By Mary O’KEEFE

Crescenta Valley is set in the beautiful foothills, between Angeles National Forest and the Verdugo Mountains. The community is known for its volunteer spirit, its great schools and its fierce defense of keeping things just the way they are despite CV being a strange mixture of unincorporated county and Glendale annex areas.

Residents are often confused about where the boundaries lie between Glendale and the unincorporated area of Los Angeles County/La Crescenta as well as the unincorporated area of Los Angeles County Montrose and Montrose that is part of the city of Glendale. When living here it is not often asked, “What Montrose do you live in?” or even “Which La Crescenta do you live in?” Because even though residents living on Dunsmore Avenue may pay their utilities to the City of Glendale because they are, in fact, part of the city, their address will always come up as La Crescenta. All feel they live in “Crescenta Valley.”

And the confusion can be found in general municipal elections because the unincorporated areas feed into the Glendale Unified School District schools so unincorporated residents do vote for the board of education. Confused yet?

It is not out of the realm of possibility that some residents in the CV area of Glendale, often called far north Glendale, feel they are under-represented by the Glendale City Council. Even though councilmembers know of the area it is such a unique annex location that it is a place difficult to understand. For example, many residents do not even realize that the alleyways in the Montrose Shopping Park are actually located in the unincorporated area of LA County, even though the parking lot and stores are within the borders of the City of Glendale.

On April 4, the City of Glendale will be holding general elections and for the first time in a long time there are candidates who know the conundrum that is CV because they live and volunteer here.

Rick Dinger and Grant Michals live in the CV area of Glendale. They have been active in the community, volunteering and attending various functions.

Dinger is a constant presence at CV and Montrose-Verdugo City chambers of commerce events and supports local schools. He is the owner of CV Insurance and community leaders know when there is a list of people to call for support Dinger is on top of that list.

Now he is running for a seat on the Glendale City Council.

“It had been something in the back of my mind for a while,” Dinger said.

He has worked with the City of Glendale on several issues including serving on the Glendale Parks and Open Space Foundation. He feels Glendale is “park poor” and has seen the fallout from all the development in Glendale.

Development is also a concern for Michals who decided to get more involved and to educate himself on city issues after attempting and failing to stop a developer who wanted to build an apartment complex in his neighborhood that was a story taller than any other building.

“Ultimately the project next door to me was approved, being grandfathered in after the North Glendale Community Plan was approved. Every morning when I look out my bedrooms window, I see a mistake that I did not have the knowledge and experience to prevent at that time,” he said. “This drives my passion to help others and seek solutions to our City’s challenges.”

“It’s hard to tell what is going on downtown with our current council,” he added. “We have seen the same people on [the Council] … People are really concerned about the development in Glendale.”

Dinger warned that what is happening and has happened in downtown Glendale is on its way to Foothill Boulevard and residents have to be aware.

“Developers have been very quick and aggressive. We need to stop and look at our infrastructure,” he said. “We need to hit the pause button.”

With development comes traffic issues, which are bad now, and Dinger said they could get worse.

“The traffic we have been experiencing on Foothill lately [due to 210 construction] is something that may become normal if we see that development here,” he warned.

Dinger and Michals are from the CV area but both have been involved with the City of Glendale proper as well.

Through Michals’ involvement with the Glendale Homeowners Coordinating Council and his appointment to the Parks Commission he feels most in Glendale, both within the CV area and downtown, know who he is but he does admit there might be some misconceptions between CV and other areas of Glendale.

“The complexities of jurisdictions in CV are not known in other areas. The issue of the Non-Resident Fee that was recently addressed by the Parks Commission is an example of that lack of understanding,” he said. “I do believe that organizations such as the Montrose Shopping Park Association, Friends of Rockhaven and other local groups are creating a greater understanding of who we are in Glendale and beyond.”

Mike Mohill is not from the immediate CV area but attends and supports so many organizations in the area he could almost be considered an honorary CV resident.

“Actually my roots to the Montrose area go way back to the mid-’50s when my dad, a finish carpenter, decided to build his dream house in the Verdugo Woodlands. Back in those days, the Montrose movie theater was as close to our home as the old movie houses on Brand Boulevard,” Mohill said.

Mohill is a familiar face at Glendale City Council meetings, sharing his opinion and at times “calling out” officials on issues ranging from broken sidewalks to pension plans.

He has run for office a few times in the past and it was the city’s tree ordinance that first got him involved.

He began attending more and more Council meetings.

“The next thing I was doing was running for Council. After all, if one complains about the system, one should either try and change the system or walk away,” he said.

He, too, feels that development is an issue but said traffic is the most pressing issue in Glendale proper.

“Which was a predictable result from development, congestion and inadequate parking,” he added.

The election to fill three seats on the Glendale City Council is April 4.

  Mary Okeefe