Altadena project placed on hold
February 26, 2002
By Lisa Faught
Staff Writer
ALTADENA -- A decision on who should redevelop the Windsor Avenue
and Woodbury Road intersection was postponed Monday night to give
a committee more time to review the proposals.
The West Altadena Project Area Committee
was slated to pick one of two projects proposed for the
intersection, but instead tabled the vote to give its 12 members a
chance to look over last-minute changes.
"They are so diverse and so
different -- the two proposals -- that it would behoove us to make
an informed decision," said Adolfo Miralles, WAPAC member.
Although residents still got a chance to
give their comments on the proposals, many were frustrated by the
delay.
"We worked the whole weekend handing
out fliers and doing all this groundwork," said Rod Goree, of
the Windsor Arroyo Neighborhood Association. "This is a
travesty."
The first proposal was submitted by Grant
Follis, a local property owner and second-generation Altadenan.
The project, in partnership with The
Clifford Companies of Newport Beach, would put 180,000 square feet
of mostly office buildings on all four corners of the
intersection. Some retail would go on the southeast corner and all
buildings would be two stories or less in height.
Another option from Follis and Clifford
Companies was to develop only the southwestern corner with about
99,000 square feet of office buildings. The corner now houses the
Rose Bowl Motel, a Jack in the Box restaurant, a Pasadena Police
Department helicopter pad, apartments, homes and businesses.
The second proposal, from Simms
Commercial Development, focuses on the southwestern corner, with
150,000 square feet of office buildings, 8,000 square feet of
retail and a two-story parking structure.
An earlier proposal called for 200,000
square feet of office buildings and expanding into Pasadena's
borders, but was scaled back because of the outcry from residents.
"We're trying to be receptive to the
community," said Mario Pichardo, spokesman for Simms
Commercial Development. "They made it clear they did not want
to move the heliport or encroach on the Pasadena side."
A third proposal -- which called for a
50,000 square-foot office building, a 100-room hotel to be run by
Hampton Inn & Suites and a small lake -- fell through because
some paperwork had not been filed. That proposal was submitted by
James Liang, owner of the Rose Bowl Motel.
Although the vote was continued to the
March meeting, some suggested finding a way to allow both
developers to redevelop the corner and both tentatively agreed to
split the intersection.
"Everyone in this room, we all have
the same thing in common -- development and the growing of this
community," said Wayne Nelson, WAPAC member. "We should
not fight each other. Why don't we embrace them both?"
-- Lisa Faught can be reached at (626)
578-6300, Ext. 4496, or by e-mail at lisa.faught@sgvn.com.