updated June 18, 2024

Planning In A Vacuum

If you have been paying attention, you may have noticed a flurry of activity in the City of Glendale in the last year. Not only have school board and Glendale City Council meetings become livelier than ever, but there are action plans being developed that will affect all levels of transportation, housing, recreation, preservation, environment, utilities, taxes and even council districts (or not.) There is so much going on that it is hard to keep up.

My particular area of interest is land-use in Glendale as it relates to our valley, and that led me to join the Crescenta Valley Community Association in 2009. That year, one of the biggest concerns discussed by neighbors had to do with the Chamlian Armenian School, a private school located at 4444 Lowell Ave. The school had grown significantly beyond the enrollment numbers the previous public school had, and the neighbors were frustrated by the additional traffic and noise.

Despite years of neighbor complaints, in 2011 Glendale Planning approved a proposal for Chamlian to build a new gymnasium with the promise that student enrollment would remain capped at 500 students and school events using the gym would be limited. By 2014, the use variance that permitted a private school to operate in a residential zone expired. During the renewal hearing, the school requested an increase from 500 to 700 students with the promise that the additional students would be bussed to and from school, and families would carpool to limit traffic impacts. The variance was approved with a list of 29 conditions. Over the next 10 years, the school did not adhere to many of the required conditions and Glendale didn’t check for compliance or reverse its variance approval. The neighbors continued to contact the City about loud Chamlian events, the disruptive car line process and dangerous pedestrian crossings.

In 2023, the owner of Chamlian Armenian School, the Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America, also purchased the property across the street at 4459 Lowell Ave. The acquisition was announced and promoted as an expansion of the Chamlian School, both in press releases and on its website. Plans have since been completed to build a “state-of-the-art” preschool there and furthered plans to use the church.

In April 2024, the use variance for Chamlian School expired once again. At the renewal hearing last month, as expected, the school claimed that everything would remain exactly the same in spite of the fact they had not followed several of the 2014 conditions for approval and planned to expand its campus. Many neighbors who continued to be fed up with the school’s flagrant disregard of the requirements spoke against the approval of the variance. Chamlian also claimed the project across the street was “completely separate” while asking for a lighted crosswalk for students to cross the street to get to it. Chamlian also stated that the variance process was a hardship for them and therefore requested that the variance be approved, this time with no expiration date. Neighbors were not surprised when the Planning Commission appeared enamored with students and parents praising high educational achievements with one commissioner exclaiming, “I want to go to Chamlian School!”

The Commission again completely ignored the neighbors’ concerns and the planned preschool expansion and voted 4-0 to renew the variance. And of course, it was made permanent. Unbelievable.

It is time for the City of Glendale to stop liberally approving projects and variances without any consideration of past history or the context of the surroundings. This area where Sunland-Tujunga meets Glendale is busy and Lowell traffic has been a problem for a long time. The expansion of Chamlian School will negatively affect the neighborhood for years to come. Glendale must acknowledge this fact and reverse the decision. Lowell is a major access point for the 210 Freeway as well as In-N-Out, a shopping center, a self storage facility, a water district facility and a church. In the pipeline is an already approved mixed-use development (34 residential, four large commercial units) at 3950 Foothill Blvd. in addition to being a well-established residential corridor. Naturally, the neighbors have appealed the poor decision by the Planning Commission and are awaiting a hearing date.

Stay tuned. Let’s see if Glendale also approves the new “unrelated” preschool!

Susan Bolan
susanbolan710@gmail.com