Pasadena Directors Delay Adoption of Master Plan

The city Board of Directors has delayed adoption of a revised master plan for the Civic Center until September amid concern about the fate of the old police station, the height of new buildings and the desirability of opening a corridor through Plaza Pasadena.

The plan, which has been under preparation for more than 2 1/2 years and has been the subject of some 15 public meetings, came under attack last week from the owners of Plaza Pasadena, who said they had only recently found out that the plan recommends removing the glass windows and doors from the mall entrances at Garfield Avenue to provide an unobstructed view and open passage from Colorado Boulevard to Green Street.

Mall owners and tenants said that removing the glass to provide a permanently open pedestrian corridor would divide the mall, disrupt shopping patterns and hurt business.

The city board responded to the complaints at a public hearing by lashing out at the mall operators, accusing them of being uncooperative and isolated from the community, but also reminding them that the proposed corridor is simply a recommendation, which the city has no power to carry out.

Plaza Pasadena was not the only objector to the Civic Center master plan. Milder complaints came from Kaiser Permanente and the Pasadena YWCA. Both asked the city board to alter the plan to ease height restrictions on their properties.

Meanwhile, city officials disclosed that one of the key elements of the plan, conversion of the old police building into low-income housing for senior citizens, is in doubt because of unexpectedly high costs.

The city board delayed action on the master plan until Sept. 12 to give the city staff time to resolve the concerns.

The growth-limit initiative approved by voters last March exempted projects in the Civic Center master plan. But because the plan hadn’t been adopted, the exemption must be submitted to voters again, probably in June.

William Ross, chairman of the Civic Center Master Plan Committee, urged the board to adopt the plan as submitted and then deal with special problems, such as the financial feasibility of preserving the police building, later.

The new master plan is an attempt to update and expand upon a bold Civic Center plan created for Pasadena by Bennett and Parsons of Chicago in 1923. That plan led to construction of the Central Library, City Hall and Civic Auditorium, all in Beaux Arts Classical architecture, along a Garfield Avenue axis, with the library on the north, the City Hall in the middle and the auditorium on the south.

Donlyn Lyndon of Lyndon/Buchanan Associates, which prepared the new master plan, said the original vision gave Pasadena “one of the greatest city halls in the country.”

Some structures constructed near City Hall add to the Civic Center, Lyndon said, but others detract. Particularly harmful, he said, was construction of Plaza Pasadena, which opened in 1980.

The revised master plan notes that when the mall was built across Garfield Avenue, between Colorado Boulevard and Green Street, “the historical relationship between the Civic Auditorium to the south and the City Hall and main library to the north was blocked. Further, the shopping center altered the commercial character of Colorado Boulevard by drawing the street life inside the mall and leaving this crucial section of the street largely blank.”

The mall was constructed with glass across its two levels at Garfield in order to preserve the visual link between the auditorium and the remainder of the Civic Center, but because of reflections and obstructions, the view through the mall is obscured.

Architect Jon Jerde, who designed the mall, said opening the corridor would serve no purpose since there is little pedestrian traffic between the auditorium and City Hall, but would impede the flow of shoppers.

Daniel T. Felix of the Hahn Co., which manages Plaza Pasadena, submitted a petition from 96 mall tenants opposed to the corridor.

Mayor William E. Thomson and Director Rick Cole responded by assailing the operation of the mall. Cole said the lower parking level in the mall is nearly always empty, but the mall owners have refused to consider an agreement with the city to make the parking available, even though the city paid for its construction.

The new master plan recommends that the city negotiate an agreement with Plaza Pasadena for 300 parking spaces to accommodate Civic Center visitors. Felix asked the city board to schedule a workshop session with his company to discuss its concern about the Garfield corridor. Instead, directors instructed City Manager Donald F. McIntyre to talk to the mall owners about a broader range of issues, including use of subterranean parking in the mall to relieve parking shortages elsewhere in the Civic Center.

Two other goals of the plan are to increase housing and preserve historic structures in the Civic Center.

The master plan covers an area that is roughly bounded by the Foothill Freeway on the north; Los Robles on the east; Colorado Boulevard, with an extension to take in part of Plaza Pasadena and the Civic Auditorium block on the south, and an irregular line on the west, reaching at one point as far west as Fair Oaks Avenue and taking in Memorial Park.

The master plan would permit up to 1.1 million square feet of new office space, 326,000 square feet of new retail space and 1,180 units of new multifamily housing in the Civic Center area. More than half the office space is in the Plaza Las Fuentes project, whose first phase is under construction.

The Janss Corp. has been negotiating with the city for more than a year on a development agreement for a large area that includes portions of the YMCA and YWCA blocks across from City Hall and the Marengo block east of Memorial Park. The project, valued at more than $50 million, would add 350 housing units in the Marengo block and rehabilitate the current police station, known as the Hall of Justice, into 44 apartments for low-income senior citizens.

Roderick A. Olguin, project planner for the master plan, said Janss had obtained new estimates showing that the Hall of Justice rehabilitation will cost $5.54 million. The company has identified state and federal tax credits and state loan funds that could provide most of the financing, but needs an additional $1.3 million.