Central Park Apartments Public Hearing Scheduled for Monday

The City Council will hold a public hearing on a Sustainable Communities Environmental Assessment for a proposed housing project scheduled to be built near the historic Castle Green and the Green Hotel Apartments.

Culver City-based developer Goldrich Kest wants to build a mixed-use project that includes 84 units, 16 of those affordable, at the corner of South Fair Oaks Avenue and East Dayton Street, directly across the street from Central Park and right next door to both the historic Castle Green and the Green Hotel Apartments.

An earlier version of the project was opposed by Pasadena Heritage and several local residents, who said the project was not compatible with the historic buildings and surroundings. The developers went back to square one and reworked the project.

City commissioners and local residents raised concerns with the height and orientation of the original plans for a six-story mixed-use building with 64 residential units and 5,000 square feet of commercial space on an existing surface parking lot.

Issues included open space, removal of protected trees and traffic congestion.

In correspondence to the City Council, Pasadena Heritage said it had reviewed the (SCEA). The group said that the developers had responded positively, but continued to have some concerns regarding cultural resources, noise and traffic.

“One element of the design that is absolutely critical is the courtyard,” wrote Pasadena Heritage in a letter signed by Sue Mossman, executive director and Andrew Saliman, preservation director. “This open space in the middle of the site is a profound change from earlier proposals and provides an open area for all residents while also creating a visual buffer between the new building and its two historic neighbors.”

The project, located within a half-mile of both the Del Mar and Memorial Park Metro Goldline Stations, is designed to connect to other nearby public transit with Central Park and Old Pasadena.

The project transforms a fenced-off surface parking lot into a transit-oriented mixed-use development with street-level retail businesses.

“We set out to create new apartment homes that will meet Pasadena’s need for new mixed-rate housing while carefully considering the project’s location within a historic block, in the context of the Old Pasadena Historic District, and its relationship to Central Park,” Emily Taylor, a trained architect who is director of development at Goldrich Kest told Pasadena Now in March.

“We are very proud of how the project design has evolved, and how it will transform a surface parking lot into a transit-oriented housing development that will become a new gateway to Old Pasadena,” Taylor said.