Church seeks public input on property plans

Church seeks
public input on
property plans

By Mary Schubert

Staff Writer

PASADENA—The owners of the Ambassador College property, on the verge of hiring an architect, have begun soliciting public input on how best to develop the former campus and a related property in Old Pasadena.

The Worldwide Church of God hired SheaHomes, a residential developer, last month to be a consultant on the project. A long-debated plan by Irvine developer Legacy Partners to put 1,700 multifamily homes on the properties fell through in April, and the church has been regrouping since then.

The goal this time around is to come up with a development that will be embraced by Pasadena residents and city leaders because it will be crafted with considerable input from them.

"We’re very aware of the mistakes that [Legacy Partners] made, and we don’t intend to make them again," said Bernard Schnippert, director of finance and planning for the Worldwide Church of God.

"We’re very sensitive to the design issue, the traffic issue and the density issue," he said. "The final design is going to have to be pleasing on all those levels, and the Legacy design was not."

To that end, the church has embarked on what it calls a "listening" campaign, a community outreach effort, first to local civic groups and then to the general public in meetings that will be widely publicized.

Ambassador College covers about 34 acres, bordered by Green Street, Orange Grove and Del Mar boulevards, and St. John Avenue. That land known for its lush gardens and many old, historic buildings is often referred to as the "west campus."

The church also owns 14 acres in Old Pasadena, known as the "east campus," roughly bordered by Green, Del Mar, Pasadena and De Lacey avenues. Those buildings have long been empty, and tentative plans call for a "transit-oriented urban village" to be built there.

"We’re looking for a tasteful design that’s able to emphasize the urban character of the east campus and the garden beauty and cultural heritage of the west campus, and do so with a density that’s appropriate," Schnippert said.

Members of the West Pasadena Residents Association, a homeowners group that represents the neighborhoods near Ambassador College, will continue monitoring the proposals especially for the former campus.

The Legacy Partners project "was way too dense and way too intense a usage. You couldn’t see the gardens from Orange Grove or Green Street," said WPRA President Vince Farhat.

"It should be compatible with the density and scale of the surrounding neighborhood," he said. "We understand and accept that the church will do a much more dense development on the east campus.

"We want to give the church the space and the time they need to come up with a plan," Farhat said. "We need to keep an open mind until they have something concrete to show us."

Reprinted by permission of the Pasadena Star-News.

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