State Offers Pasadena Homes to Boost Filming

Thirty-nine properties owned by the state are being made available to film, TV and commercial producers at little or no cost to entice them to shoot in Southern California, and the majority are a controversial group of historic Pasadena homes sitting in the path of a stalled freeway extension project.

The availability of the properties, expected to be announced today by Gov. Gray Davis, comes amid criticism by Hollywood workers that state and federal lawmakers have done little to offer incentives to keep productions from moving to cheaper locales such as Canada and Australia.

The group of state-owned properties also includes the Metropolitan Hospital in Norwalk and a 10-story state building in downtown Los Angeles.

By making the properties available cheaply, state officials hope to save producers money, in some cases tens of thousands of dollars. State officials estimate that Universal Pictures film “Red Dragon,” scheduled to shoot next year, could save as much as $175,000 using the properties and other new incentive programs.

Still, the available properties aren’t expected to make a serious dent in the runaway production. A 1999 study funded by the Screen Actors Guild and the Directors Guild of America estimated that on a hypothetical film or TV show production, costs in Canada average about 25% less than they do in the United States, largely because of the weak Canadian dollar and lower wages.

But Cody Cluff, president of the Entertainment Industry Development Corp. in Los Angeles, which issues filming permits, predicted the Norwalk hospital property will at least appeal to filmmakers, estimating that a producer could save as much as $5,000 a day in fees using it.

“The hospital alone is worth it,” Cluff said. “It’s not the silver bullet, but it’s one more thing to offer.”

But the state’s plan to include the Pasadena homes already is generating controversy. The homes are among 585 properties Caltrans bought since the 1950s in Pasadena, South Pasadena and El Sereno along the proposed 710 Freeway extension route, which has been successfully delayed for years by local homeowners and other opponents.

Residents have battled Caltrans for years, criticizing the agency for allowing the homes to fall into disrepair. Caltrans was finally pressured in 1995 to launch a rehabilitation project, but it stalled after running out of money.

“They won’t fix the plumbing, the roofs or the electricity, but they are going to rent them out to shoot movies for free?” asked lawyer Chris Sutton, who represents tenants of Caltrans-owned homes in the area.

Residents in the area west of Huntington Memorial Hospital have long argued that in addition to fixing up the homes, the state should find tenants for the many vacant properties to create a stable neighborhood. Neighboring residents say the empty homes attract vagrants and vandals, and setting them aside for film shooting instead of finding tenants will encourage that to continue, they argue.

News that the homes will be offered for shooting didn’t sit well with neighboring homeowners, even John Kvammen, a Teamster who works as a transportation coordinator in the entertainment industry and is an active supporter of efforts to keep filming in Los Angeles.

Kvammen says it isn’t fair to turn the neighborhood into what amounts to a back lot.

“We want this to be a complete neighborhood. We don’t want vacant homes,” Kvammen said.

A resident of St. John Avenue, Kvammen also argued that renting out the homes to film crews will cause further traffic snarls because there is little parking in the area. Most of the homes are either on or near St. John, the street the 710 Freeway now spills into after it ends.

Byron Tucker, deputy press secretary for Davis, defended offering the homes for filming, arguing that the state’s goal is to protect them while the freeway extension project remains in limbo.

“In the meantime, we’re using the homes to drive economic development in California’s filmmaking industry, which is a smart thing to do,” Tucker said.

The move to offer state surplus properties was authorized last year by a bill signed by Davis that was sponsored by former state Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Pasadena).

The program is administered by the California Film Commission through the State Theatrical Artist Resources program.