Mayor Gordo Starts 710 Ad Hoc Committee

Mayor Victor Gordo announced on Monday that a 710 ad hoc committee has been formed.

The committee consists of Gordo and Councilmembers Steve Madison, Jason Lyon, and Tyron Hampton.

So far, no meeting dates or a schedule has been set.

More than 50 years ago, the California Department of Transportation seized hundreds of homes in southwestern Pasadena, the city of South Pasadena, and the Los Angeles neighborhood of El Sereno through eminent domain in what ultimately became a failed effort to connect the Long Beach 710 and Foothill 210 freeways. The state transit agency held the land for years, and for the past decade, the 710 “stub,” just a few miles from Old Pasadena, served as little more than a rock quarry for the California Department of Transportation.

The scenario played out across the country after the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 routed some highways directly through Black and Brown communities. Residents in Pasadena, South Pasadena, El Sereno, and other communities battled for decades to stop the freeway extension after the homes in the path of the original overland route to connect the 710 with the 210 freeways were seized.

The idea was finally scrapped several years ago in favor of twin tunnels 4.5 miles long connecting the two freeways at the end of the 710 in Alhambra to the 210 in the north. That plan was also eventually scrapped.

Pasadena reclaimed 50 acres of the 710 stub in 2022 when the California Department of Transportation formally relinquished the stub to the City of Pasadena on Aug. 15, 2022.

So far, the City has not decided how the reclaimed freeway stub will be used.

The stub area is approximately between Union Street on the north, Columbia Street on the south, St. John Avenue on the west, and Pasadena Avenue on the east.

The City now is focused on what to do with the reacquired space.