A bill that would allow the sale of Caltrans-owned buildings located in the path of the defunct 710 Freeway extension to be sold at very affordable prices to the nonprofit organizations that occupy them was approved by a key legislative committee Tuesday.

Senate Bill 7, authored by state Sen. Anthony Portantino, D-Glendale, received a 7-0 vote and will be headed to the Senate Appropriations Committee in a few weeks, a committee chaired by Portantino.

Testifying in favor of the bill were two administrators from Pasadena’s Ronald McDonald House Charities: Elizabeth Dever and Megan Foker. In addition, Alaysia Baker-Baughn and Dashiell Gowen, both students from Sequoyah School, spoke to the committee in support of the bill.

Under the bill, the Cottage Co-Op preschool, Waverly and Sequoyah schools; the Ronald McDonald House and Arlington Garden — all operating in the 710 extension “stub” in Pasadena — would be able to buy their respective properties at their current use value, not market rates calculating to what the property could converted at its highest use.

“This bill will allow us to continue to serve sick children and their families,” said Dever, director of the Pasadena Ronald McDonald House.

The charity rents three properties from Caltrans in Pasadena, Dever said, near Huntington Hospital.

The bill would allow the community nonprofits to continue their work, something they would not be able to do if they were faced with purchasing their properties at prices way out of their reach, Portantino said in a statement.

SB 7 is one of twin bills — the other being Assembly Bill 29 by Assemblyman Chris Holden, D-Pasadena — that would put a final nail in the coffin of a 710 Freeway extension, which was killed in 2017 by Metro as unfeasible and too expensive. Then in late November, Caltrans dismissed the plans, in the works for 60 years, by finalizing an environmental review which opted for local roadway expansions, more bike lanes, buses and coordinated traffic signals as a local streets alternative to a freeway or freeway tunnel.

Holden’s bill would remove the extension from the state freeway and expressway system.

Meanwhile, SB 7 would also:

Prohibit Caltrans from building a tunnel or a surface freeway or expressway for Route 710 between the 10 Freeway in the south near Alhambra and the 210/134 freeways in the north in west Pasadena.

Begins a process in which the state must return surplus freeway stubs back to the local cities in the freeway corridor. One stub exists in Alhambra at Valley Boulevard; the other is in Pasadena from California Boulevard to Walnut Street.

SB 7 has gained support from several co-authors, including: Sen. Jim Beall, D-San Jose, chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee; Assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo, D- Los Angeles and Assemblywoman Blanca Rubio, D-Baldwin Park. It also is supported by Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger and the cities of South Pasadena and Pasadena.