New Security Upgrades Recommended for Local Housing Project

An essential but challenged Pasadena housing development has been recommended by the City’s Northwest Commission to receive a much-needed set of security upgrades, including security camera system, new gates with gate controls and fencing, along with security lighting, landscaping and project management.

The Northwest Commission, a community-based liaison to the City Council, unanimously recommended Tuesday evening that the project be moved forward for approval to the full City Council.

The complex, at 131 E. Orange Grove Boulevard was built in 1973 with funds from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as affordable rental housing for low-income residents, and is currently owned and operated by Community Bible Community Development Corporation.

Should the full council approve the project, HUD will provide the bulk of the funds necessary to complete the upgrade, less $43,000, which the City of Pasadena will provide as a 15-year loan, with payments to be made from annual rent receipts. That loan may be re-financed at the end of five years. The HUD loan is forgivable at the end of five years, and is structured much more like a grant, according to the presentation by Pasadena Housing Department Senior Project Manager James Wong.

According to architect and project manager Charles Bryant, the building’s lighting system needs to be completely upgraded in order for the new security system to be effective.

In addition, new keypad systems will be installed for residents as well as a “one click” entry system for police, to make it easier for them to enter and respond to incidents. Police will be able to enter the property using a specialized dedicated mobile app.

Besides the lighting, gates and gates controls, new property landscaping would be designed that would make it more difficult for suspects to flee from police or hide in shrubbery. The landscape would also include hedges and similar barriers.

If approved, the four-month project would begin September 1, 2016.

In an unrelated development, the commission, which members said has lately been struggling with a recalcitrant member (who Commission Chair Allan Shay would not name), also asked to place on the September agenda plans and protocol for behavior standards for members, as well as a mechanism to remove members from the commission.