Government Group Declines to Back Plan to Fight Freeway

The city has few friends in municipal government these days when it comes to its opposition to the planned Long Beach Freeway extension.

At a South California Assn. of Governments council meeting Thursday night, no one stepped forward to support South Pasadena Councilman Paul Zee’s motion to remove the proposed extension between the Foothill and San Bernardino freeways from the region’s long-range transportation plan, officials said.

That plan, approved Thursday by the council, decides what projects get federal and state funding.

South Pasadena officials wanted the association of governments to endorse the city’s proposed alternative to the freeway--a street-based plan to help the flow of traffic on major roads along the route.

Still, South Pasadena Councilman Harry Knapp said the association did extend by a decade the completion date for the freeway, to 2020, far later than state and federal transportation officials project.

On Monday, federal transportation officials approved the $1.4-billion freeway extension through South Pasadena, Pasadena and the Eastside. And Wednesday, South Pasadena’s City Council voted to file lawsuits to block the project.