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As 2023 begins, the future for Pasadena City College begins a new chapter with it’s satellite campuses.  

Aside from the main campus off Colorado Blvd, Pasadena City College has 4 satellite campuses, Foothill Campus, Northwest Campus, Rosemead Campus, and the Child Development Center. The lease for the Rosemead Campus is up in June 2023 so trying to find  a new satellite campus has been in the works for almost a year. 

The Arcadia property was off of Santa Anita Ave. which the school was interested in buying but within a few weeks, the landlord of the property decided to go in another direction.

Alex Boekelheide, special assistant to the Superintendent/President of Pasadena City College, said that satellite campuses need to be in an area for students who can be a part of PCC without transit dependency. 

“We had a need to be in that corner, we found a place that could have worked for us, we had fruitful negotiations in conversations with the property owner for a period of time and the situation changed and here we are,” Boekelheide said

Simone Chan, the student member of the Board of Trustees for PCC, said the land owner for the Arcadia property rejected the bid for PCC, and instead it went into low income housing 

“It was not approved because the seller of the lot decided to change it to residential housing so unfortunately they decided to not sell it to us,” Chan Said

Back in November the residents of the PCC district voted for Measure PCC which allowed $565 million dollars of new money for facility improvements and finding new satellite campuses. Chan said the money from the measure might be used for constructing a new building in one of the lots at PCC, since finding a new satellite campus has been unsuccessful so far 

“It hasn’t been confirmed, just a conversation that we might use bond money to purchase land and build a building from the lot, ” Chan said 

The Rosemead property has its lease up in June 2023. The El Monte Union High School District, who owns the land, has said they intend to use the property for a different purpose which means the continuation for the Rosemead campus is in question. 

“We have an interested in have a presence in that portion of our district, it’s important for us to provide education services close to the people we serve, having space there is really helpful for folks to not get to the Colorado campus,” Boekelheide said

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