Pasadena Plan for 200 Homes Irks Neighbors

A proposal to build 200 homes on one of largest tracts of vacant land remaining in the city has sparked concern from some residents who fear that the 16-acre project will turn their quiet suburban neighborhood into a busy urban village.

The Rose Townhomes, which would be developed by Los Angeles-based Calmark Development Corp., would put an average of 12 homes on each acre of land and bring an estimated 500 new residents into the area just south of the Eaton Canyon Reservoir.

The development would have twice as many homes per acre as nearby residential areas, and some neighbors are concerned that their peace and quiet will vanish.

“It’s too damn many people on too little land,” said resident Amos Hoagland. “It’s going to change the whole character of this place.”

A public hearing on the project is scheduled during the Board of Directors meeting Monday.

But many residents say they are pessimistic about stopping the project. They concede that the developer has proposed easing the project’s impact on the neighborhood by building an outer strip of detached homes that would hide the more densely packed attached homes inside.

And they fear that they have little power to argue against a proposal that fits the city’s long-range land-use plan and that would provide a financial boost to the Pasadena Unified School District, which has sold the property to Calmark for $9.3 million, contingent on the city’s approval.

“I think most of us have taken a fatalistic position that it is going through regardless of what we think,” Hoagland said.

According to Dan Poyourow, Calmark’s project manager, the development would include 180 two-story, single-family attached homes and 20 two-story detached homes, ranging in price from $149,000 to $205,000.

Poyourow said the homes, with two to four bedrooms, would be reminiscent of the Craftsman-style homes common in Pasadena. He said his firm had sought comments from residents and the city at two public forums.

The project, just north of Pasadena High School on Washington Boulevard, would be one of the city’s largest and, because of the scarcity of open land, probably its last major housing development.

“This is going to be the last of the Mohicans, so to speak,” said former Planning Commissioner Robert R. McClellan, who attended the hearing on the project. His term expired in June.

Planning Commissioner Rosemary Schroeder said the sheer size of the project has made officials careful about reviewing the details.

“If you blow it on a big one, it’s really going to stand out,” she said.

The Planning Commission approved the project last month, but Calmark also must go before the Board of Directors for a final decision on a zoning change for the property, now restricted to a maximum of one home per acre.

Although the current zoning is the most restrictive possible, the city has long planned to allow construction of as many as 262 homes on the property because of its size and because most of it is bounded by the school and by land around Eaton Wash that cannot be developed.

Calmark is seeking a special zoning change that would allow what the city calls a “planned development” with as many as 262 homes, though the firm intends to build only 200. Such a zoning designation gives the city more control over the design and layout of the project than the usual residential zoning.

City Planning Director Don Nollar said the project would help the city by adding a sizable new stock of housing.

School board Chairman Noel Hatch said the district also supports the zoning change because it is depending on the $9.3 million from the sale of the land.

Hatch said the money would be used to set up an endowment fund that would provide about $800,000 a year.

He said some of the money has already been budgeted for next year to retain several programs threatened by budget cuts, including the music program.

“It is like manna from heaven,” Hatch said.

Besides proposing to shield the neighborhood with the strip of detached homes, Calmark plans to restrict traffic in and out of the project to one entrance off Washington Boulevard.

“It’s going to be a neighborhood to itself,” Nollar said.

But critics say there is no way to eliminate the impact of 200 new homes in the area.

“The developers have shown a lot of sensitivity, but they are prisoners of their purchase price,” said Director William Paparian, whose district includes the site. “There are just too many units on those 16 acres.”

Resident Roland Zapata said the developers’ estimate of up to 450 more cars in the neighborhood would turn Washington Boulevard into a noisy and more dangerous thoroughfare.

“For that small an area, I don’t see how that can be comfortable to anyone in the neighborhood,” he said.

An environmental impact report on the project contended that the additional cars would not significantly congest traffic on the street.