News of the Arroyo
Title: | City lands $2.5 million grant to buy canyon |
Subtitle: | |
Date: | 2007-02-28 |
Summary: | February 28, 2007 - It looks like a big victory for open space advocates as Pasadena is awarded a $2.5 million grant to preserve Eagle Rock Canyon on the far western edge of the city. |
Author: | Janette Williams, Staff Writer |
Publication: | Pasadena Star-News |
Content: | PASADENA - The city has been awarded a $2.5 million grant by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy toward the purchase of Annandale Canyon, one of Pasadena\'s last remaining wilderness areas. \"We have an impressive start on gaining the funding needed to preserve the Annandale Estates area that had been proposed for development,\" Mayor Bill Bogaard said Tuesday. The emphasis will now be on raising enough to pay fair market value for the land, Bogaard said. Unofficial estimates for the property, subdivided into 109 lots in 1928, put it at around $7.5 million. \"I look forward to exploring sources of additional funding for this acquisition,\" Bogaard said. \"The interest in open space is very high in Pasadena, and this is a promising possibility.\" Developer Jon Head, who planned to build 29 luxury houses on the rugged 21-acre parcel in the San Rafael Hills in 2004, said he is prepared to sell if all sides can agree on a fair price. \"I think it\'s a good start,\" Head said of the grant. \"I\'ve told the city and the conservancy I\'ll be patient a while longer and see what they come up with. I\'m happy it\'s going in this direction.\" Head declined to put a time limit on the process, and -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Advertisement -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- said his estimate of the value was \"a little higher\" than the figure most often mentioned. \"We\'re going to need to decide if it\'s going to work for us,\" Head said. \"We\'re also getting calls from other interested developers, so we\'re holding up on everything until we give this a little more time to get funding ... I feel this could happen in a reasonable period of time.\" Among the funding sources being considered to complete the purchase - apart from county, state and federal grants - are a citywide assessment, as was levied to support public libraries; a parcel tax; and a benefit assessment district where the property\'s neighbors would be assessed added property tax on a sliding scale, depending on proximity. An assessment district would be a new way for the city to acquire park or open space, Bogaard said, and would depend on neighborhood support. \"There was a very strong grass-roots effort to oppose the development and advocate for public acquisition,\" Bogaard said. \"Now we have a start, the neighbors will have to view this question in a serious way to see if it can\'t be worked out.\" Roger Wolf, who founded the neighborhood group Safety and Open Space First Pasadena to fight development of the canyon, said he was encouraged by the conservancy grant. \"We\'ve got about a third, and what we\'ll do is raise the other two-thirds any way we can,\" Wolf said. \"There\'s a larger movement within the city for open space ... I think there\'s a lot of public sentiment right now for looking at the possibility of saving some of the remaining wild land areas so it doesn\'t all disappear.\" A conservancy report describes the canyon as \"high quality chaparral and riparian habitats with high ecological resources\" with foraging, nesting and breeding grounds for mammals and birds. janette.williams@sgvn.com (626) 578-6300, Ext. 4482 |
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