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Caltrans To Host Public Hearing On New Rules To Sell Vacant Homes In 710 Extension Corridor

A freeway interchange.
The 710/60 freeway interchange.
(
Joe Wolf
/
Creative Commons
)

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Topline:

Caltrans is hosting a public hearing Friday for the public to weigh in on proposed rules to sell over 50 homes owned by the agency along the 710 extension corridor.

The meeting will be held at South Pasadena High School from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Why now: The proposed rules are meant to replace emergency regulations that will expire by the end of September. Those emergency rules, adopted last year, amended the 1979 Roberti Act that mandated how Caltrans should release the properties they owned in the 710 corridor to supply more affordable housing to the area.

The backstory: Over 70 years ago, Caltrans acquired hundreds of homes in El Sereno, Pasadena and South Pasadena as part of an effort to connect the 710 Freeway to the 210 Freeway that was later cancelled.

Caltrans owns 100 vacant single-family and multifamily homes along the 710 corridor and more than half of the vacant homes are in the process of being sold. Current renters have received a Notice of Solicitation from the agency to buy the homes they are renting.

Twenty-six vacant homes are also leased to the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles for their transitional housing program.

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Go deeper: Time Is Up For El Sereno ‘Reclaimers’ Who Occupied Caltrans Homes During COVID Lockdown

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