Anti-Freeway Tax Decision Is Delayed

The South Pasadena City Council has delayed for 2 weeks a decision on whether to ask voters for a special anti-freeway tax.

“The whole freeway issue is on a fast track and it’s coming our way,” Mayor James Woollacott said at the council meeting Wednesday, speaking of state plans to build the last link in the Long Beach Freeway. The state Department of Transportation wants to build an 8-lane corridor, roughly following Meridian Avenue, to link the Long Beach Freeway with the Pasadena and Foothill freeways.

But Woollacott said the city has enough money in reserve accounts to finance the initial stages of a legal battle against Caltrans.

A citizens group had proposed last month that the city raise between $200,000 and $300,000 to put into a war chest for legal fees to fight Caltrans. The question is what kind of tax to ask for, council members said.

The council did vote to hire San Francisco lawyer Antonio Cosby-Rossman, who specializes in environmental law, to represent the city in a challenge to the state. Last month, the city hired a Sacramento lobbyist to represent it in negotiations with state officials.

Caltrans last month presented federal and state agencies with a final environmental impact statement on the $425-million freeway project, a 6.2-mile extension through El Sereno and downtown South Pasadena. The so-called Meridian variation is the latest of at least half a dozen routes that Caltrans has considered. It would displace 3,000 residents and 24 businesses.