In 1997, when Pasadena adopted the original North Lake Specific Plan, Rick Cole, at the time not long removed from his first stint on the City Council, said that plan didn’t go far enough in enacting the improvements intended for that part of town.
Fast forward to Monday, Nov. 24, and Cole, a Pasadena councilmember yet again, struck a much more positive chord.
He called it an extraordinary moment as he and his colleagues unanimously approved an updated plan, which aims to turn North Lake into a “vibrant, and visually cohesive corridor, weaving together several distinct-pedestrian oriented district that compliment and build upon the cultural and architectural history of the community and surrounding neighborhoods,” the plan’s vision statement reads.
The council also approved a more stringent element of the plan, limiting expansion of drive-thru businesses.
“We planted some trees, which are now mature, it’s nice, we did some medians, and then we stopped,” Cole said of the 1997 plan. “We need to make good on this plan.”
Councilmember Jason Lyon was absent and Vice Mayor Jessica Rivas was absent due to recusal.
A more than two-hour presentation and discussion covered the history that led to such different outcomes in the South Lake area compared to North Lake, being intentional about enacting the plan and the role public investment would play in the plan’s success.
Before the final vote, the council debated and eventually approved an alternative approach to drive-thru businesses than was was recommended by city officials.
The cluster of fast food drive-thru restaurants is a distinct feature of the plan area. City officials said the Planning Commission considered four options and recommended that the updated plan allow only existing drive-thru stores to do extensive exterior building remodels with a minor conditional-use permit.
But Cole sought the council’s approval of a more stringent option, which added drive-thrus to the list of “non-conforming uses in the North Lake Specific Plan,” and prohibit those stores from expanding or rebuilding apart from minor exterior changes to signage and painting.
The council voted 5-1, with Councilmember Steve Madison voting no, to go with the drive-thru option Cole offered with a condition from Mayor Victor Gordo that members of city staff come back with potential options that address the possibility of accommodating future remodeling with greater control over the outcome.
“I intend to vote no on that part,” Madison said prior to the vote. “That will kill those businesses and it may not be today or tomorrow, but it will be in the future and I would like us to have discretion to not kill them.”
The North Lake plan is one of several in the city that are being updated to become in line with the city’s 2015 General Plan, which guides future development in the city. The other plans include Central District, East Colorado Boulevard, East Pasadena, Fair Oaks/Orange Grove, Lamanda Park, Lincoln Avenue, South Fair Oaks and West Gateway.
North Lake includes North Lake Avenue, between Maple Street and Elizabeth Street; along Washington Boulevard, between El Molino Avenue and Catalina Avenue; and along East Villa Street, between El Molino and Wilson Avenue.
Contained within the North Lake area is Lake Avenue Church, the now vacant Kaiser Permanente property, fast food drive-thru restaurants and business centers at intersections with Washington and Orange Grove boulevards.
The plan splits the area into four sub-areas with specific visioning goals for each: Washington Place (Elizabeth to Claremont Street), Vineyard Gardens (Claremont to Mountain Street), North Lake Village (Mountain to north of Orange Grove) and Lake Station District (north of Orange Grove to Maple Street).
On Sept. 10 the city’s Planning Commission voted 7-0 to recommend that the City Council approve the proposed updated plan. The process began in 2018 with a series of open houses followed by a preliminary draft of the North Lake Specific Plan being presented to the Design Commission in 2021. The updated plan, first adopted in 1997 and amended in 2007, had its first study session with the Planning Commission in 2023.
The updated plan includes community priorities such as: sense of place, mixed use district, well-maintained corridor, traffic calming, managed congestion, accessible destination, sustainable district, green and creative landscaping, public art and community identity.
“Let’s bring it to bear not just because north of the freeway neighborhoods deserve it, but because it’s a huge potential investment with a giant payoff for a city that’s really having financial struggles as we look ahead,” Cole said.