Residents of the neighborhood around the 183 E. Palm St. property registered their objections to turning the property into a school for autistic spectrum children at Tuesday’s Altadena Town Council meeting.

The site, formerly used by Sahag Mesrob Armenian Christian School,  is now under consideration by the Almansor Center in South Pasadena to expand their services.  But residents of the neighborhood didn’t want the same experience with Almansor as they had with Sahag Mesrob, which added noise and traffic snarls to the narrow streets of the quiet residential neighborhood.

The speakers emphasized that they weren’t objecting to Almansor’s mission, only the location of a school in a neighborhood that they felt wasn’t suitable for one.

It is a “quiet, residential area, with lots of hills, trees, birds, and many narrow streets,” said Nancy Rothwell, who lives on Raymond near the property.  “If two cars on Palm need to pass, one usually needs to pull over.  It is this idyllic characteristic that ..[we] are trying to preserve.”

Other speakers pointed out that the area does not have a lot of entrances and exits, and no sidewalk yet a lot of walkers who would have no place to sidestep if traffic increases.  Citing their negative experiences with Sahag Mesrob, the speakers said that the property and the area were not suitable for a day school of up to 250 students, as Almansor plans.

Town council chairman Gino Sund said that the council would look at putting the item on the agenda in the near future to get more information from all parties.

In other council items:

• Heard from a county planning consultant on possible expansion of mass transit in Altadena, and the picture isn’t good. 58% of residential areas in Altadena are within a quarter mile of a transit service area, which is considered “served”  — and of the underserved areas, 58% are located on a slope greater than 8% grade.  Approximately 40% are on a slope greater than a 12% grade.  For those people who do use transit,  more than 80% use it for non-work purposes, so the percentage of commuters is quite small. In addition, most underserved areas do not have standard sidewalks, curbs and stormdrains.  Bus noise, particularly in hilly areas, may be objectionable — and a large capital investment would be required to meet the guidelines of the Americans with Disabilities Act to establish bus stops.
• The council agreed to write a letter to Supv. Michael Antonovich’s office requesting that work begin on drafting an ordinance for overnight parking of large vehicles.  Any final ordinance would still be months (and several public hearings) away.
• Approved the slate of candidates for town council elections June 5.  Rev. CR Tillman, who was a candidate for census tract 4610, was removed from the slate as he did not present the required identification.   Candidate statements and polling locations will be published in Altadenablog as we receive them.