Changes Continue at CV Chamber

On Tuesday night the CV Chamber held its first formal board meeting since moving out of the office space we previously occupied at 3131 Foothill Blvd. ‘D.’ Thank you to Sadler Hall at St. Luke’s of the Mountains for accommodating us. Looking ahead I’m hopeful that we can continue meeting there the second Tuesday of the month at 5:30 p.m. Of course, the community is welcome to attend these meetings.

It was an exciting and dynamic meeting. We closely followed a prepared agenda, which sparked conversation. We also welcomed a local resident who wanted to make sure the Chamber took part in ringing the bell regarding the proposed development at Foothill Boulevard and Briggs Avenue.

The property, formerly the May-Lane Motel and most recently the La Crescenta Motel, is under consideration for a massive development. The proposal includes multiple stories and a reported 80 apartment units – a monolith that will most likely overwhelm the area. However, there are hurdles these days to opposing developments that were not in place years ago – particularly the density bonus that is offered to developers. Basically, developers don’t have to have a public hearing and don’t have to follow most community guidelines (for us in the foothills, that is the Community Standards District). What folks also have to realize is that these mandates come from the state, not the county. Consequently, it will be harder to fight these developments … though voices should be raised and will be heard. For more information, I suggest you read CVTC President Chris Kilpatrick’s article on page 8 of this week’s paper.

Returning to this week’s meeting of the board of the CV Chamber, I want to salute our board members who are eager to undertake the duties that will make this Chamber the vibrant resource it is meant to be. This includes collecting information from our members and the community as to what it is they are looking for in their Chamber. To that end I encourage you to send an email to me that I can share with the board regarding that information.

We will go over that information as we evolve into an organization that best serves our community.

Robin Goldsworthy, President
CV Chamber of Commerce
robin@cvweekly.com