Council to Review Heritage Square South Pre-Development Plan

The City Council on Monday will hear a pre-development plan review on a mixed-use companion project to the Heritage Square Housing Project.

The 70-unit Heritage Square Apartments,  located at l762 N. Fair Oaks Ave., just above Orange Grove Boulevard and located on the original site of Pasadena’s historic Decker House, was completed in 2017.

When it is completed, Heritage Square South, located just south of the first project, would provide 69 affordable housing units for independent seniors and one unit for a manager of the complex. Like Heritage Square Apartments, Heritage Square South is being developed by the nonprofit Bridge Housing Corp.

The 48,462 square-foot project also includes approximately 2,200 square feet of ground-floor commercial space and a 37-space surface parking lot. The project is expected to cost $30 million.

Per the city’s Inclusionary Housing Ordinance, 20 percent of the units must be available to very low, low, and moderate-income people at an affordable housing cost.

Five percent of the units must be rented to very low-income households, five percent must be rented to very low- or low-income households; and 10 percent must be rented to very low, low, or moderate-income households. 

“The purpose of the PPR (Pre-Development Plan Review) is to achieve better projects through early consultation between City staff and applicants,” according to a city staff report. “The intent is to coordinate the review of projects among city staff and city departments, familiarize applicants with regulations and procedures that apply to the project, and avoid significant investment in the design of a project without preliminary input from city staff.”

Bridge Housing was selected to construct the project last year during a hearing before a packed council chamber that included speakers from the city’s affordable housing advocacy community.

At that meeting, the Rev. Connie Millsap of First United Methodist Church and members of the Greater Pasadena Affordable Housing Group praised the selection of Bridge Housing, saying “The [homeless] problem is not growing smaller, it’s growing larger, as our biggest population of homeless are seniors, those over the age of 50.” 

Millsap noted that there has been a 65% increase from last year in the number of seniors who are experiencing homelessness.

The city’s housing director Bill Huang praised the developer. 

“Using Bridge Housing to develop the adjacent site,” Huang noted in his report, “provides a unique opportunity for unified management, including parking, shared common areas, shared maintenance and joint delivery of support services.”

The property, valued at $5 million, would remain owned by the city but would be leased to Bridge Housing on a long-term basis.

Bridge Housing has over 16 years of experience in building mixed-use and supportive housing projects.