Old Headlines (No Limit)
Neighborhood Meeting About St. Luke Property Turns Confrontational
By By JAMES MACPHERSON
Thursday, March 20, 2008, 3:44 am

DS Ventures' Marc Annotti with revised plan for former St. Luke Hospital property.

A meeting Wednesday night called by the developer of the former St. Luke Hospital property to share its revised plans with nearby residents became confrontational when Vice Mayor Steve Haderlein called DS Ventures' actions "inexcusable" and "disrespectful."

Nearly 70 residents filled the St. Luke chapel to hear DS Ventures' spokesman Nat Read present revisions to the developer's plans for the property made as the result of neighborhood input from an earlier February 6 meeting.

Haderlein told the crowd that DS Ventures' "lack of notification of the meeting" raised his concerns that the "that the developer is deliberately trying to limit community participation."

Earlier, Haderlein told Pasadena Now that the developer is scheduled to present plans to Pasadena city staff as soon as next Tuesday.

The community's interest in the large property appears to focus on the number and size of buildings the developer proposes and also on whether an urgent care facility is to be included.

Read described DS Ventures' plans to build a seniors assisted care and independent living "campus" with three new buildings housing independent living units, three new medical buildings and a parking structure.

In total, the current plans call for over 300 units of residential and commercial space.

The proposed buildings range from two stories to four stories in height.

St. Luke Hospital itself is a protected historic building and its exterior will not be altered; inside, it will be converted into senior independent living units.

Although Read said that DS Ventures believes an urgent care facility would lend itself to the nature of the senior living and medical uses which are proposed, he offered no details.  In pointing out features on a property map, he did not identify such a facility.

In response to a series of residents' comments shortly before the meeting ended, Read asked the crowd if the size of the project was, as one put it, "getting way too big."

A vast majority raised their hands.

In a telephone interview before the meeting, Vice Mayor Haderlein objected to what he called the limited and "ineffective" methods used by the developer to notify the community about the meeting.

"They are ramming this down the neighborhood's throat . . . what they're doing is wrong," Haderlein said. "In Pasadena, we believe in community input."

At the meeting, Read said that he believed that sending a representative door to door with door hangers to notify locals of the meeting was more effective than mailing a postcard.

He agreed to send letter announcements mailed in envelopes after polling the residents on what method they preferred.