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Planning Commission Hearing into 6-Story Hotel in City’s Civic Center Postponed

Published on Thursday, June 23, 2016 | 5:19 am
 
Source: City of Pasadena

A Planning Commission hearing into the renovation of the historic Julia Morgan-designed YWCA building and construction of an adjacent six-story building by Kimpton Hotels across the street from Pasadena City Hall was postponed Wednesday night at the request of the developer, until July 13.

The project has raised the ire of local preservationists who decry what they see as an over-sized project invading the city’s civic center, one which would reduce open green space directly opposite Pasadena’s highly-regarded City Hall.

 


Editor’s Note: An earlier story published on June 22, 2016 about this hotel project contained statements which were incorrect. First, the article said the three parcels of land involved in this project were sold to Kimpton Hotels. That is not the case. The City of Pasadena owns the property and will continue to do so. Second, the headline quoted the word of an activist, calling the arrangement a “giveaway.” In fact, the use of all of the land in the project is covered by a ground use lease and no portion of the three land parcels involved in the project is being given to Kimpton Hotels.


 

The developer’s representatives requested the continuance citing travel conflicts, a desire to further vet the staff recommended conditions of approval and to further review the proposed mitigation measures arising from the final Environmental Impact Report.

The proposed project involves the rehabilitation and adaptive reuse of the existing 48,260-square-foot YWCA building located at 78 North Marengo Avenue and the addition of an 87,342-square-foot, six-story building on the project site, which together would become a 127,912-square-foot, approximately 179-room, Kimpton Hotel, according to the City’s website.

The height of the proposed hotel would be 60 feet. By contrast, the highest point of the Pasadena City Hall is 206 feet.

The final Environmental Impact Report for the project, called the YWCA/Kimpton Project, was just released, and was to have been discussed at the June 22 meeting.

San-Francisco-based Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants Group originally entered into an exclusive negotiation agreement with the City of Pasadena in 2013 for plans to transform the YWCA building into a fashionable boutique hotel.

The YWCA moved out of the building in 1997, and the building lay vacant and decaying for the next fifteen years.  The City had purchased the building for $8.2 million, after seizing the property through eminent domain proceedings concluded in 2012.

Both the YWCA and the YMCA building across Holly Street directly to the north were completed between 1921 to 1923, and predated the 1927 plans for the Civic Center. Both were built facing North Marengo Avenue before Holly Street was widened and extended to provide the current approach to City Hall, which was completed as part of the “Bennett Plan” in 1927.

The proposed hotel site itself is comprised of three separate parcels. The third parcel, an “L” shape on the north and east of the YWCA building and parking lot, is open space and public art along Holly Street and Garfield Avenue, and features the “Robinson Memorial,” twin busts depicting Jackie and Mack Robinson.

The Robinson Memorial would remain unaffected by the proposed hotel.

There is also a small grouping of five trees along the eastern portion of the project site, south of Holly Street, known as Pasadena’s “Sister City Trees.” The total project site encompasses approximately 84,042 square feet of land with approximately 61 trees, public trees that are afforded protection by the City Trees and Tree Protection Ordinance.

“These parks are part of the original Civic Center plan from 1923, and were designed by the best planning firm in the country at the time,” said Ann Scheid, who, along with other Pasadena preservationists, fears that the project will affect the trees and their garden location.

Her group hopes to have “the green spaces remain and re-landscaped to the standard of the City Hall courtyard,” she said. “These parks could be an even greater asset than they are now with a more attractive landscaping plan.”

City Interim Planning Director David Reyes acknowledged the concern of the preservationists, saying, “This is a really important project. We’ve had fifteen meetings on it. And there are rules in place for it.”

Reyes noted that so far, the hotel plan, including the green space, complies with the Central District Specific Plan zoning, the General Plan Land Use designation, and The Bennett Plan, which was the original 1927 Civic Center plan.

In fact, the Bennett plan shows that the two green spaces at the eastern tip of Holly Street facing City Hall were originally planned as either automobile parking spaces or possible building sites.

“What we hope to have, with whatever the Planning Commission or ultimately, the City Council decides, is symmetry, so that both parcels on either side of (Holly) have some symmetry in terms of landscaping and green space,” said Reyes.

The Planning Commission will take up the matter again on July 13.

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