The City Admits Design is Disappointing

A live-tweet reporting of the City Council meeting on April 3, 2017, in which City Council considered giving a Public Subsidy to the KHP project.

Note: All statements are paraphrases captured live, not word-for-word quotes.

BACKGROUND: As part of its original submittal in 2013, KHP proposed to pay to the City a required lease payment of at least $300,000 per year. KHP is now requesting two economic subsidies:

1. No lease payments for the land and the YWCA building, and
2. No charge for parking. (City to dedicate 136 parking spaces out of its existing garages, for free.)

As part of its original submittal in 2013, KHP proposed to pay the City ground rental payments that were the greater of 3% of the hotel's gross revenues, or $300,000 annually.

KHP is now requesting two economic subsidies:

• No ground rental payments (free land, free YWCA building)
• No charge for hotel parking (City to dedicate 136 parking spaces out of existing garages, for free)

If the hotel is more profitable than anticipated, then after distributing profits to investors, the city may share in some of the profits. This subsidy is just the tip of the iceberg:

• Julia Morgan's pool gets covered up
• Parking for City Hall impinged
• Sister City trees cut down
• Robinson Memorial trivialized
• Bennett's garden setting of Civic Center reduced
• Grand facade of City Hall to face rear of the hotel
• What more will it take for City to say "enough is enough, this is not a deal for the residents of Pasadena

Please see the Staff Report and Economic Development Subsidy Report, linked below. The city council must approve this report before it can take the next step to approve this additional subsidy and ground lease. Please write your council person and attend the Council Meeting on Monday April 3 at 7 pm* to tell them the Economic Development Subsidy Report is not adequate and to not approve the Economic Development Subsidy Report. There should be no public subsidy given to private investors that want to build a large hotel on the site of the Julia Morgan YWCA building and the public open space across from City Hall.

*Meeting starts at 7pm, but there are a lot of agenda items, the issue may not be discussed until LATE. Hard to predict what time it's "safe" to arrive, but City Council meetings start around 7 and regularly run until 11pm or past midnight.

Staff Report: http://ww2.cityofpasadena.net/councilagendas/2017%20Agendas/Apr_03_17/AR%2010.pdf

AND

Economic Subsidy document: http://ww2.cityofpasadena.net/councilagendas/2017%20Agendas/Apr_03_17/AR%2010%20ATTACHMENTS%20A%20&%20B.pdf

Full meeting agenda: http://ww2.cityofpasadena.net/councilagendas/2017%20Agendas/Apr_03_17/agenda.asp