By Brandon HENSLEY

The L.A. County Planning Commission granted Options for Youth a Conditional Use Permit on Wednesday for a property near the Rosemont Avenue and Foothill Boulevard intersection.

This comes on the heels of the Crescenta Valley Town Council having unanimously voted to deny a CUP application for the charter school at its Aug. 20 meeting.

With County’s overruling, Options must abide by several items to keep its permit, and could look to occupy the building on 2626 Foothill Blvd. by the end of September.

Some of the mandated items the school must abide by are privacy fencing in the back, no more than four Saturdays of school per year, operations must close by 5 p.m. during the week, and no student loitering.

Those were all concerns town council told principal Daniel Longoria and assistant principal Vanessa O’Connell at its meeting. Council also said its Land Use committee has met with Options several times, and progress stalled each time because Options’ lack of communication and different representatives for each meeting.

Council is concerned over the potential amount of foot and vehicular traffic, because the lot is so close to where Rosemont Middle School students either get picked up or walk down. O’Connell said the hours for Options kids come in block schedules, and that residents shouldn’t be overly concerned.

“They’re not bad kids. They’re regular high school kids. We don’t think they’re going to walk up and down the streets. For the most part, the kids aren’t there every day. They’re there for a few hours every week,” said O’Connell, who along with Longoria admitted to council that communication could have been better.

“Foothill Boulevard is not getting emptier. It’s getting fuller, and one day it’s going to look like Glendale,” said one concerned resident.

There won’t be any changes to the speed limit in that area. Options for Youth doesn’t qualify as a school where a school zone must be put in. Council and a couple of residents were concerned about the possibility of making that portion of Foothill a 25 mph zone, which could lead to a higher accident rate, but that doesn’t appear to be a possibility.

“It’s fortunate [the CUP] was approved because a lot of kids in our community go to the school. It’s unfortunate that was the chosen and approved location,” said CVTC president Robbyn Battles.

In other news, Crescenta Valley Water District customers are conserving more water than expected this summer. District CFO Ron Mitchell told council and the audience that August conservation was currently 6% better than the state mandated, 24% in reduced usage. Mitchel said in July customers conserved at an 11% better rate.

A mix of eight new and returning members of the CV Youth Town Council were sworn in by Battles. The youth council was formed in 2012 and works with town council on issues affecting youth in the Crescenta Valley. Those sworn in were Jocelyn Gould, Samantha Gould, Abbey Sheklow, Sena Lim, Justin Lew, Alexis Karakas, Zerxes Bhadha, Sean Metz and Elektra Mitzakhanian.

“I hope you guys will have a wonderful time and help our community to be better. You guys are the future,” said councilmember Harry Leon.

An Evening at the Commons will held on Friday, located at the Crescenta Commons (corner of Orange and Rosemont avenues). Residents are encouraged to come out and celebrate the installation of the hand-made tiles around the sundial and the completion of the beautification project.

Crescenta Valley High School’s Prom Plus Club will hold a barbecue on Back to School night on Sept. 2. It will be held in the campus’ quad, and members of the club will be selling CVTC pancake breakfast tickets. The breakfast will be at CVHS on Sept. 19 from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m.

A 9/11 remembrance parade is scheduled, as over 50 cars will travel through La Crescenta in observance of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorists attacks. Visit thecvcouncil.com for the parade route.

The next CV Town Council is scheduled for Sept. 17 at 7 p.m. at the La Crescenta Library, 2809 Foothill Blvd.

  Brandon Hensley