Pasadena : Playhouse District Renewal

Plans for revitalizing the city’s Playhouse District, the area surrounding the Pasadena Playhouse, advanced Tuesday with approval by the Pasadena Board of Directors of negotiations for a $94,200 urban design contract with Lyndon/Buchanan Associates.

But city directors attached a condition to the approval: Property owners in the area will have to pay back the $94,200, well as an additional $107,800 that the city anticipates spending on an economic analysis and other planning work. The money will be collected via a board-created assessment or business improvement district.

The pay-back condition was attached after several board members questioned whether the city should spend more than $200,000 in public funds for private property owners in an area bounded by Union and Green streets and from Oakland to Hudson avenues.

Despite the pay-back condition, Director Chris Holden continued his opposition, saying that residents in the city’s Northwest, which contains most of the Pasadena’s minority population, are denied such redevelopment benefits.