News of the Arroyo
Title: | Open Space Plan Proposed |
Subtitle: | |
Date: | 2007-06-07 |
Summary: | June 7, 2007 - East Pasadena residents have joined with open space activists in a battle for preservation of precious natural land in our region. As journalist Charles Cooper notes, the battle began in the Arroyo Seco. |
Author: | Charles Cooper |
Publication: | Arcadia Weekly |
Content: | East Pasadena residents fighting to keep land owned by Southern California Electric (SCE) classified as open space learned Monday that they may get help from the city council. Residents’ working to preserve open space in the land under SCE transmission lines dominated the public comment period at Monday’s city council meeting, complaining the utility was still working to turn the land over to RHC Communities, a developer of public storage space. The utility has done business with RHC in the past, and is in the process of converting some of it land holdings into other uses. City Manager Cynthia Kurtz said the planning department will propose a separate community plan to preserve open space, apparently directed mainly at the utility property. The council was limited in how much the matter could be discussed, because it was not on the agenda. But the budget for the plan effort will apparently be $200,000, and resources will be shifted from the ongoing effort to renew community plans. The council did not discuss involving itself in ongoing efforts to protect two popular community businesses located on the land, Perssons Nursery and Present Perfect. Perssons Nursery has been given till the end of the month to move its establishment or close. Present Perfect may be closing after 18 years. City Attorney Michelle Bagneris said the council could not involve itself in private lease issues. The land in question is owned by SCE, but is zoned for open space uses. Community members charged that SCE has been driving out businesses, including two Christmas tree farms and another nursery. Several speakers alleged that Vice Mayor Steve Haderlein has been working with SCE to bring in the public storage company, a charge he has denied in the past. Kurtz said a proposal for such a project was submitted to the city, but has been withdrawn. No project is currently being proposed. She denied reports that city staff were working to bring the project in, saying the city has taken no position on the matter. The planning department has been working on a recreation and green space element for the city general plan, but that was stalled by, among other issues, the concerns over the Edison open space belt. According to Kurtz, the open space element would be a separate document. At the meeting residents turned in an estimated 12,000 signatures calling for safeguards for the property, and called on the council to promise never to rezone the land. Some of the property is located adjacent to residents, and concerns were raised about the proposed storage structures in neighborhoods. A new city ice skating rink may also be built adjacent to the property, to replace the facility being moved from the Pasadena Convention Center. The open space issue has also been raised over the future use of land in the Arroyo Seco, where a longtime battle exists between advocates of passive and active recreation. |
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