In 2022, the City of Pasadena and Caltrans moved forward with plans to relinquish the SR 710 Northern Stub: a large, unused stretch of asphalt constructed during the 1960s in Pasadena. The SR 710 Northern Stub is what remains of a failed freeway project that was intended to run through communities in El Sereno, South Pasadena, and Pasadena. Despite the freeway never coming to fruition, the small section that was constructed displaced thousands of residents at a time when Pasadena was largely made up of minority communities. Even for those who were not directly ousted due to the project, the construction of the freeway has had lasting negative impacts. Since then, adjacent areas have seen a decline in the number of housing units and property values, as well as increased health hazards and noise pollution.

The 710 Revisioning Project presents the opportunity to alleviate some of the harm that the construction of the freeway caused in the sixties. The City of Pasadena has received funding from the Reconnecting Communities pilot program to complete this mission. The Reconnecting Communities program is specifically meant to help reconnect communities that were displaced and fragmented during the height of highway and interstate construction in the 50s and 60s..

The Robert Group, in teaming with Perkins Eastman, has been given the exciting opportunity to provide community outreach facilitation and support to the City of Pasadena, expected to begin in early 2024. TRG’s approach acknowledges the complicated history surrounding the SR 710 freeway project to identify the planning efforts that best reflect the needs of local residents, past harms and the interest in reconnecting displaced communties.

The outreach efforts that TRG will focus on are designed to engage a wide array of community members through various channels and activities, ensuring broad participation from the public. Understanding the sensitivities surrounding the 710 Freeway and communities that once called it home, our outreach efforts will have an emphasis on working with many of community groups and key partners through focus group meetings, youth-focused engagement activities, walking and biking tours, and partnerships with Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) for deeper community engagement. TRG will combine these approaches with in-person community meetings and online engagement tools, utilizing Esri StoryMaps and virtual community meetings, for continuous community interaction and feedback, all while tracking and analyzing the impact of these activities. These engagement efforts will help to support a community-driven plan that will focus on a vision for all residents of Pasadena, especially for the marginalized communities that this project originally impacted.