The motion passed unanimously after both neighbors and Council members praised the plan for it’s far-sighted vision. Most public comments centered on making sure the City commits resources to help implement the new plan. The motion to approve by Councilmember Rick Cole, who represents part of the area, included language to request the City Manager to return to the Council on steps to “jumpstart” implementation as well as a tightening of the ban against expansion of “drive thru” uses on North Lake.
Council action implements a plan that concentrates greater residential density and taller building envelopes toward the southern end of the corridor near the transit station while preserving lower-scale transitions to adjacent historic neighborhoods, according to the staff report and the plan text presented at the Nov. 24 meeting. The plan divides the area into four subareas — Washington Place, Vineyard Gardens, North Lake Village and the Lake Station District — each with distinct goals for housing, retail and public realm improvements.
The Planning Commission recommended approval on Sept. 10 by a 7-0 vote and proposed several refinements that staff supported, including adjustments to implementation timing for temporary art in empty storefronts and changes to land-use categories and zoning for a handful of parcels to allow higher residential densities in specific locations.
The adopted regulations expand housing opportunities by allowing housing in more areas of the corridor, focusing greater residential density near the Metro A Line station, and encouraging mixed-use development with ground-floor commercial in key nodes. The plan also establishes private-realm development standards, including setbacks, upper-floor stepbacks and open-space requirements tied to unit counts, and proposes building heights that concentrate taller buildings in the Lake Station District and at the southwest corner of Lake and Washington boulevards. In areas allowing up to 51 feet, the plan permits height averaging so up to 30 percent of a building footprint may reach 63 feet.
Public-realm standards in the plan call for wider sidewalks — a minimum of 12 to 15 feet in new development — new street trees consistent with the city’s Master Street Tree Plan, landscaped medians, fewer curb cuts and other pedestrian-oriented improvements intended to transform North Lake into a “Great Street.”
The plan continues a longstanding local restriction on drive-through businesses: it would prohibit new drive-throughs in the North Lake area while retaining rules that govern existing drive-throughs established under prior versions of the specific plan. The staff report notes that the 2007 update allowed existing drive-throughs to be demolished and rebuilt through a conditional use permit to incentivize property improvements; the current update maintains a prohibition on new drive-through establishments.
Design and development standards in the plan also address parking, simplifying parking requirements and exempting small businesses from some parking obligations to lower barriers to entry and support economic vitality along the corridor. Publicly accessible open space would be required only for larger projects — those exceeding 80,000 square feet — with a minimum of 2 percent of gross floor area dedicated to such space.
The North Lake Specific Plan is the latest product of the city’s “Our Pasadena — Putting the Plan in Motion” program, which began in 2018 to update eight specific plan areas; five have been adopted previously. After adoption of the North Lake plan, two specific plans will remain: Fair Oaks Orange Grove and East Pasadena.
City staff recommended adoption of an addendum to the 2015 General Plan Environmental Impact Report and asked the council to make the required findings, adopt the specific plan and approve related zoning map and text amendments, with the City Attorney directed to prepare implementing ordinances within 120 days. The Planning Commission’s recommended edits to the draft plan were incorporated into the final document presented to the council, with the exception of the Council voting 5-1 to ban remodeling or adding adding additional drive thru lanes to the six existing fast food businesses between Orange Grove and Mountain The 1997 plan had designated these as “non-comforming” but the 2007 plan allowed for rebuilding and remodeling. The new plan will only allow cosmetic renovations.
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