By Brian CHERNICK

City of Glendale councilmembers on Tuesday night moved to consider amendments to the incentives, entitlements and permits provided for projects in Glendale’s downtown area after a proposal for an immediate moratorium was made by councilmember Ara Najarian.

The rapid pace of construction of luxury apartments and mixed use complexes has been a sore spot for some Glendale residents over the past five to seven years who have expressed discontent over the past five to seven years with the changing characteristics of the city.

Councilmember Najarian brought forth the measure to instate a moratorium inspired by constituents who had contacted him regarding their concerns about the pace and scale of development in the downtown area. Najarian expressed surprise at the small turnout of community members who have, according to him, accused him of championing the developments.

“Just think of how different the City of Glendale could the City of Glendale could have been if we had only hit the pause button and made modest and appropriate adjustments to our development standards,” Najarian said, stating he had brought up this proposal in 2012 and 2014.

Councilmember Zareh Sinanyan expressed agreement with the design, or lack thereof, of some of the projects over the past five years, but diverged from his colleague avoiding labeling all of the changes in the downtown area as “evil, a bad thing that happened and something to be dismissed entirely.”

“Yes, our downtown has changed, our city has changed as a result,” Sinanyan said. “But I don’t think it has changed all for the worse.”

City staff was instructed to conduct studies and return to council with proposals for adjusting development project incentives.

Tuesday’s meeting also marked a historic moment as Glendale councilmembers voted to rename a portion of Maryland Street to Artsakh in honor of the Armenian-American community. Currently referred to as the Maryland Paseo, the street that stretches two blocks between Wilson Avenue and Harvard Street serves as a central area to the Maryland Arts and Entertainment District.

The initial proposal by the Unified Young Armenians (UYA) suggested the renaming of Sanchez Drive, which runs parallel to the 134 freeway. This was met with opposition by both community members and council, which objected to the removal of the commemoration of Tomas Sanchez, the longest serving county sheriff and first Latino sheriff, in order to honor another individual. Artsakh refers to a disputed territory between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Historically it was the tenth province within the Kingdom of Armenia. While typically considered part of Azerbaijan, a majority of the population in the region is Armenian.
City staff will take council’s selection of Maryland St and present it to the Planning Commission. Comments from the commission will then be return to council for a final public hearing and decision on the measure. There is no set date for the change.

  Brian CHERNICK