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Councilmembers Indicate Support for Parklets Project

The proposal, which is still tentative and has not yet been vetted by any city commission, was unveiled to the City Council in an informational briefing

Published on Tuesday, March 25, 2014 | 4:33 am
 

All eight members of the City Council indicated their support Monday night for a project proposed by community members and business leaders that would install removable parklets on Colorado Boulevard in the Pasadena Playhouse District.

“It’s our job as elected officials to present this concept and help to paint the picture and the vision of what could be in Pasadena’s Downtown Playhouse District,” Councilmember Victor Gordo said.

Aiming to transform Colorado Boulevard into a more pedestrian-friendly zone, the proposal would create six to eight parklets between Los Robles and Hudson Avenues that would recreate a parking space into a 14 to 20 foot park with flower boxes, outdoor seating or creative public art.

“In terms of the core of the district, it’s still dominated by a highway that’s the former Route 66 that was built for high-speed Cadillac’s in the 50s. It’s not what the current purpose is,” Playhouse District Association member Greg Gunther said.

Colorado Boulevard’s five-lane highway approach has little appeal for Gunther.

The Playhouse District’s proposal asks to reduce the street from five lanes to three traffic lanes — one each way with a turning lane, adding reverse angled parking — an endeavor that has already been piloted with 15 spaces on Vista Street.

A traffic study completed by the City of Pasadena shows that the potential “road diet” would cause minimal change to the current traffic.

“Colorado Boulevard should be viewed not as a high speed corridor to get you from here to Azusa which was the outdated view, but more of a neighborhood connector between Old Pasadena, the Paseo, and the Playhouse District. Pasadena is made up of these little villages and Colorado Boulevard connects them all,” Gunther said.

The traffic study showed that Colorado Boulevard, engineered to accommodate 36,000 vehicle trips daily, has five peak period hours of traffic. The traffic is minimal in the night hours then builds a climax beginning at 7:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m., totaling slightly more than 20,000 vehicles per day.

During the peak period hours, city staff found that if only 10 percent of the traffic were diverted to Union and Green Streets, or 100 cars each way, then the traffic would remain very close to the current flow. In the 19 other hours of the day the traffic would remain unaffected according to the study.

“We ought to let people know what its about. A lot of the concerns are mitigated and once they get the numbers, of one percent increase of traffic on Union and Green, then all the sudden it doesn’t sound as odd as it might,” Councilmember Terry Tornek said.

While Monday was the first the Council formally heard of the proposal, city staff have been seeped in the project for months, working with the Playhouse District Association to understand the zoning laws and any regulations that would apply to this pedestrian improvement that would be consistent with several city goals.

“It’s been awhile since Pasadena has been at the forefront of urban planning. It’s been a while since Pasadena has crowed about itself and something it offered above and beyond the Rose Bowl and Rose Parade. This gives you a chance to go on the offensive. I would urge you not to miss this chance,” Richard McDonald said.

The initiative has staff from the City Manager’s Office, Planning and Community Development Department, City Attorney’s Office and the Public Works Department who joined the Transportation Department with assessing the feasibility of the parklets concept and determining what role the city would play if the initiative advances.

“We have city people actually on the team, we’re working together. It makes it so much more efficient. People are rowing in the same direction to make this thing happen. We still have to go through the whole process,” Gunther said.

44 letters were received in support of the parklets and 20 people represented the Playhouse District at the Council meeting.

“I think that this proposal has already succeeded in the sense that its raised the bar in terms of public discussion,” Tornek said. “It’s a grassroots effort, its not an idea that was imposed on the community by the city, but it was something that grew out of the Playhouse District Association both the resident members and the business members.”

With city approval, the parklets would be funded by individual businesses who would care for the upkeep. The city’s financial contribution would total about $75,000 to place new pavement markings and add signage about reversed angled parking.

The parklets would not be permanent and would most likely be on a removable base that would easily be fork-lifted in the beginning of December before the Tournament of Roses Parade. Former President of the Tournament of Roses Scott Jenkins, attending the meeting, was called upon for the Tournament’s position.

“We are concerned as time goes by that in the clean up of the Parade and preparations of the parade we would like further assurances that a cost wouldn’t be imposed on Tournament of Roses,” Jenkins said.

In the park-starved commercial district where now more than 10,000 people live, 34,000 people work, and 4,000 students attend within a half-mile radius of the Playhouse district, the only green public space is “Green” Street.

Many attractions in the area beg pedestrians including restaurants with lines out the doors like Blaze Pizza and Urth Café, which opened in September 2013, as well as the Pasadena Playhouse, the Ice Comedy Club, Fuller Seminary and Le Cordon Bleu.

 

 

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