Pasadena, Consultant Receive Award for the Arroyo Seco Music and Arts Festival Environmental Impact Report

The City of Pasadena and environmental planning consultant ESA have been recognized by the California Association of Environmental Professionals (AEP) with a Merit Award for the Arroyo Seco Music and Arts Festival Environmental Impact Report.

The first annual festival, also called the Arroyo Seco Weekend, will take place at the Rose Bowl on June 24 and 25.

David Reyes, the City’s Director of Planning and Community Development, said the award is given to agencies and firms publishing an outstanding environmental analysis or assessment document prepared in compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) or the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

Entries for the award are judged based on completeness, organization, clarity, economy of language, adequacy of summary, unique methodology and public involvement.

The EIR for the Arroyo Music and Arts Festival analyzed a proposed three-day event at the Rose Bowl Stadium and on portions of the nearby Brookside Golf Course, which will be run by AEG/Goldenvoice in conjunction with the Rose Bowl Operating Company.

The project was approved last year, and the Pasadena City Council certified the EIR in April 2016. During hearings leading to the certification, City officials sought the community’s inputs about possible noise pollution and other impacts within the residential neighborhoods around the Rose Bowl and Brookside Golf Course, and effectively consolidated these into the EIR.

ESA, based in Los Angeles, is an environmental science and planning firm with more than 500 professionals working in 14 offices across the West Coast and Southeast. The firm specializes in all aspects of project planning, environmental analysis and assessment, and regulatory compliance.

The Arroyo Seco Weekend is envisioned to be a family-friendly event, with the organizers making sure the whole family is welcome and the bands performing will be family-friendly. Local art associations will be tapped to ensure that the “identify of Pasadena” is woven into the event.
“We’re thrilled to have this event,” Darryl Dunn, Rose Bowl Operating Company General Manager, said earlier in March. “We believe this will be a long term partner for us and really plays into the greatest strength we have which is of course our setting. This is going to be a unique event that recognizes the Arroyo Seco and the Rose Bowl, our grounds, and we’re really excited about it.”