2006 Newsletter

No. 1        News from East Eaton Wash Neighborhood Association       February 11, 2006

Let’s Vote

Congratulations! The revived association is a year old! Annual elections keep our representatives responsive and are suggested by city neighborhood association rules.

The vote will be held at Hastings Branch Library on March 11. Balloting will take place from 11:15 am to 12:45 pm. You can just drop by to vote or you can stay, talk, and enjoy refreshments. Ballots will be counted starting at 12:45 pm.

You may nominate willing candidates (including yourself) via e-mail [email protected] or phone 626 792-2927 by March 6. Please provide the name, address, and a contact phone number for the candidate.

Officer positions are President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer. The Secretary position has been vacant. Officers must be members of the association (ie. adult residents of the neighborhood). The President must be willing to provide contact information to the city’s Neighborhood Connections office, which will publish it.

What’s this “Neighborhood Association”?

East Eaton Wash Neighborhood Association is comprised of all adults over age 18 residing in Pasadena in the area north of Foothill Blvd. to the south side of Orange Grove Blvd, and from Eaton Wash east to Sierra Madre Villa Ave. There are no dues and membership is automatic.

The neighborhood association mission is to help improve the quality of life in our neighborhood.  It does this by:

• helping us get to know and communicate with each other,
• keeping us informed of local developments and issues affecting the neighborhood,
• helping us work together to safeguard and improve our neighborhood,
• providing an avenue for organized feedback and input to the city.

Meetings: Second Saturday of each month at 11:15 am at Hastings Branch Library.

E-mail: [email protected]

Web site: https://eewna.org

Viña Vieja Park

Viña Vieja is the new name for the park being built just west of our neighborhood and south of Orange Grove. “Viña Vieja” is the name our association came up with and requested. It honors the vineyard that once covered the northern portion of our neighborhood, including the area of the park and the families who first settled the neighborhood.

Viña Vieja Park is now expected to open at the end of April. This includes the Alice Frost Kennedy Off-leash Dog Park, the children’s play area, the historic picnic canopy rebuilt and relocated from the former Stuart Pharmaceutical site, public restroom, walkways, and open turf under the wires.

The planned pedestrian entrance to the park from Avocado Avenue has to be relocated further south because Edison discovered the easternmost wires are too low to the ground to allow public access underneath. The south east corner of what was to be the park will be fenced off and not accessible. Exactly where the gate will be on Avocado or the path from the gate to the south end of the park has not yet been determined.

Making Tiles for Park Sign

Neighborhood residents are invited to design tiles for the park sign. The second free workshop for designing tiles will be held on Saturday February 25 from 10 am to noon at Victory Park. If you and/or your child would like to participate, call Rhonda Stone at 626 744-4740 to make a reservation.

Ice Rinks Project

Planning continues for an ice rink development on city land located east of Eaton Wash, west of the Edison power lines, south of Vina Vieja Park, and north of Pasadena Water and Power land. (See map) This land is “dedicated parkland”. The original long and skinny park design used it. Funds for relocating the existing ice rink from the civic center were used to redesign the park to partly use Edison land, making the area to the south available for the ice rinks.

Access to the project is to be from Foothill Blvd through the PCC parking lot. A new signal is to be added at the driveway to make it easier for traffic going in and out. An agreement with PCC has not been completed, but we have been repeatedly promised access will not be through our neighborhood (or the park).

The city hired an architect for the project in September 2005. In December, at a community meeting at Victory Park, the architect showed and discussed conceptual designs for the building and grounds. City staff tried to alleviate residents’ concerns about traffic impacts on Foothill Blvd. Some of the stated goals for the building design are to be energy efficient, environmentally friendly, and to reduce the appearance of the building mass to better fit with the surrounding residential neighborhoods.

The design shows a building 450 feet long by 120 feet wide. An access road runs along the east side, connecting the PCC lot to the ice rink parking lot north of the building. The parking lot has the city’s required number of 143 spaces with extra landscaping. The building contains two NHL sized ice rinks, one on the north and one on the south end of the building. The lobby, skate rental, offices, etc are between the rinks with entry on the east side. The northern rink is expected to be used more often and will have 400 spectator seats. The locker rooms are to be underneath those seats. The southern rink will have 100 spectator seats.

The conceptual design for the outside of the building shows alternating sections of different height and exterior materials along the length. The idea is to break up the mass of the building. The lower sections are about 32 feet high, the higher sections about 8 feet more. The higher sections will have glass facing north to light the building’s interior with natural light. The design shows hedges and trees along the western and eastern sides of the project which are to block headlights and diminish noise.

All ice making equipment is to be inside the building and therefore should not be able to be heard outside.  A cooling tower on the west side will be designed to blend into the building form.  No ammonia or freon will be used for the refrigeration.

Planned hours of operation are to be part of the operating agreement which is still being negotiated.  We can expect them to be at a minimum something like 6 am to 11 pm.

The project is to be built using around $12 million of city revenue bonds. In other words, the ice rinks are supposed to make enough money to pay off the debt for building the project. The land and building will continue to be owned by the city. The ice rinks are to be operated under an agreement with the city by the same company which currently runs the rink at the Pasadena Civic Center. That rink will close and be restored as a ballroom after the new facility is ready.

In the near future there should be a Conditional Use Permit hearing for the project. The permit is required due to the size of the building and because it is on land zoned “Open Space”. Also in the near future there will be a hearing by the Design Commission.   The financing details also have to be worked out. Optimistically, city staff projects building could start this summer with completion in the fall of 2007.