A new chapter appears to be starting in a generational battle that has spanned more than six decades, as the city of Pasadena is poised to buy and resell more than a dozen vacant homes owned by Caltrans through eminent domain as part of the now-defunct 710 North expansion project.
On Monday, Oct. 30, the City Council will consider awarding contracts for broker listing services to Compass, Beautiful Pasadena Homes and Sotheby’s International for an amount not to exceed $1,387,260.
The proposed action – which would effectively enable the homes to be re-sold after being acquired from Caltrans, and contracts with the firms who would broker the sales — represents a milestone moment in the long-running saga of Caltrans properties languishing after the state long ago tried to build the 710 Freeway extension through El Sereno, South Pasadena and Pasadena.
“Here we have 17 homes that have been vacant for decades. Just to get those back in service, that’s a big deal,” said William Huang, Pasadena’s housing director. “It’s a big deal to not have vacant homes scattered throughout neighborhoods.”
First things first, of course. Monday’s action — if the council approves – is in itself only a first step.
In July, Huang said Caltrans had released 17 vacant single-family homes to the city for purchase as part of SB 959, a law that compels the state to sell vacant homes that were part of the failed 710 project in Pasadena back to the city to further affordable housing.
The city identified four properties as potential affordable homeownership opportunities, and the remaining 13 will be marketed and sold, with the proceeds going toward affordable housing. Caltrans owns more than 100 properties in Pasadena in total, mainly along St. John and Pasadena Avenues. But many of those properties are occupied, with tenancy arrangements being worked out between Caltrans and the tenants.
At issue for the City Council on Monday will consider whether to give the go-ahead on a process that will enable the city to move forward on identifying whether it wants to acquire all 17, hiring a security firm to keep the properties it does want secured, considering a firm that would inspect the properties, and then whether to approve brokers the city would hire to market and sell the homes.
The city indicated its interest in purchasing all 17 properties in a response to Caltrans back in July. According to Monday’s staff report, the city would plan to enter into purchase and sale agreements with Caltrans “after conducting its due diligence, including property appraisals and inspections. Staff will return to Council with a recommendation to acquire the properties including information about the due diligence findings.”
Among the terms for potential buyers of the properties, they would be required to execute a performance deed of trust in the form of an addendum to their sales agreement to ensure that the properties are maintained, brought up to code, and occupied within a reasonable period of time, according to the staff report. It wasn’t clear which entity would enforce that covenant.
The sale would be the most visibly significant movement to date in the effort to reconnect the community splintered by the project’s planned route, which disproportionately affected Pasadena’s Black community. Back in the 1960s, Caltrans was on the front end of acquiring the homes, which cost the state an average of $57,420 when they acquired them, according to the city staff report.
The 710 project became a microcosm of the impact of the hazards of freeway projects being built and planned through communities without regard for the social implications. The project divided areas in cities such as Pasadena — areas once home to largely minority single-family neighborhoods.
Decisions by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority in 2017 and Caltrans the following year to move away from funding plans for extending the freeway — which included what would have been the longest tunnel in the country— culminated in Pasadena regaining control of the corridor in its city limits last June.
Christopher Sutton, an attorney with decades invested in representing tenants in occupied Caltrans homes, said there are about 400 Caltrans properties in the entire corridor spanning the three cities.
He noted that the process of unloading the properties was “extremely slowly going in the right direction,” but cautioned that repair costs could be substantial for homes that have languished for years, and noted that some homes have historic covenants that highlight the question of who will be on the hook if such covenants are broken.
What was clear is that some of the homes will need some serious upgrades: “the epitome of the fixer-upper,” Huang said.
It was also clear that even when sold, they would comprise only a fraction of the city’s affordable housing stock, and of the hundreds of units in the pipeline, Huang added.
Monday’s proposed action comes as just last week officials announced that an apartment complex in South Pasadena owned by Caltrans for more than 60 years to make way for the 6.2-mile 710 extension will be sold to Friendship Baptist Community Development Corporation, the development arm of Friendship Baptist Church in Pasadena, which intends to repair the units and rent them out as affordable housing.
It also comes as the city of Pasadena appears close to tapping a historical consultant that would study the history of the area known as the 710 Stub, and the displacement caused by the planned freeway.
The City Council will consider contracting with Allegra Consulting, Inc. for an amount not to exceed $200,000 over a period of three years to create an oral history. Allegra is also contracted with the city’s rental housing board to provide public relations services.
The oral history is just one of three parts of a historical report that will be completed on the displacement – part of the city’s effort to “re-imagine” the future of the 710 Stub area. The “Historical Data/Setting” portion will be completed by Architectural Resources Group for $66,990 and the “Impacts of Freeways on Segregation in Pasadena” will be completed by the Regents of the University of California (UCLA) at a cost of $57,622, according to the city.