What to Watch in 2025

It’s 2025! Can you believe it? Time passes much too quickly. For someone as busy as I, it’s all I can do to just keep up.

As a steering committee member of the Crescenta Valley Community Association, I follow proposed development that will affect land use in the Crescenta Valley. For 20 years, the CVCA has been watching Canyon Hills, a project that was stalled soon after it was approved in 2005 but came back to life after the owner, Whitebird, Inc., applied for an encroachment and a grading permit in 2021-22. These actions revealed the intention of the company to move forward with its plan to build 221 houses in La Tuna Canyon at the crossing of the Foothill (210) Freeway before the deadline of the City of Los Angeles in 2026. It also prompted the creation of a new community activist group called No Canyon Hills. The group had real concerns that the outdated environmental impact report from 2003 did not consider changes to the wildlife corridor after the study but more so the severe risk from fire. 

The La Tuna Fire in 2017 originated in the same area as the proposed Whitebird site and became the catalyst to reexamine evacuation plans in high fire danger areas. The City and Superior Court officials ruled against Snowball West Investments, LP in its appeal to build 229 houses on the adjacent Verdugo Hills Golf Course property, essentially killing the project.  The No Canyon Hills group continues to gather petitions against grading the hillside and documenting wildlife sightings in the area. Its members were recently named in a lawsuit filed by Whitebird, Inc. that claimed interference by the non-profit group. The CVCA will continue to watch the unfolding of this David versus Goliath story.

Since its inception in 2007, the CVCA has heard complaints about Chamlian School, a school that leases the property at 4444 Lowell Avenue from the City of Glendale. The private school operates in a residential neighborhood, which is not allowed by zoning ordinances, so Chamlian has been required through a hearing process to obtain a variance every 10 years.  Neighbors near the school claim that their concerns of traffic, noise and safety have gone unaddressed for decades and they are fed up. A recent decision by the Glendale Planning Commission further dismissed neighbor reports that the school has not complied with many of the conditions required for the variance approval in 2014. Not only did the Glendale Planning Commission vote to approve the 2024 variance, but it made the approval permanent, meaning neighbors could no longer weigh in publicly. The Planning Commission also did not consider the current plans Chamlian has to expand its campus. It has designs to build the Hacop & Hilda Baghdassarian Preschool on the newly acquired church property across the street. Neighbors have appealed the Commission’s decision and the hearing is supposed to be scheduled after the new year.

There are two other projects that have been in the works that early this year may introduce updated plans. One is the property located at 3411-3437 Foothill Blvd. on the northwest corner of New York Avenue. The preliminary plan of four-story buildings with nine commercial and 78 residential units is currently being redesigned. The other project is located at 2817 Montrose Avenue, west of La Crescenta, which is now in its fourth design phase. The Glendale Planning Dept. has told CVCA that plans are “coming soon” for these two properties.

The City of Glendale has also been very busy working on components of its updated General Plan. For further details and how to get involved, go to https://www.glendaleplan.com/.

And … we have a new crop of elected officials across the state and country that will be taking office soon. I am interested to see what the new changes will mean for all of us and if everyone will work together for the greatest good. Fingers crossed.

Susan Bolan
susanbolan710@gmail.com