Colorado Grand Oaks

Work has started on the block of East Colorado Boulevard between Craig and Grand Oaks avenues, where Meta Housing is building a six-story apartment building with 214 units. All but the two manager's units are income-restricted. The Pasadena Design Commission approved the design 6-0 in May, and a tractor was working the site when sgvhousing visited on November 5.

Meta has three affordable projects lined up within a few blocks of each other on East Colorado. This is the largest, and the only one with equipment on the ground.

What's being built

The building has 214 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments. The count of each has shifted between filings: the state tax-credit application listed 91 one-bedrooms, 68 two-bedrooms and 55 three-bedrooms, while the city's January design packet listed 98, 59 and 57.

The income targets are firmer. The state staff report sets aside 22 units for households at 30% of area median income and 22 at 50%. Another 80 are at 60% and 88 at 70%. About a fifth of the building goes to extremely low and very low incomes, and the rest to low-income renters.

Parking is inside the structure: 109 spaces, entered from Craig Avenue, or about one space for every two apartments. The lobby faces Colorado, and the ground floor also holds a gym, a community room, a mail room and offices for resident services. Two landscaped courtyards sit on the second level.

The site covers 1.44 acres across two parcels and replaces a row of single-story auto-service buildings.

The site and what's around it

The property is zoned for mixed use under the East Colorado Specific Plan, the city's rulebook for this stretch of the boulevard. It is within half a mile of the A Line's Allen Avenue station, which is a large part of how the project got its size.

Two blocks west, Meta has proposed a 144-unit affordable building at 2000 E. Colorado, whose Design Commission hearing was continued to December 3. Farther west, a 154-unit Meta project at 1946-1976 E. Colorado had its first Design Commission review in October. Studio One Eleven designed all three. Together they add up to more than 500 income-restricted apartments from one developer on about half a mile of the boulevard.

The design

Studio One Eleven named the project for its cross streets. Along Colorado the building breaks into three main volumes instead of one long wall. On the north side it steps down toward the single-family homes on Grand Oaks Avenue, and it pulls back from a protected oak tree on the site.

The design packet calls for glazed thin brick, glass-fiber concrete trim, sunshade awnings and a green entry canopy, with a rounded corner at Grand Oaks. Renderings are in the January 2026 Design Commission packet.

The commission approved a revised version in May. City staff reported that the revisions addressed the commission's January comments on massing, facade detail and how the building meets the street.

How it got here

The project's size comes from the State Density Bonus Law, which lets a developer build more units, and taller, than local zoning allows in exchange for affordable housing. The law is most generous to buildings that are 100% affordable and close to major transit, and this one is both.

Pasadena's General Plan allows about 32 units per acre here, or roughly 46 on this site. The project has 214, about 149 per acre. In the January packet, staff put the density bonus at about 355%. The base height limit is 39 feet, and the preliminary plans showed six stories at about 71 and a half feet.

The applicant also asked for concessions and waivers, which exempt a project from specific development standards. In January, staff counted five concessions and three waivers and asked for more detail. State law removes parking minimums near major transit, so the city required no particular number of spaces; the 109 are the developer's choice.

The city found the project exempt from CEQA review under the Class 32 infill exemption, which covers projects on developed urban sites that fit local planning rules. In Pasadena, design review is split from planning review, and here the Design Commission was the body that approved the design.

What the city and the neighbors said

City staff recommended approval of the consolidated design review, and the Design Commission voted 6-0 to approve it. Staff's January comments flagged two technical issues: the method used to measure building height needed clarifying, and the plan set's floor area figures did not match staff's own calculation. The documents reviewed for this write-up do not record organized public opposition.

What still has to happen

The financing appears to be in place. The state staff report shows a total development cost of about $87.1 million, nearly $20 million in tax-exempt bonds and about $4 million a year in federal tax credits. It projected construction from May 2026 to May 2028, so the start on site is running about six months behind that schedule.

The city issued the building permit on October 8, along with the grading, electrical, plumbing and mechanical permits. RAAM Construction, a general contractor that has built several of Meta's earlier affordable projects, is listed as the contractor. The permits to demolish the old auto-service buildings were issued in August, and the city closed them out on November 3.

Why this one matters

Pasadena has to plan for 9,429 new homes by 2029 under its state housing allocation, nearly 6,000 of them for low- and moderate-income households, according to The Real Deal. A 212-unit affordable building is a sizable share of that.

The project also shows what the density bonus produces on East Colorado. A site where base zoning allows about 46 units is getting 214 without any rezoning. Two more projects of the same type, from the same developer and architect, are a few blocks away and still in design review.

What this means if you live nearby

This is the first of the three Meta buildings to break ground, and it sets the scale for the corridor: six stories, about 150 units per acre and roughly half a parking space per unit. The next date to watch is the December 3 Design Commission hearing on 2000 E. Colorado.