Almost six decades after the state used eminent domain to displace thousands of mostly minority residents to extend the 710 freeway, the Pasadena task force guiding the future of the roughly 40-acre ‘ditch’ received an update on the years-long process at its first regular meeting.
The 16-member board, which at the meeting renamed itself the Reconnecting Communities 710 advisory group, is tasked with providing a broad vision for the area, including a draft concept plan that identifies its future land uses, scale of development, and infrastructure needs.
While several other government bodies — the planning commission, design review commission and transportation advisory commission, for example — will be involved in developing specific elements of the site’s future, the Reconnecting Communities group is the only one expected to take a holistic view of the project.
Once home to largely minority single-family neighborhoods, for years the site has become a battleground where city officials, state leaders, and residents fought for their vision of the region’s transportation needs.
Decisions by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority in 2017 and Caltrans the following year to move away from funding plans for extending the freeway — which included what would have been the longest tunnel in the country— culminated in Pasadena regaining control of the corridor in its city limits last June.
According to Assistant City Manager David Reyes, while the high-level concept planning will be recommended by the group, city staff and consultants will handle much of the details. Reyes said the city is planning to bring a senior project manager on board to help oversee the whole process.
In March, the city sent out a request for information seeking firms that could help guide the strategic planning process, which received about 20 responses with an awardee expected to be selected the first week of June.
Reyes said the city next week plans to send a request for proposals for compiling a history of the area, which would include data on people displaced and homes destroyed, direct interviewers with affected residents compiling an oral history, and an evaluation of how the freeway expansion contributed to segregation in Pasadena.
A component on restorative justice could be included in that proposal, Reyes said, or may be a separate request to come.
Pasadena will receive a $2 million planning grant through the state’s Reconnecting Communities pilot program, which seeks to reconnect neighborhoods torn apart during the interstate and highway boom of the 50s and 60s, though it’s a drop in the bucket compared to anticipated planning costs alone.
The vision plan stage is expected to take 9 months to one year to complete, which will be followed by a feasibility analysis anticipated to take just as long. Then, the development of a specific plan from those recommendations is expected to take 12 to 15 months, into spring 2025. Once finalized, it will be years before the plans expected to shape Pasadena’s future see any significant development.
