Council Expected to Pass Development, Lease Agreements With Builder of Complex Facing City Hall

The Pasadena City Council on Monday is expected to approve the key business terms of a development and lease agreement with the National Community Renaissance of California, which aims to build a 100-unit, five story, apartment complex at 280 Ramona Street across from Pasadena City Hall.

Once in operation, the facility, an affordable rental housing complex with approximately 112 units, will serve lower-income senior citizens at economical rents. The project will include also units reserved for senior citizens experiencing homelessness.

The City and the developer initially reached concurrence on the key business terms of the agreement on Oct. 10.

As described in plans submitted to the Housing Department, the project will have a community room, management offices, a courtyard, and a resident manager unit. It would also include amenities: a 3,500-square-foot publicly accessible courtyard on the ground floor, two outdoor patios on the second and third floors overlooking the central courtyard, a 1,500-square-foot community room, offices, and a community space on the second floor.

The courtyard will provide appropriately sized and safe areas for residents and their accompanied guests to relax, congregate, and otherwise enjoy common area amenities. It may be opened on occasion to the general public for events in coordination with on-site property management.

The concept design for the Project was approved by the Design Commission on Sept. 27 and became effective on Oct. 11.

Plans showed the proposed facility would have a building footprint of 18,104 square feet and gross floor area 77,150 square feet. Parking will not be provided on-site and instead will be available – to future residents – in existing nearby privately operated parking facilities; they’d have to enter into individual parking lease arrangements with the owners or operators.

The developer also intends to master lease parking stalls for on-site staff at the privately operated parking facilities. Short-term parking at those facilities and at existing metered street parking will be available to guests, the Housing Department report said.

Future residents will also be able to use affordable and accessible public and private transit options, including paratransit – or door to door – services for which the project is uniquely situated and designed to accommodate. 

Designated resident loading zones within the building will be provided in addition to a new curbside loading zone sized for larger paratransit vehicles which will be located adjacent to the Ramona Street resident entry and elevator lobby.

The project Site is bound by the five-story YMCA building to the west, Ramona Street to the north, Garfield Ave. to the east, and Holly Street to the south.

Across Ramona Street to the north is the City of Pasadena Permit Center (the Hale Building), as well as a five-level public parking structure at the northeastern corner of Ramona Street and Marengo Avenue. Across Garfield Avenue to the northeast is the Pasadena Courthouse. Pasadena City Hall is located across Garfield Avenue to the east. Across Holly Street to the south is the historic YWCA building, which is currently vacant.

Also covered in the development agreement is the demolition of existing improvements and features on the site, including a concrete storage building, the concrete pad and driveway leading from the storage building to Ramona Street, the walkways within the landscaped area on the eastern side of the project site, the concrete pad on the northwest side of the Project Site abutting the YMCA building, and the chain-link fencing securing the central portion of the site.

Twenty-six of the 47 trees located on the site will also be removed. These trees are in the center of the project site and would be within the proposed structure’s building footprint, the report said.

According to the Housing Department, the proposed project would be funded, in part, through the HUD HOME Investment Partnership program in the amount of $2,756,073.