FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
December 30, 2003
City Manager Sean Joyce
SOUTH PASADENA, Calif. – The City
of South Pasadena announced today that
it has been notified that the Federal Highway
Administration (FHWA) has decided to withdraw
its support of the 710 Freeway Extension
unless and until the California Department
of Transportation (Caltrans) completes
a comprehensive new environmental study,
bringing an immediate halt to the 40-year-old
project.
Based on a recently completed reevaluation
of the 710 project, the FHWA ordered that
all activities based on the 1998 federal
approval “must be suspended,” and
a comprehensive new Environmental Impact
Statement, followed by a new federal review
process will be “required to advance
this project as a Federal aid highway project.” The
action nullifying the existing federal
approval immediately withdraws federal
support necessary to build the 4.5-mile
freeway extension.
“This is a huge victory for the
community and we are particularly indebted
to the dedicated and determined residents,
the National Trust for Historic Preservation
and other organizations that have spent
decades fighting this ill-advised project.
We commend the Federal Highway Administration
for taking this action, Mayor Michael Cacciotti
said. We will continue to work with Caltrans,
local agencies and corridor cities to build
transportation improvements supported by
all.”
Richard Moe, president of the National
Trust for Historic Preservation, which
also listed the freeway corridor on America’s
11 Most Endangered Historic Places list
from 1989-1993, said, “This highway
would have cut through the heart of South
Pasadena and caused irreparable damage
to six historic districts in its path.
We and others have actively opposed this
highway project for 15 years. This decision
is the stake in the heart of the 710 that
we’ve been hoping for. We applaud
this action, which virtually assures that
the 710 extension will never be built and
that the communities in the corridor will
be preserved intact.”
Antonio Rossmann, special counsel to South
Pasadena, said the FHWA decision
“probably amounts to a defacto killing
of the 710. “The federal decision
now is of no legal effect. We are grateful
that the government now supports virtually
every position that South Pasadena and
our allies advanced in court. To its credit,
FHWA now embraces Judge Dean Pregerson’s
leadership in his 1999 preliminary injunction
against the freeway.”
Caltrans apparently participated in the
reevaluation and received official word
of the FHWA decision in a Dec.17, 2003
letter from FHWA Division Administrator
Gary N. Hamby. The letter cited “important
new developments not adequately addressed” in
FHWA’s 1998 approval such as the Gold
Line and Alameda Corridor completion and
new air quality and historic preservation
impacts. FHWA’s decision also noted
the need to implement interim transportation
improvements and the lack of state funding
for the project.
South Pasadena, together with a broad
coalition of national, state and local
organizations, has opposed the 710 Freeway
extension since it was proposed more than
40 years ago. The now nullified route would
have sliced through the middle of the city,
as well as through neighborhoods in El
Sereno and Pasadena, destroying nearly
1,000 homes in its path. |
