Concept Approved for Park Annex

La Cañada parks commissioner Mary Barrie called on the Pasadena City Council Monday to give this city and Altadena a place at the table in making future plans for the 30-acre annex the city is adding to the 300-acre Hahamognga Watershed Park in the upper Arroyo Seco. The council approved a tentative conceptual plan for the property, which borders the two cities.

Pasadena Councilwoman Joyce Streator, who represents the area, said she "appreciates the fervor" shown by residents of the two communities, and hopes they will be ready to help finance improvements on the site.

The 30 acres, which has come to be known as the "annex," was previously owned by the city of Pasadena, but sold 25 years ago to the Metropolitan Water District for a water treatment plant.

The city bought the land back 18 months ago for $1.5 million, and has been holding planning sessions to decide what to do with it.

The land, immediately south of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory campus, has a covenant to be retained as open space, and currently houses a county fire camp, the Rose Bowl Riders equestrian group, Tom Sawyer Camp and the MACH 1 program to provide riding therapy for disabled children.

Numerous leaders from Rose Bowl Riders, which has maintained stables on the property for some 50 years, endorsed the city's general plan and lobbied for a continued role for their group.

Rosa Laveaga, Arroyo Seco manager for Pasadena, said the city will be looking for a contractor to run a continuing equestrian program on the site, a group like Rose Bowl Riders. She said no decision has been made about choosing such a tenant.

The riding club is currently on a year-to-year lease. Club leaders want to negotiate a longer term agreement. The two other horse-related groups, Tom Sawyer Camp and Mach 1, would contract directly with the city under the proposal outlined.

Much criticism was directed at the proposal for a road to provide access to a parking lot not in the annex itself but leased by the city to JPL. City planners said the road is needed for emergency access; speakers said it would be disruptive for other uses on the site.

The council decided to leave the road in while environmental studies proceed, and decide its eventual fate later.

The city wants to develop an environmental learning center on site, using recycles forest service structures. Pasadena City Manger Cynthia Kurtz said proposals for the program had come in from JPL, Pasadena City College and the Dispirit of the Sage Council.

One mild surprise was that the Arroyo Foundation, which was involved in earlier planning for the site, has not as yet suggested a program for the environmental space. The group put up a spirited fight for use of the armory land elsewhere in the arroyo for an environmental center.

The county fire camp will remain on site, as will the oak grove known as the Enchanted Forest.

The city will now develop specific plans and cost figures for use of the land, and do an environmental assessment.