Pasadena Star-News:Nonprofits get closer to buying properties along 710 Freeway stub on the cheap

A bill that would allow the sale of Caltrans-owned buildings located in the path of the defunct 710 Freeway extension to be sold at very affordable prices to the nonprofit organizations that occupy them was approved by a key legislative committee Tuesday.

Senate Bill 7, authored by state Sen. Anthony Portantino, D-Glendale, received a 7-0 vote and will be headed to the Senate Appropriations Committee in a few weeks, a committee chaired by Portantino.

Testifying in favor of the bill were two administrators from Pasadena’s Ronald McDonald House Charities: Elizabeth Dever and Megan Foker. In addition, Alaysia Baker-Baughn and Dashiell Gowen, both students from Sequoyah School, spoke to the committee in support of the bill.

Under the bill, the Cottage Co-Op preschool, Waverly and Sequoyah schools; the Ronald McDonald House and Arlington Garden — all operating in the 710 extension “stub” in Pasadena — would be able to buy their respective properties at their current use value, not market rates calculating to what the property could converted at its highest use.

“This bill will allow us to continue to serve sick children and their families,” said Dever, director of the Pasadena Ronald McDonald House.

The charity rents three properties from Caltrans in Pasadena, Dever said, near Huntington Hospital.

The bill would allow the community nonprofits to continue their work, something they would not be able to do if they were faced with purchasing their properties at prices way out of their reach, Portantino said in a statement.

Read Full Article Here