Challenge
The South Lake Avenue Development proposal called for developing a new retail and entertainment complex while incorporating the historic Macy’s building in Pasadena, California’s famed South Lake Avenue district. Opposition to the proposal was fierce and local preservationists claimed the proposal would ruin the historic Macy’s building and cause other problems such as increased traffic congestion. The Pasadena Historic Preservation Society was a formidable opponent as it has been active in local politics and conservation efforts for well over a half a century. Forest City Development, the project’s developer, had invested a sizable amount of money and time in the land use approval process. Despite all efforts to contrary, the South Lake Avenue Development proposal was rejected by three out of four city review commissions and was turned down by the Planning Commission. The last opportunity to gain approval for the proposal would be to get the City Council to override the review commissions and the Planning Commission’s recommendations.

Solution
With little over a month before the crucial city council vote, Englander developed a database of registered voters in each of Pasadena’s five council districts. After reviewing and assessing the information, a cross-match was made to identify those with telephones. Englander then researched and obtained a cross-match of politically active and socially conscious homeowners throughout the city.

Englander selected four main components for a public outreach program that was designed to inform, persuade and organize support for the South Lake Avenue Development proposal within the extremely limited time period. The four components were a telephone bank, a direct mail campaign, an earned media campaign and a constituent support petition.

Result
The final and dramatic element of Forest City Development’s presentation to the Pasadena City Council was to hand truck into the auditorium several clear plastic boxes containing 15,731 individual petitions in support of the South Lake Avenue Development proposal and to place the boxes on stage directly in front of the council members. Each individual petition contained the supporter’s name, address and council district.

Hundreds of supporters in the audience, an illustration depicting the citywide support for the proposal, a concise map of where supporters lived by council district and the 15,731 individual petitions combined to prove that the preservationists were a vocal minority and did not represent the opinion of a great number of Pasadena residents. The program helped Forest City Development gain City Council approval for the South Lake Avenue Development by overcoming overwhelming odds in an extremely short period of time.