South Pasadena Gears Up for Last Stand in Freeway Battle

Preparing for a last stand against the planned Long Beach Freeway extension, South Pasadena City Council members Wednesday authorized a lawsuit against the federal government in an attempt to kill the $1.4-billion roadway that would slice through the center of their town.

Two days after the federal government approved the project, the council also announced plans to turn to property owners to pay for the fight. Council members requested that staff prepare a resolution for a special election on financing the next round in the decades-long battle.

“We cannot continue our opposition effort without the financial support of the citizenry,” said Mayor Wallace Emory. He said the city has exhausted its reserves fighting the plan, which has cost about $500,000 a year or $75 per household. Such a tax would need two-thirds voter approval to pass.

City officials have said they will seek to erect another legal barrier to the project by resuscitating a 25-year-old injunction that prevents any work on the freeway.

Although construction would not begin until at least 2005, South Pasadena officials hope the legal action will halt design work.

For 33 years, South Pasadena has waged a battle to stop construction of the 6.2-mile roadway that would also run through Pasadena and the Eastside community of El Sereno as it connects the San Bernardino and Foothill freeways.

But the city of 24,000 faces stiffer odds after the federal government Monday night signed a formal record of decision approving the freeway. South Pasadena had hoped the Department of Transportation would judge the environmental impact of the project too severe and reject the proposal.

Some freeway proponents in Pasadena and Alhambra said they weren’t concerned about South Pasadena’s challenge. “They haven’t got a prayer,” said Alhambra City Atty. Lee Dolley.