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Plans for New Los Robles Avenue Luxury Project Call for Large-Scale Demolition

Former Fuller Seminary property moves toward EIR phase with a scoping meeting today

Published on Wednesday, February 8, 2017 | 5:47 am
 
Images of the skyline for the property at 260 North Los Robles Avenue as proposed in a June, 2014 application by Carmel Partners.

When Carmel Partners bought three dorm apartment buildings a total of 172 rooms for $24 million from Fuller Theological Seminary in 2014, and then announced plans for their demolition in 2015, shock waves were felt not only through the school’s community but throughout the Pasadena housing community, and indeed beyond.

The new project, which is now moving toward the environmental impact report (EIR) phase, would dramatically change the neighborhood north of the Seminary near the intersection of Walnut Avenue and Los Robles.

“We have never as a city had a project that has proposed the demolition of so many units, absent the (210) freeway construction,” Planning and Community Development Department Director David Reyes said at the time.

The site parcels, outlined in blue, would become integrated into a single, multi-story complex boundaried by North Los Robles in the west, East Corson Street on the north, North Oakland Street on the east, and East Walnut Street on the south.

The last comparable large-scale demolition of homes in Pasadena was the razing of over one thousand homes for the construction of the 210 freeway in 1970, Reyes said then.

According to a city scoping report, the project now includes the demolition of six multi-family residential apartment buildings along with a surface parking lot, and the construction of a four-story residential apartment complex containing 307 dwelling units (down from the original planned 432 apartments). Parking for the residential use would be provided in two levels of subterranean parking containing a total of 521 parking spaces.

“The overall plan is that we would demolish the [existing] buildings,” Neils Cotter, the Vice President of Development for Carmel Partners said in 2014, at the time of the purchase.

At the time of the sale, local advocates were also shocked at the prospect of losing so many affordable apartments at one time.

“All the buildings being torn down were affordable,” said housing advocate Jill Shook when the developer announced its demolishment plans.

“It’s a huge loss,” she said then. “With our inclusionary housing ordinance since 2001, we have produced 440 units now in the city. In one fell swoop with Fuller choosing to sell all of these units to a high-end developer, we’re losing 190 units. That’s close to half of all of our gain via inclusionary housing in the last twenty years for the city,”

Tuesday, Pasadena Housing Department Director Bill Huang said he in not aware of any City agreement with Carmel Partners to include affordable units in the new project.

“We had some initial discussion with Carmel Partners about a certain number of affordable units, but that was quite a while ago,” Huang said, “and from what I understand, they have changed the number of units, but they haven’t come back and talked to us yet. We don’t have any kind of agreement with them yet on any kind of affordable housing. But, before they submit design and development plans, those housing plans would already have to be in place.”

The sale itself created numerous problems for Fuller on its own campus. In July 2015, Fuller announced that it would begin offering low-cost housing only to its full time students. The Seminary had previously made low-cost housing available to both its students and former students, and to faculty and staff. Those who did not fit the “student” criteria were asked to vacate by a July 9 deadline.

Dozens of staff, faculty and alumni and their families were left scrambling to find housing, with at least three families staying past the imposed deadline only to find their power shut off and door locks removed.

“We recognize this has been a difficult and painful process for many who are being displaced,” Fuller’s Media Relations Specialist Reed Metcalf said then.

Fuller reportedly was able to relocate all but three of the full time students who were eligible to transfer into the remaining sixty percent of housing.

And now preparation for the formal (EIR) is set to begin along with a Concept Design Review before the Planning Department for the four-story residential apartment complex itself; a Development Agreement Amendment, to officially remove the property from the existing Development Agreement between the City of Pasadena and Fuller Theological Seminary, as well as a Master Development Plan Amendment to remove the property from the Fuller Theological Seminary Master Development Plan.

The development will also require a Vesting Tentative Tract Map, to merge the existing lots into a single consolidated lot.
Another aspect of the development certain to receive close scrutiny by residents and local tree advocates is the fact that the developer, according to the scoping report, is seeking a private tree removal permit, to allow the removal of on-site trees, as well as a public tree removal permit, to allow the removal of street trees.
Meanwhile, the scoping process, which will determine what factors will be considered in the EIR, would likely include calculation of air pollutants associated with construction and operational activities of the project, against existing air quality conditions and current air quality management plans and standards; the consumption of non-renewable resources by the proposed project, specifically, oil, energy, and water; the potential emissions of greenhouse gases compared to applicable policies and plans regarding reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases.
The EIR would also evaluate the consistency of the project with applicable land use plans and policies of the City, as well as evaluate the potential noise impacts on surrounding uses from construction and the long-term increased density at the site.

In addition, the EIR will “discuss the consistency of the proposed demolition of existing housing against the housing policies and goals of the City,” and “evaluate the impact of the Project on existing traffic, transit, pedestrian and bicycle patterns, volumes, and policies.”

The EIR will also consider potential impacts to Tribal Cultural Resources, particularly to potential buried resources, and the local impacts on water, wastewater and solid waste infrastructure.

The City will now start a thirty-day review period during which residents may submit written comments regarding potential environmental impacts of the project, as well as issues to be addressed in the EIR.

Comments may be submitted by March 6, 2017 to David Sanchez, Senior Planner, Planning & Community Development Department, City of Pasadena, 175 N. Garfield Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91101; (626) 744-6707; dasanchez@cityofpasadena.net.

The City will also hold a meeting to receive comments on the scope of the Project’s EIR Wednesday, February 8, 2017 at 6:30 p.m. in Council chambers at Pasadena City Hall, 100 N. Garfield Avenue.

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