Pasadena City Councilmember Steve Haderlein created quite a stir after the Council discussion of athletic fields at Hahamongna. Apparently smarting from the Council action, Haderlein called the Hahamongna advocates "selfish" and like a "pig at a smorgasbord."PSN Letter to the editor: Balancing park needs
As someone who has followed developments in Hahamongna for many years, I was stunned by Councilman Steve Haderlein's reference in the Star-News to open space advocates as "pigs at a smorgasbord." And this from someone who told us in his campaign literature that he was a "leader in the effort to preserve open space under the Edison power lines."
Pasadena does have a problem related to parks, open space and soccer fields. For the last 10 years, the City has engaged in a building boom without looking out for or balancing it with the recreational needs of its residents. Land was for new construction not for new soccer fields, open space and parks. The result is that recreational users are now pitted against each other. But rather than insulting or blaming the wonderful people from all walks of life who take their responsibility to protect open space seriously, I hope Mr. Haderlein will look to his own responsibility to help create a sustainable city that balances development with recreational opportunities. To do so, he and his fellow Council members need to insist upon balanced city planning and take very seriously their responsibility to oversee a staff that really knows how implement it.
Christle Balvin
Pasadena
Council Eliminates Soccer Field in Hahamongna Lake
Lori Paul and Marietta Kruels stand in front of the lake that is the site of one of the proposed soccer fields at Hahamongna.
July 18, 2010 - After four hours of discussion and public input last Monday night, the Pasadena City Council eliminated one of the two planned additional soccer fields at Hahamongna but instructed city staff to forge ahead with the other field and parking lot in the middle of the flood basin at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains.
After four hours of discussion and public input last Monday night, the Pasadena City Council eliminated one of the two planned additional soccer fields at Hahamongna but instructed city staff to forge ahead with the other field and parking lot in the middle of the flood basin at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains.
Forty speakers came forward to offer a wide variety of perspectives about the importance of preserving the unique environmental values at Hahamongna. It was a marvelous demonstration of the depth of environmental commitment in Pasadena, but when the presentations were over, it was if four of the Councilmembers had not heard a word. Councilmembers Madison, Haderlein, Gordo and Robinson ignored any environmental issues and could only focus on the undisputed need for soccer fields.
Finally after an agonizing interlude, Chris Holden waded in to point out that there may be important water and environmental values at Hahamongna and better places for athletic fields. Margaret McAustin and Terry Tornek also delivered eloquent analyses of the important planning and environmental issues involved and recommended that it was time to reevaluation the 2003 Council decision as requested by the Hahamongna Watershed Park Advisory Committee.
When it came to a vote, the Council split 4-4 on Councilmember McAustin's motion to consider alternatives to the Hahamongna site. A subsequent motion to eliminate the third field, which is now sited beneath a lake, was approved by a 6-2 vote, with McAustin and Tornek dissenting. The elimination of the third field will have to come back to the Council at a subsequent date.
While it is disappointing that the Council failed to fully protect Hahamongna, the presentations and discussion made it clear that there are a host of substantial obstacles that will almost certainly prevent the construction of the athletic field by the June, 2012 deadline for spending the $1 million soccer grant from the CA Department of Parks:
- Environmental documentation has to be totally redone due to the Station Fire and other changed circumstances
- Habitat surveys, which can only be done in the Spring, have not been conducted
- The plan relies on the County moving 250,000 cubic yards of sediment and the riparian habitat that sits on it from the dam area, moving it to the soccer field location and compacting it to lift the field from 8 to 14 feet
- All funds must be expended by June, 2012; any extension would require state legislation
- The environmental documentation will be challenged legally.
It may still be possible to redirect the $1 million soccer grant to a more suitable location, but ironically city management and the soccer zealots on the Council seem determined to blow the opportunity.