UPPER HASTINGS RANCH ASSOCIATION (UHRA)

Hamilton Park Article (published in Pasadena Now)

La Salle High School Seeks to Use Hamilton Park

By STEVEN CISCHKE, Staff Writer
Thursday, September 13 | 2:28 am

Representatives of La Salle High School of Pasadena told a skeptical crowd of Hastings Ranch residents last night the school would like to revamp Hamilton Park to include a high school baseball diamond for the school’s use.

Richard Gray, president of the Catholic, college-preparatory school, and Bob Nuccio, chair of the school’s Facilities Committee, told the crowd of about 80 residents their plans are preliminary and they wanted to gauge community reaction before going further.

“If at the end of the day, neither one of these proposals is something that the community finds acceptable, we will look at other alternatives outside the neighborhood,” Gray said.

But several people who attended the meeting led by Hastings Ranch residents Patricia Herrera and Donna Guerrero said they couldn’t decide whether to support the plan without more details, which Gray and Nuccio said they didn’t have.

Pasadena Director of Human Services and Recreation Patsy Lane told the crowd the city has had preliminary talks with the school, but the school has not formally applied for anything and nothing has been approved. It would be a long process involving several city departments and the opportunity for public input before anything could be approved, she added.

Gray said the school has talked with the park’s primary user, the Pasadena American Little League, and has determined that it’s not possible to turn one of the park’s three baseball fields into a high school regulation-size field, keep all the other amenities currently existing at the park as required by the city, and co-exist with the little league.

The only possible way to accommodate the little league and all existing park uses, Nuccio said, is if the park is completely remodeled and upgraded so that a high school baseball field could be added. He said the school would be willing to foot the entire bill for the remodeling in return for preferential treatment in reserving the high school baseball field.

Neither Nuccio nor Lane said they could define “preferential treatment,” which Lane said is not a concept used by the city. But Nuccio said what the school means by the term is something like what the little league gets now.

Gray and Nuccio said the school does not intend to install lighting for night games or a public address system at the park.

Pasadena City Councilmember Steve Haderlein — in whose district the park is located and who teaches at La Salle — told the crowd that if the matter comes before the City Council, state law requires that he recuse himself.

Haderlein said he opposes any plan that reduces park usuage for the community, but declined to be more specific when asked whether he supports the school’s proposal.

The Pasadena American Little League (PALL) was founded in 1954 and says on its website that it has "served more than 10,000 boys and girls in Pasadena." Hamilton Park is the league's home field.

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