By Mikaela STONE

Local activist Ines Chessum stepped down as co-chair of the Crescenta Valley Land Use Committee after nearly 11 years of service. 

Her most recent efforts focused on the decennial land use plan of the unincorporated La Crescenta Area. She feels the statewide push toward denser affordable housing fails to account for the individual needs of communities and helped the Land Use Committee guide plans toward compliant development that better fits La Crescenta’s profile as a suburb with high fire risk. The Committee shifted upzoning plans from Montrose to Foothill Boulevard and worked to avoid higher density in areas where it might hinder necessary evacuations in the event of wildfire. 

In lieu of city planning, unincorporated areas have a Community Standards District. However, many of the CSD laws the Land Use Committee grappled with were vague and difficult to enforce. Policy demanding signs only use “earth tones” and that buildings only use certain architectural styles was heavily open to interpretation leading to confusion and fierce debate. 

Chessum and the Land Use Committee chose to instead focus on more concrete expectations for commercial property such as being pedestrian-friendly and including covered walkways, courtyards and terraces. Chessum’s own background as an architect helped inform what was realistic to ask of businesses. The Land Use Committee worked for seven years to bring building codes up to their standards. 

As a result, Foothill Boulevard features a wide array of colors and styles. Chessum welcomes this display of creativity. 

“Foothill Boulevard is a little bit funky, but we were never searching for a homogenous look in this community, just a livable, pleasant environment,” she said. 

Chessum is most proud of her contribution to the Crescenta Commons park. Working with other community leaders, such as then-Land Use Committee leader Robbyn Battles, devoted community members worked to turn a vacant lot into a pocket park. Locals donated their time and money to clearing the lot of overgrowth and ivy. Chessum herself spent hours creating a set of ceramic tiles to decorate the area that acknowledged both donors and the community’s love for where they lived. To this day, students from Monte Vista Elementary School volunteer to maintain the park. Original contributor Fred Laughrey ensures the American flag continues to fly atop the park’s stone monument. This monument also contains a time capsule to be opened in 2064. Children brought beloved trinkets and notes to put inside the capsule while one community member placed a mobile phone inside to compare how technology will grow since 2014. With many longtime members of the community retiring, it falls on local youth to remember the capsule when the time comes. 

Like the other members of the Land Use Committee, Chessum is a volunteer offering her time. Above all, she sees her legacy of work as increasing the community’s quality of life. 

“I truly believe that we all have to co-exist with the built environment – our workplaces, our homes,” she said. 

Exchanging land law for in-laws, Chessum intends to devote herself to her family, far flung across multiple states, by attending birthdays, helping her children with parenting and spoiling her 13 grandchildren.