Design Commission Approves Porsche Dealership With Conditions on Access, Lighting and Turf

The city’s Design Commission on Tuesday unanimously approved the final design for a new Rusnak Porsche dealership on East Colorado Boulevard, advancing a 61,370-square-foot sales and service facility with a 4,864-square-foot automated carwash — but only after attaching four conditions addressing accessibility, lighting, building materials, and environmental concerns.

The dealership, proposed for 2915 E. Colorado Blvd. and spanning parcels on Walnut Street, North Sunnyslope Avenue and Nina Street, will feature a public art plaza and the vacation of Nina Street. Rusnak/Pasadena is the applicant, with Goree Whitfield as the architect.

Commissioners directed the development team to revise the Colorado frontage to ensure people of all abilities enter the plaza via the same path, eliminating a separate accessible route.

“That’s a much more elegant solution where you don’t actually separate people with different abilities,” Commissioner Srinivas Rao said.

The panel also mandated a dark-sky–compliant lighting plan for the sides and rear of the building, citing city zoning rules that restrict uplighting.

“The zoning code does have requirements for shielding and downlight,” Principal Planner Kevin Johnson noted.

A third condition requires the team to lighten the tone of the brick used on large wall areas to avoid a monolithic appearance and maintain contrast with adjacent aluminum composite panels. Commissioners said the submitted dark brick could feel oppressive to pedestrians and lacked visual warmth.

The most pointed environmental debate focused on the plaza’s surface. The applicant proposed artificial turf “pods” beneath the public art installation, replacing earlier “turf block” plantings due to maintenance issues under parked cars.

Chair Julianna Delgado urged the team to avoid synthetic turf entirely, citing its fossil fuel origins, heat-island effects and water-use implications.

The commission’s final condition requires a sustainability review of the proposed material and comparison with greener alternatives.

City staff also clarified that the historic Swanson & Peterson Furniture Factory building on the site is not eligible for historic designation. The owner plans to retain the structure, and any major future changes would require additional design review. A letter from Pasadena Heritage had questioned whether federal historic standards applied; staff said they do not.

With design approval secured, the project now moves to plan check and building permits, where compliance with both interdepartmental and commission-imposed conditions will be verified.

In other business, the commission voted to retain Delgado as chair and selected Marie-Claude Fares as vice chair for fiscal year 2025–26.