West Pasadena Residents to Discuss 710 Freeway Stub Redevelopment at WPRA Annual Meeting

The West Pasadena Residents’ Association announced plans to hold its 2024 annual meeting on Thursday, June 6. The meeting will focus on the city’s plans to “reclaim, re-envision, reconnect and redevelop” the 710 Freeway stub and corridor.

“In a manner of speaking, the 710 ditch corridor IS west Pasadena,” said Association President Evan Davis, noting that for more than 50 years, residents have contended with “high traffic volumes, cut-through traffic, closed streets, gridlock, unsafe sidewalks, disrupted and blighted neighborhoods” as a result of the freeway stub’s construction.

The gathering will mark the Association’s 62nd year of “continuous service to the residents of West Pasadena.” 

It will be held from 5 to 8:30 p.m. at the Elks Lodge on West Colorado Boulevard. The lodge recently completed a major interior renovation, including a new entrance, ballroom, ballroom bar, and fireside room. Free parking is available in the lot to the west of the lodge.

The main program, titled “Reconnecting Pasadena: mobility, transportation and opportunity in the 710 Corridor,” will feature Charles Loveman Jr., executive director of Heritage Housing Partners, and Ian Lockwood, a livable transportation engineer with Toole Design Group.

Loveman, who has a background in real estate development and historic preservation, holds a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University, a master’s degree in city planning from Harvard University, and an MBA from UCLA. Lockwood, who helped define the term “complete streets” and has worked with the Federal Highway Administration on highway removals, will “share their wealth of knowledge and experience” and “point us in the right direction and explain the opportunities and strategies we need to get right,” according to the email.

The association has recognized the importance of the 710 corridor redevelopment “for some time,” the email said, noting its support of the Connecting Pasadena Project in 2015, which gathered input from more than 300 Pasadena citizens and “benefits from the guidance of internationally acclaimed consultants for traffic, land use and economics.” The project’s final report can be accessed at [link provided in source document].

“The mission, as we see it, is to stay focused and proceed expeditiously to develop and execute a plan that will benefit neighborhoods and residents of the 710 stub corridor and beyond,” the email stated.

The meeting will also include lodge tours from 5 to 5:30 p.m., a meet-and-greet featuring an “information fair” with exhibits from city agencies and community groups from 5:30 to 6:15 p.m., and a recognition and election segment beginning at 6:15 p.m., which will include a Presentation of Colors and Pledge of Allegiance led by the Pasadena Fire Department Color Guard.

To review the CPP final report, visit wpra.net/connecting-pasadena-project-cpp.