By Shel Segal for the Pasadena Independent
I-710 Corridor Project. – Courtesy photo from metro.net
Members of the group “Connecting Pasadena” are planning on holding two community meetings to discuss how to design the long fought-over Interstate 710 gap between Valley Boulevard in Alhambra and where the freeway meets up with Interstate 210 and Highway 134 in Pasadena.
The two sessions will be from 9 a.m. to noon on Oct. 25 and Nov. 8 at the Maranatha High School Student Union, located at 169 South St. John Avenue in Pasadena.
The group has said it is open to suggestions, but it has plans to develop the area into a boulevard, park, business or residential developments or a combination of those options, according to a published report.
One of the areas in question is known as the 710 Freeway “stub,” which has remained a vacant ditch since Caltrans took ownership of the property decades ago to build the originally planned surface freeway from Alhambra to Pasadena, the report said. If the agency does not elect to build the tunnel, residents said they want to be prepared to put the 35-acre space to good use.
Connecting Pasadena member Audrey O’Kelley said the land currently is not being put to good use and that people need to start discussing what to do with it.
Caltrans and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority are studying five options for the north extension: “No build,” traffic management solutions, bus, light rail and the tunnel. The draft environmental report is due to be released in February. The draft was originally scheduled for release last spring but was delayed, the report said.
The freeway project has divided the region for decades. Cities like Alhambra, Monterey Park and San Gabriel support the freeway extension as a way to reduce traffic on city streets, while cities like La Cañada-Flintridge, Sierra Madre and South Pasadena have adamantly opposed the project, the report said.
Many cities have set aside resources to respond to the draft document and have also spent money campaigning on both sides. The Pasadena City Council has not taken a position on the tunnel, citing a voter initiative that bars them from taking a stand against it, the report said.
However, the city recently formed a citizen-working group to develop a Pasadena “preferred alternative,” the report said O’Kelley said the Connecting Pasadena group plans to hand over the end product of their study to the working group for consideration by the end of the year. She said many people in the community and at the city have already expressed support for the idea.
(Shel Segal can be reached at [email protected]. He can be followed via Twitter @segallanded.)
Source Beacon Media News