San Gabriel Valley : Hearing Set on Proposal to Build Shopping Center
The Pasadena City Council voted unanimously to hold a hearing next month on changes in an agreement with developer Danny Bakewell to build a shopping center in the economically deprived northwest area, despite objections by the developer, the mayor and residents that such a step is a move to delay or kill the project.
The decision could lead Bakewell to pay the city an extra $1 million for the land at the southwest corner of Fair Oaks Avenue and Orange Grove Boulevard. Bakewell is expected to pay $1.5 million over two decades for the site acquired by the city at a cost of about $10 million for his Fair Oaks Renaissance Plaza.
But earlier this month the council agreed to change the two-year-old development agreement with Bakewell after the developer said that the Vons supermarket chain could not make a 20-year commitment to keep a store open at the site.
Assistant City Atty. Ted Reynolds told the council that was a key condition for the low sale price of the property to Bakewell. Reynolds said that under state law such a change requires a public hearing as well as a recalculation of the land’s price.
Council members Paul Little, Joyce Streator and William Crowfoot agreed.
Bakewell, who called for City Manager Philip Hawkey’s resignation Monday night, and his attorney say no such hearing is needed.
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