Court OKs Pasadena Shelter Move

A state Court of Appeal decision has cleared the way for Union Station to begin construction of a soup kitchen and shelter at a hotly contested new site as soon as possible, officials said this week.

However, the attorney for the Old Pasadena Assn., a group of Union Station’s prospective neighbors who sued to prevent the move, said he feels “significant dissatisfaction” with the court’s decision. The attorney, Martin Washton, said the group has 30 days to decide whether it will take the case to the state Supreme Court.

The unanimous opinion by a three-justice panel in Los Angeles last week came eight days after both sides presented oral arguments.

The Old Pasadena Assn. had argued that the city of Pasadena violated environmental regulations in 1985 when it approved Union Station’s move to 412 S. Raymond Ave., in an industrial zone.

The justices rejected that allegation as well as the association’s argument that the city was wrong in granting a zoning variance that would reduce the required number of parking spaces at the new site from 15 to seven.

Will Seek Release of Funds

“We’re delighted and looking forward to proceeding posthaste,” said Bill Doulos, director of Union Station. He said he will immediately seek release of $700,000 in federal and state funds that have been withheld pending the court decision.

Washton said he has been out of the state and needs more time to study the appellate court’s decision and to discuss it with his clients before deciding whether to take further action.

Union Station, which began as a storefront social center in 1973, has become the largest agency outside of Los Angeles’ Skid Row providing free meals and shelter for the poor.

It occupies a small building on church-owned property at Euclid Avenue and Walnut Street near the Civic Center in downtown Pasadena. Free breakfasts and lunches are served daily to more than 100 people, and 20 temporary beds are provided in a nearby church through a joint agency called the Depot.

All Saints Episcopal Church, which founded the facility, and six other churches sponsor Union Station.

Since 1984, Doulos and other Union Station leaders have sought to build a new facility where they could feed up to 225 people a day and provide 60 beds as well as showers, laundry facilities and a number of social services.

The Old Pasadena Assn., made up of eight owners of businesses near Union Station’s proposed site, said the “street people” served by the agency would downgrade the environment by loitering, panhandling, trespassing and vandalizing neighbors’ property.

Pasadena Superior Court ruled against the association in January, 1986.

‘Underlying Theme’

The Court of Appeal decision, written by Justice Lynn D. Compton on behalf of himself and Justices Donald N. Gates and Morio L. Fukuto, said: “The major underlying theme permeating the association’s evidence is that the antisocial behavior of the (shelter’s clients) will cause the economy and social well-being of the area to decline.”

Environmental law cannot be used “to forbid persons of certain social and economic classes from the public streets,” the decision said.

Seven parking spaces will be adequate because few who use the shelter have cars, the opinion said.