Known for Unusual Communication : Judge Takes Parking Lot Issue to Want Ads in Pasadena Paper

A senior federal judge who has crusaded for years to turn an old Pasadena hotel into the local headquarters of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has launched a letter-writing campaign in the classified advertising section of a Pasadena newspaper for a giant parking lot next to the renovated court facility.

The issue, the latest of several controversies since the appellate court decided to move some of its judges to Pasadena, is whether the government should bulldoze 13 old bungalows next to the old Vista del Arroyo Hotel to make room for the parking lot or save as many as possible and sell the rest of the land for a new housing development.

Judge Richard A. Chambers, 78, once the chief judge of the 9th Circuit and a colorful Tucson jurist with a passion for converting old buildings into federal courthouses, is known for his unusual methods of communication.

In the past, he has sent memos to other federal judges signed by his horse, Tom Chambers. But the judge said his recent letters to Pasadena Mayor William J. Bogaard were the first instance of his use of the classified ads to get a point across.

Chambers spent $420 of his own money for two messages to Bogaard in the personal notices column of the Pasadena Star-News to argue his side of the dispute, saying that “the paid advertisement enabled me to put my message in the paper without being edited.”

Conceding that it might appear “indiscreet” for a federal judge to take such unusual action, Chambers expressed frustration in one of his letters that the U.S. General Services Administration is planning to sell most of the land.

“None of us realized that the tower building (the old hotel) in which our court will be located was to become the center of a big real estate development sponsored by your office . . . working with the General Services Administration,” Chambers wrote to Bogaard.

“For the shortfall, what is the matter with grass?” he asked.

In his second letter, Chambers took a tongue-in-cheek approach to the whole question, suggesting he should serve as a go-between for the city of Pasadena and the GSA to find some other location for new housing.

The judge’s proposal, which he later said was made in jest, was that Pasadena trade its Civic Center Park near City Hall for two acres of the Vista del Arroyo property so that the GSA could in turn sell it to real estate developers.

“I admit I wouldn’t make this offer if I were a resident of Pasadena,” he concluded.

Historic Buildings Saved

Chambers, who previously fought successful battles to save historic buildings for federal courthouses in Portland and San Francisco, began his effort to convert the decrepit Vista del Arroyo, built in 1881, into a new court facility in the late 1970s.

After several years of delays in refurbishing the old hotel, the GSA recently completed $10.5 million in restoration work and announced that the new courthouse will open Sept. 27.

The parking lot dispute is only one of the controversies surrounding the judges’ move to Pasadena. Four of the nine appellate judges who live in the Los Angeles area have refused to move into the new building, saying they are happy where they are in the U.S. Courthouse in downtown Los Angeles.

The GSA has 30 parking spaces reserved for judges next to the hotel and 140 parking spaces available across the street. There is also a GSA plan for a 150-space parking lot at the bottom of the steep Arroyo Seco slope immediately below the new courthouse, with either elevators or escalators to help visitors climb the hill.

Growing Parking Need

Chambers conceded in an interview that when the judges and staff move into the Vista del Arroyo site, no more than 40 or 50 parking spaces will be required. Looking ahead, however, he said there will be a need for 10 times that much parking in 20 to 25 years.

Some of the bungalows on the adjacent property can be preserved, and they should be moved elsewhere, Chambers said. He added that about half of them along the Arroyo Seco slope are so dilapidated that they should be torn down.

“Perhaps some of them are movable, but there is in the rear a rotten row of houses that I refer to as Rotten Row,” Chambers said. “Move them or bulldoze them.”

Chambers said one reason he wrote to the mayor was that he opposes Pasadena’s plans to build a subterranean level for the parking lot across the street from the courthouse. He said he promised the West Pasadena Residents Assn. seven years ago that all the court’s parking needs could be taken care of on the Vista del Arroyo property.

Keeping His Pledge

“You know why I spent the $420?” Chambers asked. “I said to them I’d as soon have my right arm cut off as to have you feel you were double-crossed on the parking.”

Bogaard said the classified ads were in keeping with the “very interesting style” of the judge and added that he has considered it “quite a privilege” to work with Chambers.

Although Bogaard supports Chambers’ view that the down-slope parking plan should be dropped, he argued against bulldozing the bungalows and said that the judge’s chances of using the land for a parking lot are “slim to none.”

“The bungalows have a long history, and I share the hope of many that they can be preserved,” Bogaard said.

Bogaard said he understands that the GSA plans to sell most of the land around the bungalows, adding that the best use probably would be a mix of single-family houses and condominiums.

Mary Filippini, a GSA spokeswoman in San Francisco, said plans to sell the 6.5 acres “crystallized” about four years ago and added that the timing of the sale has not been set. She said that because the U.S. Forest Service may not move into the building with the judges as originally anticipated, the GSA is looking for other possible tenants.