Another Council Vote Slated on Freeway Support

The City Council is slated to vote Monday on whether to continue to support construction of the Long Beach Freeway extension through the western part of the city.

Half of the eight-member council was not in office the last time the body endorsed the project, which would link the San Bernardino Freeway with the Foothill Freeway. A city commission has recommended that the council reverse its 1996 official position on the roadway, designed to go through Pasadena, South Pasadena and part of Los Angeles.

A “no” vote Monday could swing momentum against the proposed $1.4-billion roadway, which is still a decade away from construction.

Federal highway officials have said that Pasadena’s support for the project is vital to its completion. In 1996 the City Council voted 4 to 2, with one abstention, in favor of the extension.

Since then, the federal government has approved the project. But South Pasadena, which has fought the extension for more than three decades, sued last year to prevent construction.

U.S. District Judge Dean Pregerson granted South Pasadena a preliminary injunction barring construction of the freeway extension and the purchase of homes in its path pending a trial.

Seeking to influence Monday’s Pasadena council vote, a coalition of freeway supporters recently conducted a poll which they say shows that the majority of city residents favor the freeway’s construction. That coalition includes labor unions, business groups and the city of Alhambra.