By Mary O’KEEFE

There appears to be some activity at the iconic La Crescenta Motel in the 2400 block of Foothill Boulevard that has made neighbors and community members cautiously concerned.

In 2019, prior to the pandemic, a packed crowd gathered at the La Crescenta Library during a meeting of the Crescenta Valley Community Association. Many of the attendees were there to hear an update on plans to develop the property where the motel sat. At that meeting the developer’s plan, which included a condo development, was shared.

During the 2019 meeting the proposal covered both parcels on the property. For the front triangle portion, approximately 21,000 square feet, the developer sought to build three four-story buildings, 45 feet high (this would be 10 feet higher than zoning provisions allow) consisting of 28 housing units (a single one-bedroom, 16 two-bedroom, and 11 three-bedroom condo units) ranging in area from 860 to 1500 square feet.

The plan used a specific portion of the property to determine the property line in order to build even higher, potentially seriously impacting at least four residences.

The second portion of the plan would be four, five-story 52-foot-high buildings – 40 units: 13 two-bedroom and 27 three-bedroom units ranging in size from 1,236 to 1,706 square feet.

The sections would be separated by two levels of unconnected subterranean parking.

Unlike other parcels on Foothill Boulevard, community activist Sharon Raghavachary explained, both of these have a zoning designation that required a conditional use permit and therefore a public hearing and process.

Then the pandemic hit and the project was quiet; that is, until now. According to Ines Chessum of the Land Use Committee, a committee of the Crescenta Valley Town Council (CVTC), the applicant plans to withdraw the pending CUP and Discretionary Housing Permit for the site.

“[The applicant is] working on a new proposal utilizing the two adjacent lots combined (2413 Foothill Blvd. and 4521 Briggs Ave.),” stated Chessum of what she learned from LA County Dept. of Regional Planning.

As of April 2021, multifamily housing is allowed by-right in the zone area of the motel and therefore the new project proposal will be reviewed through the LA County Dept. of Regional Planning without public hearing, she added.

“They will be providing some affordable units and utilizing density bonus,” Chessum said.

CVTC President Chris Kilpatrick said the CVTC will continue to follow the progress of this project and make sure the developers comply with rules and regulations including water and sewer.

“We are going to use all our tools to [make certain developers] comply with community standards district regulations,” Kilpatrick said.

However, officials are limited as to what they can do because of the new zoning laws.

“It is very unfortunate that all these state mandates continue to take away the control we have to take care of our community,” Kilpatrick said.

During the 2019 meeting, Raghavachary detailed the history of the property: The May-Lane motel was built around 1946 by Glen Hine and named for his children, Maynard and Alane. Hine died in 1964 and the business stayed in the family until it was sold in the early 2000s to Tony Talisse, a La Cañada homebuilder, who came to the Foothill Design Committee wanting to build a condominium complex. He changed his plans after he was told that the community would oppose that proposal.

“He heard our concerns and completely shifted gears, coming back with a beautiful design for an assisted living facility, set back on the northwest corner of the lot with a large open space and fountain on the corner,” said Raghavachary. “We loved the architectural design, in which he showed respect for the character of the area, particularly the St. Luke’s of the Mountains church. The timing was unfortunate, though, as commercial lending started to decline, and he was unable to secure funding.”

Talisse sold the property and he and his wife moved to Beverly Hills.

The new owner proposed a strip mall project, which Raghavachary said closely resembled an old Ramada Inn, but that project never moved forward. The property had been for sale for over 10 years.

The La Crescenta Motel has been a location for many films and television series including “The X-Files,” “Beverly Hills, 90210,” the pilot for “Supernatural” and “Win a Date with Ted Hamilton,” to name a few.