The Pasadena City Council on Monday approved amendments to its zoning codes that would help streamline the process of converting vacant retail or office buildings into multifamily or mixed-use developments with housing.

These changes aim to support the adaptive reuse of existing buildings, create more housing options and help the city address its need for more housing. The City Council has also directed the city attorney to draft an ordinance based on the proposed amendments within 90 days.

“This has been a long time coming,” Mayor Victor Gordo said.

City officials said the primary reason for the amendments is to lower the barriers for adaptive reuses of sites, preserve historical structures, while at the same time, address the diminishing use of nonresidential spaces in recent years.

Councilmember Jason Lyon said the amendments help Pasadena maintain its architectural heritage while creating affordable housing.

“This is a place where, again, in a city where people really care about preserving the look and feel of our city, that our money would be well-spent to encourage adaptive reuse, even if it is otherwise more expensive,” Lyon told the Star-News.

Adaptive reuse enables older buildings to be repurposed for new uses rather than being demolished, making it an effective tool for preserving historical structures. In recent years, it has also emerged as a strategy to address housing challenges in states like California.

However, adaptive reuse comes with its own set of challenges. Certain building codes and regulations might impose limitations. Adapting a structure for new uses can also be more costly than constructing a new one due to the potential expenses involved in bringing a building up to code.

“The primary challenge facing adaptive reuse projects is their financial feasibility,” Ana Soulriver, a commercial real estate broker with NAI Capital in Pasadena, said during public comment. “Developers often face significant upfront costs in acquiring and converting these buildings. Without sufficient incentives, these projects struggle to get off the ground.”

But city officials said that’s why they’re directing staff to explore financial incentives to facilitate more adaptive reuse projects, which was one of the recommendations from the Planning Commission, which previously held a public hearing to review the zoning code amendments.

Councilmember Felicia Williams also proposed additional potential financial incentives.

“So there are ways to provide incentives by changing the mix of housing unit affordability in the building, so that the developers can still make the project feasible …,” she said. “And we have a couple of projects in Pasadena that were bought by the state so that it got rid of the property tax, and that made the units more affordable. So that’s one way to do it, and then the other one is to look at our inclusionary zoning ordinance.”

Adaptive reuse projects would involve converting nonresidential buildings into multifamily or mixed-use developments with housing in areas where multifamily housing is already permitted, according to a definition provided in the staff report.

Housing would remain prohibited on properties where residential use is not allowed. In addition, buildings would only be eligible for adaptive reuse five years after their certificate of occupancy is issued, staff said in the report.

The Planning Commission reviewed the proposed zoning code amendments on July 10. The commission recommended the City Council adopt the amendments with several additional changes.

Their key recommendations include removing the maximum density limits for existing buildings, while retaining them for new constructions with units; requiring projects with 10 or more units to have an average unit size of 450 square feet(with 100% affordable housing exempted from this mandate); reducing parking requirements for developments that provide on-site car-sharing; and relaxing open-space requirements for properties close to public parks.

The Planning Commission also suggested that the City Council direct staff to explore two additional items: allowing adaptive reuse for housing in areas not currently zoned for housing and offering financial incentives to encourage adaptive reuse projects.

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly reduced the demand for retail and office spaces as more people shifted toward online shopping and remote work. As a result, millions of square feet of office space has been left vacant across the U.S., prompting the city to reevaluate its existing building stock, according to the staff report.

In Pasadena, the office vacancy rate went up from 11.8% pre-COVID to 26.8% in the height of the pandemic, and now stands at 19.8%.

With 13.9 million square feet of office space, Pasadena has the largest inventory in the tri-cities area, which also includes Glendale at 10.2 million square feet and Burbank at 12.6 million square feet.

In addition, Pasadena’s office buildings tend to be older, with 50% constructed before 1980, compared to less than 30% in Burbank and Glendale.

Although Pasadena does not have an adaptive reuse ordinance currently, the city does have a rich history of repurposing historic structures, including for housing.

Notable examples include the Raymond Theatre, which was converted from Perkins Palace, the Stuart at Sierra Madre Villa, an apartment complex that was formerly Stuart Pharmaceutical, as well as the Del Mar Station, previously the site of Santa Fe Depot.

The most recent case is a condo complex at 380-388 Cordova St., where a seven-story office building was converted into ground level office space with 57 residential units above it, the staff report said.