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Moments after the City Council voted unanimously on Monday, May 18, to approve a contested 133-unit affordable housing development at 600 North Rosemead Boulevard, Mayor Victor Gordo delivered a sweeping rebuke of California\u2019s housing laws, telling colleagues that Sacramento has \u201ccompletely taken\u201d land-use decisions away from local elected bodies and is pitting \u201cgood people on one side of the housing issue\u201d against \u201cgood people on the neighborhood side.\u201d<\/p>\n
The mayor\u2019s remarks drew a pointed response from Councilmember Rick Cole, who, after an intervening exchange in which Councilmember Jason Lyon defended the council\u2019s obligation to follow state law and Gordo expanded his critique, said Pasadena\u2019s history of racially restrictive housing covenants \u2014 and its alignment with cities that have resisted affordable housing mandates \u2014 has eroded the city\u2019s credibility in the state capital.<\/p>\n
The exchange came at the end of a public hearing on an appeal of the Design Commission\u2019s approval of the Rosemead Boulevard project, which combines a new five-story, 82-unit multifamily building with the adaptive reuse of an existing two-story office building into 51 dwelling units. Of the 133 total units, 131 are designated affordable and two are manager units.<\/p>\n
Councilmember Gene Masuda, who represents the district in which the project will be built, moved to deny the appeal and approve the application. The motion passed 8-0, with Cole, Tyron Hampton, Justin Jones, Jason Lyon, Steve Madison, Masuda, Vice Mayor Jess Rivas and Gordo all voting yes.<\/p>\n
Gordo opened his remarks after the roll call by saying he wanted to address \u201cthe state\u2019s actions and the mess that it\u2019s causing not just in our city and every other city.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the reasons we have people on both sides of the issue who are good people who want housing, who support responsible development, but the state has completely taken that out of our hands,\u201d Gordo said. \u201cAnd we\u2019re going to see more and more of these frustrating hearings where the local elected body essentially has little to no discretion or little to no say, and that\u2019s wrong. That\u2019s wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
He continued: \u201cI think the real culprits in pitting, again, good people on one side of the housing issue and good people on the neighborhood side against one another, is Sacramento\u2019s action.\u201d<\/p>\n
Councilmember Jason Lyon followed the mayor, defending the council\u2019s posture as a matter of legal duty and pushing back on public commenters who had urged the council to defy state law.<\/p>\n
Resisting state law, Lyon said, \u201cwould be nothing but a dereliction of our fiduciary duty to the city and a violation of our oath to follow the laws in the constitution of this state.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf people have a problem with state law, the place to take that up is with their state representatives,\u201d Lyon said. \u201cOur job is to make it work as best we can while it is the law, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gordo then returned to his Sacramento critique, arguing that Pasadena has been \u201ccarefully curated\u201d and is \u201cthe model for affordable housing,\u201d asserting that the city has developed more affordable housing than most cities its size.<\/p>\n
Gordo said the city\u2019s own plan to concentrate density downtown had been \u201cgutted and ripped apart by Sacramento.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSacramento is taking action that loses the confidence of residents because it dictates from Sacramento to their local elected officials on how to do things,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I wouldn\u2019t suggest to you that Sacramento\u2019s the best model on how to do much of anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cole responded that while he agreed Sacramento was \u201cnot the best agency to plan our city\u2019s future,\u201d the mayor\u2019s characterization of Pasadena as \u201ccarefully curated\u201d was incomplete.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a city where 40% of the single family homes had legal restrictions that no one that was not 100% of the Caucasian race could live there,\u201d Cole said. \u201cSo the curation goes both ways. We have to look at the bright side of careful planning that you and others have worked on for literally decades, but also the dark side of the history of this, where affordable housing is concentrated in certain parts of our city and largely absent in other parts of our city.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cole said Pasadena loses leverage in Sacramento by aligning with cities that have refused affordable housing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we stand with Huntington Beach, when we stand with \u2026 cities that refuse affordable housing, then we have very little credibility in Sacramento,\u201d Cole said. \u201cWhen we go to Sacramento and say, \u2018We don\u2019t stand with those racist exclusionary cities, we would like special consideration\u2019 \u2014 and this is where you and I do agree, we should have special consideration \u2014 but we have consistently stood against, we\u2019ve stood with the League of California Cities, which has resisted any impingement on what they call \u2018local control.\u2019 I think our best argument with our local legislators and with the rest of the legislators is treat Pasadena differently when we do things differently.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gordo pushed back, saying the city was \u201cnot standing with any one city\u201d but \u201cstanding on the principle of our city.\u201d He said Pasadena has \u201cdone things right\u201d and is being \u201cpenalized\u201d by the state rather than recognized.<\/p>\n
Cole, conceding the floor, told Gordo: \u201cYou\u2019re the mayor and I\u2019m going to give you the last word.\u201d<\/p>\n
Councilmember Steve Madison then raised what he called a \u201cpoint of order,\u201d objecting to the back-and-forth.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne councilmember is giving you the last word, mayor, in a debate that is bilateral between the two of you and this all started after we decided a matter and should have moved on on the agenda,\u201d Madison said. \u201cThe rest of us feel compelled to either not participate, and then I suppose be accused of not caring as much as you and Mr. Cole, or jumping in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Madison said he agreed Sacramento\u2019s housing efforts were \u201cham-handed\u201d but added he yields \u201cto nobody in my pride for the way Pasadena\u2019s responded to these challenges,\u201d and urged the council to move on.<\/p>\n
The Rosemead Boulevard project will use state density bonus law concessions and is located in the East Pasadena Specific Plan area. The council\u2019s action denied the appeal, approved the Consolidated Design Review, approved a private tree removal request involving seven protected trees, and approved density bonus concessions, all subject to staff-reviewed conditions.<\/p>\n
Following the exchange, the council took up a related Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act, or TEFRA, hearing and adopted a resolution approving a plan of finance under which the California Municipal Finance Authority would issue up to $60 million in exempt facility bonds for the benefit of 600 North Rosemead, LP, the project\u2019s borrower. City staff noted the bonds will be the sole responsibility of the borrower, with the city carrying no financial or legal obligation for repayment.<\/p>\n
The mayor\u2019s Sacramento remarks landed against the backdrop of a separate set of items that had been listed on Monday\u2019s agenda dealing with the Abundant and Affordable Homes Near Transit Act, or Senate Bill 79, the state housing law set to take effect July 1. Those items \u2014 an interim urgency ordinance and a delayed effectuation ordinance that would temporarily exempt certain historic and lower-density sites within Pasadena\u2019s Transit Oriented Development zones from the law \u2014 were pulled from Monday\u2019s agenda by the City Attorney before the Rosemead hearing began, due to potential conflicts of interest under review, and are anticipated to return to the council on June 8. At the close of the meeting, the chair confirmed that \u201call the other business has been deferred.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 600 North Rosemead Boulevard project drew heavy public comment. The city clerk reported that 88 postcards were mailed on May 4 and that the clerk\u2019s office received 29 letters in opposition to the project and\/or in support of the appeal, 49 letters in support of the project and\/or advocating denial of the appeal, one letter from the applicant responding to the appellant\u2019s concerns, and one email containing 119 copies of a form letter in support of the project.<\/p>\n
Public testimony stretched across dozens of speakers, with opponents focused on parking, traffic, ambient noise, distance to the nearest major transit stop, and neighborhood compatibility, and supporters arguing the project would deliver critically needed affordable units in East Pasadena.<\/p>\n
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