A parking lot on S. Berkeley Avenue in Pasadena could soon be traded in for a four-story building holding a dozen townhome-style homes, complete with ground-floor parking and a shared rooftop deck. The proposal landed in front of the city's design reviewers this week, putting a concrete shape to what has so far been a vacant, paved-over lot just south of Colorado Boulevard.
According to Urbanize LA, the project at 36 S. Berkeley Avenue calls for 12 townhome-style dwellings inside a four-story structure with ground-floor parking for seven vehicles. The site itself, per property records from Redfin, is currently a 7,500-square-foot parking lot sitting on a 7,499-square-foot parcel that last sold for $900,000 on October 28, 2025.
The proposal is moving forward with the help of density bonus incentives, which the outlet's report says allow roughly double the amount of density otherwise permitted by zoning on the site. Trojan Land, LLC is listed as the property owner, and Burnham Nationwide is named as the project architect, per the same account.
What the Design Reflects
The building is described as contemporary in style, with a flat roof enclosed by parapet walls and a boxy, linear appearance built from repeated floor plates and stacked floor plans. Two enclosed lobbies are included in the layout, and the central portion of the roof is set aside as a deck meant to serve as shared outdoor space for residents, the report notes.
The Pasadena Design Commission lists a staff report on the project dated this Tuesday, September 22, on its public commission page. The commission's stated role is to review both public and private projects in the city to help create uniform design concepts and maintain design excellence, according to its own website.
A Bigger Project Just Up the Street
The Berkeley Avenue site sits directly south of 2000 E. Colorado Boulevard, where a much larger affordable housing effort is already taking shape. Meta Housing Corp. has plans for a 144-unit affordable housing complex at that address, meaning the smaller townhome proposal would rise just north of one of the area's bigger infill housing pushes, the report states.
Together, the two projects point to a stretch of Colorado Boulevard shifting from underused, paved lots toward new housing stock. County records tied to the Berkeley Avenue parcel were most recently updated on July 6, 2026, per Redfin's listing data, underscoring how recently the site has drawn fresh attention.
Whether the design proposal wins approval, changes shape, or advances on a different timeline remains to be seen, and no additional detail on the commission's review outcome has been made public. For now, the plans mark another step in what the original report frames simply as infill housing coming to a long-vacant piece of Pasadena.
