City Urges Newsom to Amend Transit Housing Bills to Protect Historic Districts

The City is pressing Gov. Gavin Newsom to revise pending state legislation tied to transit-oriented development, warning that the bills could undermine decades of historic preservation efforts while failing to account for local housing policies already in place.

In a letter sent to the governor, Mayor Victor Gordo said Senate Bill 677, expected to be amended as a clean-up bill for SB 79, should be rewritten to expand protections for historic resources and provide broader exemptions for medium-sized cities.

State Senator Sasha Renée Pérez and Assemblyman John Harabedian are copied on the letter along with several city officials.

According to the letter, SB 79’s current framework does not adequately protect historic districts or properties that are listed — or eligible to be listed — on state and national historic registers.

“Pasadena is synonymous with rich cultural resources and a decades-long commitment to historic preservation,” the letter states, adding that the legislation’s existing exemptions are too narrow and could expose significant historic areas to redevelopment pressures.

City officials are calling for several specific changes, including language that clearly defines entire historic districts — including local landmark districts — as protected historic resources. Pasadena also wants the bill to cover not only locally designated properties, but those listed on the California Register of Historical Resources and the National Register of Historic Places.

Some of the City’s most prominent historic areas, including Old Pasadena, the Playhouse District and the Civic Center, are listed on the National Register but not on a local register, leaving them vulnerable under the current wording.

The Dec. 30 letter also urged lawmakers to remove a Jan. 1 cutoff date that limits which historic resources qualify for exemptions, arguing that ongoing citywide surveys continue to identify previously undocumented properties of historical significance.

Another concern centers on a provision that caps historic-resource exemptions at 10% of the land area in a transit-oriented development alternative plan. Pasadena is asking that the threshold be eliminated and that all qualified historic resources be exempt, regardless of acreage.

Beyond preservation, Pasadena is seeking additional exemptions from SB 79’s mandates for medium-sized cities — defined in the letter as those with fewer than 200,000 residents — particularly for areas located between a quarter-mile and a half-mile from certain transit stops.

Pasadena already exceeds the bill’s transit service ratios by allowing higher residential densities than those required under SB 79 in many areas, and has upzoned large portions of the city over the past decade to expand housing capacity.

Since 2015, officials said, Pasadena has increased allowable densities throughout its central district and along major corridors, many of which are highly walkable and well served by transit even if they fall outside the bill’s defined radius.

The City also has a state-certified Housing Element and has actively pursued housing growth near transit as part of a broader planning strategy.

In the letter, Gordo acknowledged the severity of California’s housing crisis but warned that SB 79, as written, could disrupt local planning efforts.

“While Pasadena is not against adding housing or density,” the letter states, “the provisions of SB 79 will undermine the many efforts that Pasadena has undertaken in recent years to increase housing supply near transit, while protecting our historic resources.”