New City Pocket Park Goes Before Hearing Officer on Wednesday

A Pasadena hearing officer has scheduled a public hearing for the Lamanda Park Library Pocket Park project Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. Plans call for a playground with equipment for children 2 to 5, a playground shade structure, a rubberized play surface, a newly sodded lawn for a free-play area, and a safety fence between the playground and the street. 

The pocket park will also include six benches, three picnic tables, perimeter security fencing at the south edge of the property, a pet-friendly drinking fountain with a bottle filling station, a trash enclosure structure, irrigation improvements, new drought-tolerant landscaping, mulch areas under oak trees, with shrubbery and a park monument sign. 

Planning for the Lamanda Branch Library pocket park started around 2016 after the City Council approved a recommendation by the Recreation and Parks Commission to convert a portion of the grounds, on the corner of South Altadena Drive and East Morningside Street, into a pocket park.

The park would occupy 13,000 square feet of the existing 38,500 square-foot site, according to a public hearing notice for Wednesday’s meeting. No changes to the existing library building or parking lot are proposed. The application includes a sign exception request to allow 2.5 square feet of sign area on a monument sign, in lieu of the maximum permitted sign area of one square foot within the zoning district where the library is located.

There are 37 trees on-site, none of which will be removed, according to the plans. 

A conditional use permit (CUP) is required before construction of the park facility within the zoning district can be allowed. The public hearing will also determine whether a sign exception can be issued for the project, the hearing notice said.

Community members may access the public hearing through a video conference at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89877655788 or by calling (669) 900-6833 and using the webinar ID 898 7765 5788. 

Public comment may be submitted in advance by email to tvarsh@cityofpasadena.net, or through www.cityofpasadena.net/planning/public-comment.