Parole Office Critics to Speak Out : Hastings Ranch Homeowners Fear Crime Will Increase in Neighborhood

Two homeowners’ groups fighting a proposal to locate a parole office near their homes are planning to meet with state officials Monday night to voice their complaints.

Residents near the proposed site at 468 N. Rosemead Blvd., fear that crime will increase in their neighborhood if the office is allowed to open there, said Harold Britton, president of Lower Hastings Ranch Homeowners Assn.

“People are appalled because children walk past there every day to go to school,” Britton said. His group has joined forces with the Upper Hastings Ranch Homeowners Assn. to fight the proposal.

The homeowners’ groups are collecting signatures on a petition opposing the site, Britton said.

The proposed site is one of five locations in Pasadena that state officials had been studying.

“The one that right now we’re considering is the one on Rosemead,” said Joseph Garcia, an assistant unit supervisor for the state Department of Corrections. “It’s the one that’s more logically located.

Meets State Criteria

“It’s a commercial street and it met the criteria when our people were looking for office space,” Garcia said. He said it is difficult to find parole office sites that are not close to residential areas.

The five possible locations are all within one to three blocks of residential areas, he said. He would not disclose the other locations being studied.

Britton said 12 members of the homeowners’ associations are real estate agents and all are willing to help find other sites in Pasadena that they believe will be more appropriate.

Garcia said there is no evidence to support residents’ concerns about increased crime should a parole office open near their homes. “I just can’t buy into that,” he said.

Police in Monterey Park and Alhambra said that crime in the area increased after a parole office was opened last year near the border between the two cities.

Community opposition to that office, 1723 W. Garvey Ave., Alhambra, prompted state officials to agree to close it by Oct. 1.

The Monday night meeting with parole officials is scheduled for 7:30 at Nazarene Church, 3700 Sierra Madre Blvd.