»Part II

By Mary O’KEEFE

Part two of CVW’s interview with Glendale Mayor Ara Najarian covers several issues facing the city including the building permit process, wildfire threats and relationships with Glendale Unified School District and the Crescenta Valley.

The building permit process in the City of Glendale has been, historically, a topic of concern for many who have built, remodeled or plan to remodel their home within the city.

“I would like to see [the process] streamlined,” Najarian said of the permit process. He added that, although he would like to see the process made easier for homeowners, the “flip side” is homeowners who bypass the whole process.

“They do un-permitted work that creates substandard additions, second stories or pools,” he said.

The city planners want to maintain oversight while speeding up the permitting process. Najarian praised the director of Community Development, Phil Lanzafame, and his team for working to streamline the permitting process, not only with family homes but apartment complexes. The City has seen a spurt of new apartment buildings on what seems to be every street downtown. Lanzafame has been reviewing the practices and processes used for those buildings to be built.

“Phil’s team has been working pretty hard lately. They have all those big apartments downtown, which they have been spending a lot of time on,” he said.

Najarian led the decision to impose a moratorium on new construction of buildings in the downtown area, giving the planning department time to “fix” what it saw needed attention after the first wave of recent construction.

“That took a lot of time to study,” he said.

Planners found they needed more pedestrian access, more open space and more attention to retail design and materials.

“That’s almost done. Now I am hoping we are going to start freeing up some of those planners to focus on the customer – the small mom-and-pop businesses and the individual homeowners – to help them quickly through their design and [help with] any architectural needs with a quicker turnaround,” he said.

He added his hope is this moratorium has allowed planners to fix everything that was called into question in the past, including parking variances.

“We have an idea now of how parking works with these larger units. The newer units were okay; they are much better than those units that were built in the 1970s and ’80s. There was less parking required and those cars were flowing out onto the streets,” he said.

Another topic was wildfires. With lawsuits concerning electric companies and their involvement in recent California wildfires, the upcoming fire season is being closely looked at. Not only does the city want to be prepared to react to fires but also proactive regarding city electric service and its responsibilities.

“We definitely have a responsibility if one of our lines arcs or sparks and causes a fire,” Najarian said. He added that Glendale Water & Power has an inspection program that includes responding to complaints and concerns from the public.

“We will go and trim trees that are close to any wires,” he said.

As far as he knew, there has not been any fire caused by GWP lines and the company actively investigates and inspects its equipment on a regular basis.

Another area covered was the relationship between the City of Glendale and GUSD – one that many think is a working relationship, though not a friendly one. This is something Najarian disputes.

“We have very close relations with our school board members,” Najarian said.

He pointed out that Councilmember Vartan Gharpetian is married to GUSD school board Vice President Dr. Armina Gharpetian and Najarian said he is close to many members of the board. That relationship isn’t without its challenges, though.

“The land swap was the most controversial issue that [the Council] has been involved in [with the school board], but we had to, as a city, do what was right for our residents. We realized that [our decision] didn’t make it easier for the school board to get to its goal of having a modern administration building,” he said.

The land swap, or land transfer, was proposed by the school district and involved the GUSD moving from its present location at 223 N. Jackson St. to a newer building at 425 E. Colorado Blvd. The current GUSD offices, according to the district, need at least $15 million to bring them up to code. San Diego-based Carmel Partners expressed interest in acquiring the Jackson Street building in exchange for the Colorado Boulevard building, which they already owned. During a City Council meeting there were residents from Jackson Street who were against the swap. They cited several concerns including parking issues. In the end, the City Council voted against the exchange.

Najarian said despite the land swap issue, the City and GUSD continue to work on joint capital projects including building new swimming pools. He added the City is also working, with GUSD in mind, on housing.

“Housing benefits [the district] directly; many of the people who are buying in the downtown area in central Glendale are families. If we can attract [families] that would help with the schools’ enrollment,” he said. “We want to build more family-type housing. We have expressed our desire to move away from the single, one-bedroom [apartments] and have a greater mix from two-to-three bedrooms.”

The relationship between Crescenta Valley and Glendale has also been a weak link in the past. Najarian is hoping to change that.

The Crescenta Valley is a mix of unincorporated Los Angeles County/La Crescenta, the City of Glendale in the far north and even parts of Los Angeles. GUSD schools are in both Glendale and La Crescenta and there is a bond between the two cities that ignores borders. Najarian would like to have regular joint meetings between the Crescenta Valley Town Council and Glendale City Council. He would like to include LA County Supervisor Kathryn Barger in those meetings.

“We do have such important interface [between us],” he said. “A lot of folks don’t care what their governing body is, they just want their problems solved.”

He would like to cover issues from public safety to wildfires, and anything else that concerns residents.

“It [won’t be] to highlight the borders,” he said.

Najarian hopes the meetings would strengthen the two governing entities so they can join in the future to work on issues concerning those in the Crescenta Valley.

  Mary Okeefe