Council OKs Demolition of Building Despite Protests

Preservationists in Pasadena, a city that prides itself on its history and architectural grandeur, suffered a rare defeat Monday night at the hands of the City Council.

The council voted unanimously to override the city’s zoning board and allow a developer to demolish an abandoned vintage auto dealership to build two five-story office towers, despite protests from its own cultural heritage commission which claimed that the structure is historic.

Council members decided that preserving the local economy with help of developer Kenneth Wan’s new offices outweighed preserving the one-story brick structure built in 1921 at 1021 E. Colorado Blvd. Other commercial buildings in nearby Old Pasadena have been preserved.

“Here we perhaps have a building that is out of sync with the model of Old Pasadena in terms of architectural preservation, but it may do a great deal to revive, expand and support local-owned business that are not part of the chain-[store] approach to commerce,” said Councilman William Crowfoot, a traditional supporter of preservation who voiced the need for the 85,000-square foot office towers.

The future clashed with the past in an hourlong hearing where the developer, business leaders and neighbors painted the abandoned showroom as a haven for drug dealers and transients that could not withstand a major quake, while preservationists called it one of last surviving historic examples of Mission revival auto showrooms and demanded that it be incorporated into any new structure.

William Ross, an attorney for Wan, said the $25-million project was not viable without demolition of the showroom because it would cost an additional $4.1 million to include it in the office structures. The towers would create hundreds of jobs and bring in an additional $250,000 in property tax annually, he said.

Wan was appealing decisions by both the Board of Zoning Appeals and Cultural Heritage Commission that he must incorporate the old structure or leave it intact.

Meanwhile, neighbors called the existing structure a magnet for crime.

“Do you want to be responsible for allowing a public nuisance to continue?” one neighbor asked the council.

But preservationists said that two auto dealerships nearby have already been placed on the National Register of Historic Places and that the owner of the former Dodge dealership was to blame for the condition of the building.

“It is true the building is in terrible condition and it is a blight on the neighborhood, but I would submit that existing unsafe and unsanitary conditions are . . . an indictment of city code enforcement, city police department and the building owner,” said Bill York of Pasadena Heritage. “Don’t blame a defenseless assemblage of wood and concrete and plaster for the owner’s poor custodianship.”

Cultural Heritage Commissioner Bob Kneisel said the old auto showrooms could be a catalyst for another Old Pasadena.

“I have this feeling of deja vu,” he said. “Didn’t we go through this about 10 years ago with One Colorado when people wanted to put up the same kind of buildings and those nasty preservationists fought it and now there is old town--a mecca for people.”

Before any demolition can begin, the developer must obtain a building permit and design approval for his building. Council members said they expect the new structure’s architecture will need to be improved.

Holding up a color sketch of the garden variety office blocks, Councilman Paul Little said, “It is indicative of how desperate the neighbors are that they want this instead.”