By Julie BUTCHER

“As a city, we are better than this,” Councilmember Ardy Kassakhian at Tuesday night’s meeting of the Glendale City Council admonished about the hotly debated proposed Bicycle Transportation Plan.

The plan calls for developing more than 90 miles of various bike lanes and bicycle infrastructure across the city over the next 20 years, including approximately 46 miles of protected bike lanes. When the Council last debated the plan – including hearing hours of comments from the public – the body deadlocked on moving forward. With his vote, Councilmember Kassakhian authorized city staff to move forward and develop more detailed plans for environmental review. Before adoption, plans would need to come back to Council for approval.

Quoting Kevin Durant, basketball star and Olympic gold medalist at the recently concluded Paris games, Kassakhian said, “A lot of B.S. happens in our country but a lot of great things happen too.”

“I watched all of the hours of testimony on this,” Kassakhian reported. “One caller asked if any of the councilmembers actually rode a bicycle. One of my colleagues responded that he rode his bike to that meeting. Another is an avid rider. I used to ride a bicycle in Glendale. I learned to ride a bicycle in Glendale, after my parents moved here, when I was in fourth grade. Kids used to ride their bikes all over Glendale. We were a city of bike riders.”

Councilmember Kassakhian asked several clarifying questions about the Bike Plan: regarding the cost estimates, Community Development director Bradley Calvert responded that the report was in error in stating that the cost estimates only covered the costs of the actual bike lanes.

“Our philosophy is ‘dig once,’” he said.

The costs, Calvert explained, would cover everything done to improve the street, including potential paving, sidewalk improvements and curb cuts.

“It’s not $500 million up front; it’s not $100 million up front. This is a phased plan, over 20 years. Plus a lot of these projects would be eligible for outside funding, from the state or feds,” Calvert said.

Regarding questions raised about the consultant used, Calvert said that while the representative who spoke at the July 30 Council meeting is from New York City, the consulting firm Buro Happold has a local office and has done similar work locally including for Los Angeles County transportation agencies. The Council voted to allow Buro Happold to do work on the city’s Vision Zero Plan to eliminate pedestrian deaths.

“I see no reason to oppose the bike plan,” said Councilmember Kassakhian who also advocated a return to drivers’ education in Glendale’s public schools as he cast the deciding vote. “I remember when the police department came out and did bicycle safety training for school kids,” he noted. “We should widen sidewalks and allow safe bike riding on them; we should make it easier for neighborhoods to get traffic calming measures like speed bumps and speed humps. We need to slow traffic and slow speeders; it’s not okay to be a city where pedestrians – and some cyclists – are just mowed down in the street.”

Councilmember Ara Najarian voted no, citing his intent to be accountable to the public.

“I’ve received thousands of emails from people opposing bike lanes,” he said.

Councilmember Vartan Gharpetian reiterated his intent to vote against any bike lanes that reduce traffic lanes or remove parking.

“No one talked to the businesses along these corridors,” Gharpetian said. “Stop going to outside special interest groups.”

“It’s 2024 and we’re still having these tired arguments about building bike infrastructure,” bemoaned Councilmember Dan Brotman. “We’re not passing a bike plan tonight. The Verdugo Wash is not part of the bike plan as it’s a separate project. The BRT is a separate project.”

Brotman continued, “It’s about the nationalization of this issue, the MAGA-fication of what should be common sense local decisions. It’s part of an attack on our school system, anti-LGBT bigotry, the localization of right-wing social media hate. I’m tired of it – and if the last school board and Council elections are any indication, the public at large is tired of it too.”

Plans to move forward with environmental reviews of the proposed plan passed on a vote of 3-2.

Also at the very long Tuesday night meeting, the council debated an ordinance proposing to require existing and new drive-through businesses be subject to new, more restrictive regulations.

An attorney for In-N-Out Burger addressed the Council, raising concerns about the proposed measures.

“First, let me say that In-N-Out appreciates the opportunity to serve the Glendale community. Our business at 310 N. Harvey has been there for nearly 25 years and is successful and popular,” the attorney said. “That’s why we’re concerned to hear about these new rules that would apply retroactively to existing businesses.”

Ultimately the Council voted to move forward with new rules for new businesses, limiting drive-through food businesses to certain planning zones and grandfathering existing businesses.

Earlier in the meeting, the Council agreed to accept federal funds to plant 104 new trees in the city’s Glenwood neighborhood. According to urban forester Loren Klick, the $100,000 grant is fully reimbursable and also covers the cost of a new digital canopy assessment. Neighbors will choose new trees from 20-30 possible species, Klick explained.

“We believe in planting the right tree in the right place,” he told the Council.

Councilmember Kassakhian urged the city to reconsider its enforcement of measures enacted to regulate sidewalk vendors as he reported brick-and-mortar businesses are being cited for illegal sandwich board type signs “while vendors take up entire swaths of the right-of-way.”

Glendale police department representatives reminded the public about a traffic townhall set for Wednesday, Aug. 21 at 6 p.m. in the community room of the Glendale police headquarters at 131 N. Isabel St.

At a special meeting of the City Council during the day on Tuesday, funds were allocated “to enter into an Agreement for Commission of Artwork with Kassia Rico in an amount not to exceed $300,000 dispersed from the Urban Art Fund to design, fabricate and install a public art piece entitled ‘Our Garden Spot’ for the Montrose circular benches.”

Principal Arts & Culture Administrator Jennifer Fukutomi-Jones detailed the process of reviewing 230 applications. The board of the Library, Arts & Culture selected Rico’s work in June and the board of the Montrose Shopping Park Association agreed with the recommendation at its most recent meeting.

Local artist Kassia Rico explained her designs harken to Montrose’s past, “a fusion of art, architecture and history,” including references to the Montrose Railway.