Another batch of homes caught in one of Southern California’s longest-running infrastructure battles is heading to market.
On Tuesday, the City of South Pasadena will list eight former Caltrans-owned properties for sale, marking the latest step in unwinding the state’s decades-old land acquisition campaign for the never-built 710 Freeway extension, the Pasadena Star-News reported. The homes were among hundreds seized along the proposed corridor in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s in a process that displaced thousands of residents across South Pasadena, Pasadena and El Sereno.
The homes include the historic Columbia House at 1131 Columbia Street, a 1910-built Craftsman listed on South Pasadena’s Inventory of Historic Resources, as well as properties on Orange Grove Avenue, Bonita Drive, Grevelia Street, Valley View Road and Prospect Avenue. The land, which was designated for the freeway but ended up being developed in the subsequent decades, has become known as the 710 “Stub.”
The sales are part of a broader effort to dispose of homes acquired for the scuttled 6.3-mile freeway extension, which would have connected the existing northern terminus of the 710 Freeway to Pasadena. After years of legal challenges led by South Pasadena and environmental groups, transportation agencies officially abandoned the project in 2018.
Many of the properties remained under Caltrans ownership for decades. While some continued to house tenants, others sat vacant after occupants moved out or died. State lawmakers later created pathways for cities to acquire and resell the homes.
Under legislation including the Roberti Act and Senate Bill 381, South Pasadena can purchase certain vacant properties from Caltrans at their original acquisition prices and resell them at market value, with proceeds earmarked for affordable housing. The law also requires the city to create three affordable housing units for every historic home sold.
The latest listings follow a similar round of five sales in late 2024 and mirror efforts in Pasadena, where officials acquired 17 former Caltrans homes and have already sold most of them. Those transactions generated roughly $18.5 million for affordable housing initiatives.
— Chris Malone Méndez
Read more
Prime Pasadena development site goes from municipal windfall to “massive scar”
Pasadena to sell chunk of “Stub”
Caltrans begins selling homes seized for never-built freeway project
