Pasadena : New Life for Justice Center

The federal government has given new life to a plan for a so-called Western Justice Center on the grounds of the old Vista del Arroyo hotel, postponing until January an auction of properties that had been proposed as headquarters for national judicial reform groups. The sale of what the U. S. General Services Administration has designated as surplus properties on the site had been scheduled for today.

Judge Dorothy Nelson of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, who has spearheaded the effort to establish the judicial center in Pasadena, said the federal agency had postponed the auction after a series of meetings convened by U. S. Rep. Edward Roybal (D-Los Angeles). The center would be housed in bungalows.

Nelson said she hopes to get the federal agency to call off the auction altogether after her group gets written commitments from organizations such as the American Bar Assn. and the Institute for Judicial Administration to participate in the project.