City Council Appoints 16 Individuals to the 710 Community Advisory Working Group

The City Council on Monday completed the list of individuals who will sit as members of the 710 Community Advisory Working Group, which will provide guidance and advisory to the City Council with respect to the redevelopment of the nearly 50-acre swath of land in West Pasadena known as the 710 stub.

The Council’s original plan was to appoint 13 individuals to the working group but during Monday’s meeting it was agreed to increase this number to 16 following requests by some Councilmembers.

Appointed were Jose Luis Correa, nominated by Councilmembers Tyron Hampton, Justin Jones, Jess Rivas and Jason Lyon; and Joel Bryant, who was nominated by Councilmembers Hampton, Jones and Steve Madison.

Planning Commission Chair Mic Hansen, nominated by Mayor Victor Gordo, was also appointed.

“I would nominate Mic Hansen, who has a tremendous wealth of experience from a planning perspective —has served on the Planning Commission and has certainly been part of the long history on this issue,” Gordo said when he made the motion, which received a unanimous vote.

Jasmine Shupper, nominated by Hampton and Jones, was selected as well as Pasadena Unified School District Board President Michelle Richardson Bailey.

Remy De La Peza, nominated by Councilmember Jess Rivas, and Adriana Lim, nominated by Councilmember Gene Masuda, were also appointed to the working group.

The first nine members of the working group were named by the City Council last Monday.

They are former City Manager Cynthia Kurtz and Wayne Brandt, both nominated by Mayor Gordo; Nevil Green, nominated by Vice Mayor Felicia Williams; Tina Williams, nominated by Hampton; Danny Parker, nominated by Jones; Bryan Takeda, nominated by Masuda; Blair Miller, nominated by Councilmember Rivas; Ali Barar, nominated by Madison and Randy Shulman, nominated by Lyon.

Acting Assistant City Manager David Reyes said over 60 individuals sent applications to be part of the working group.

According to a City staff report, the group “will provide input to the City Council on the vision, land use, massing, circulation, and other urban design aspects of the plan, as well as other key policy issues, including potential restorative justice efforts relating to the displacement caused by the proposed freeway expansion.”

The group will convene regularly in meetings that will be open to the public.

“We’ll do our very best to have hybrid meetings from the standpoint of allowing the public to watch via zoom and maybe participate,” said Reyes. ”It will be a Brown Act body.”

Members of the City Council expressed gratitude to all the individuals who sent applications.

“I will, on behalf of the Council, prepare a letter to all of the applicants and ask that they remain open to serving in other capacities,” said Gordo. “It’s a mammoth undertaking and it’s going to require all of us to work together on a whole host of issues. Thank you colleagues, thank you to all applicants.”