under California law.<\/p>\n Because it\u2019s near a transit line, the project also qualifies for a state law that removes parking mandates<\/a>. The developer is voluntarily planning to build 55 parking spaces. Many public commenters \u2014 and some council members \u2014 said more parking was needed.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat’s the assumption of where people will park their cars?\u201d asked Councilmember Tyron Hampton.<\/p>\n \u201cWe live in California, by the way,\u201d he said, drawing applause from audience members opposed to the project.<\/p>\n People at the meeting who expressed support for the project said many tenants, including those exiting homelessness, likely would not be in a financial position to own cars.<\/p>\n \u201cI support this building since it would be perfect for people like me, who would qualify based on income limits and do not need to have parking,\u201d said Koji Sakano. \u201cThose who apply, like me, would tend to be those that do not wish for car parking in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n Local housing vs. new state laws<\/p>\n Jesse Zwick, the Southern California director of the Housing Action Coalition, said the Pasadena project\u2019s path to approval shows city officials and residents slowly catching up to changes in state law, which in many cases override local opposition.<\/p>\n \u201cThe state has awarded priority to building affordable housing in places like this \u2014 that typically have resisted it,\u201d Zwick said. \u201cWhat you’re seeing now is some of that resistance being up against where state law has evolved on this issue.\u201d<\/p>\n Cities that have resisted state housing laws aimed at increasing development have found themselves in California\u2019s legal crosshairs. Beverly Hills had to approve<\/a> massive \u201cbuilder\u2019s remedy\u201d projects after it failed to comply with a state requirement for cities to plan for more housing. Huntington Beach recently faced a court order<\/a> to pay $50,000 for every month it continues to flout state housing laws.<\/p>\n Despite those risks, some Pasadena residents urged city leaders to fight back on the state\u2019s efforts to encourage taller, denser affordable housing projects.<\/p>\n \u201cThe state of California has come up with these crazy laws,\u201d said Scott Shimamoto. \u201cWe would love for the City Council and mayor to tell the state of California: Pause this.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pasadena approves affordable housing for fire survivors despite opposition from residents The Pasadena City Council voted this week…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325858,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[380,135541,135542,48,52,51,47,50,49,56401,135543],"class_list":["post-325857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-affordable-housing","tag-east-pasadena","tag-eaton-fire-survivors","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-low-income-housing","tag-pasadena-city-council"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}