Planning Department To Introduce Pasadena’s First Environmental Justice Element to Parks Commission

The Recreation and Parks Commission is scheduled to receive a presentation on Tuesday, Sept. 1, introducing the city’s work to prepare its first Environmental Justice Element, a new addition to the Pasadena General Plan.

The briefing is an information item, and the commission is advisory. It holds no authority to adopt the element; that power rests with the Planning Commission and the City Council, which would take it up at future hearings. Planners from the Planning Department are scheduled to present.

The city is developing the element to comply with California Senate Bill 1000, which requires cities the state identifies as having environmental justice communities to pinpoint those communities and adopt goals, policies and programs in their general plans to address disparities. According to the materials, the element would advance the city’s commitments to equity, public health and environmental sustainability and would join existing general plan elements covering land use, housing, mobility, safety, noise, open space and conservation, and green space, recreation and parks.

For Pasadena, the effort is significant because it formally ties current planning to the city’s history of housing and infrastructure decisions that concentrated burdens in specific neighborhoods. The presentation points to racial housing covenants in the early 1900s, redlining between 1939 and 1968 that affected most Northwest Pasadena neighborhoods, and freeway decisions involving the I-210 and a partial SR-710 that displaced residents and businesses in northwest and central Pasadena.

The materials outline the range of topics an environmental justice element covers, including pollution exposure; safe, sanitary and affordable housing; healthy and affordable food; equitable access to public facilities and programs such as parks, libraries and transit; active living and physical activity; and inclusive community engagement. To identify environmental justice communities, the city is using screening tools including CalEnviroScreen and the Healthy Places Index, with the state generally considering census tracts scoring 75 or higher on CalEnviroScreen to be such communities. A preliminary community boundary has been drawn but could shift based on community input.

Staff reported the project was launched in May with presentations, pop-ups and events, and that a community survey offered in English and Spanish drew roughly 355 responses. Earlier project updates were provided to the City Council, Planning Commission, Northwest Commission and Environmental Advisory Commission in 2024 and 2025. Fall outreach is set to include commission presentations, community discussions and walking or rolling tours in Northwest Pasadena.

Under the anticipated schedule, policy development would run from winter into spring 2027, with a draft Environmental Justice Element expected in fall or winter 2027 ahead of Planning Commission and City Council hearings.

The Recreation and Parks Commission is scheduled to meet at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 1, in the City Yards Public Works Building, Second Floor, at 233 West Mountain Street, in Pasadena. For more information call (626) 744-7311 or visit https://www.cityofpasadena.net/commissions/agendas/.