Caltrans Gets Clearance to Sell Surplus Homes

In a defeat for residents of an upper-middle-class South Pasadena neighborhood, a judge has lifted a restraining order that was preventing Caltrans from selling 11 surplus houses to a nonprofit housing agency, which plans to move in low- to moderate-income renters.

Pasadena Superior Court Judge Thomas Stoever ruled that Caltrans obeyed state law in its sale of the vacant homes--10 in South Pasadena and one in Pasadena--to Pasadena Neighborhood Housing Services.

Two South Pasadena homeowners groups had sued Caltrans to stop the sale, arguing that by offering them as a package, Caltrans had violated the law. The homeowners want owners, rather than renters, to live in the houses.

Stoever had granted a temporary restraining order blocking the sale of the houses, once in the path of the planned Long Beach Freeway extension. On Tuesday, after hearing arguments for both sides, the judge dissolved his order.

Williams Evans, a Caltrans attorney, said he will ask the judge to dismiss the case, but Chris Sutton, the homeowners’ lawyer, said his clients will continue the fight in the courts.