Scholl Canyon Project Garners Comments

Area residents continue to appear at Glendale City Council meetings to express their opinions of the Scholl Canyon landfill gas power generation and Grayson Repowering projects. They are concerned about the environmental effects and costs to taxpayers of these longterm infrastructure maintenance efforts and are lobbying for more sustainable approaches than the city staff are recommending.

The Glendale Planning Commission rejected the Scholl Canyon project Mitigated Negative Declaration at its March 21 meeting. The commission was scheduled to vote on the findings at its April 4 meeting. Those findings will be sent to the Glendale City Council, which will make the final decision on the MND. Many are calling for the council to do a full Environmental Impact Report. That would be a lengthy process delaying any eventual project. The Glendale Water & Power Commission was scheduled to review the Grayson Repowering Draft Environmental Impact Report at its April 2 meeting. The Commission can recommend approval, non-certification or another project alternative. Public comments from that meeting will be included with the material given the city council for review. Again, the council is the body that makes the final decision. It does not have to follow commission recommendations. The council has the difficult job of weighing the risks of power outages against the potential pollution.

These key milestones are scheduled prior to publication of this column. If you didn’t attend you can review the meetings via the city’s website.

The developer of a potential 38-unit apartment complex at 2817 Montrose Ave. approached the Glendale Homeowners Coordinating Council to initiate community involvement. The project would contain units with one to three bedrooms with a median monthly rental of around $2,500 and three low income units for a density bonus. The developer intends to retain the oak tree and native stone wall at the front of the property. The project is apparently within zoning limits and will not require any variances. When GHCC leadership met with the developer they emphasized that the North Glendale Community Plan provisions calling for neighborhood compatibility were critical and the draft design was too modern. If the developer decides to proceed there will be a public notice on the city’s website of opportunities for public input.

At its March 13 meeting, the Glendale City Council directed Community Development to proceed with the process to rename a two-block portion of Maryland Avenue between Wilson Avenue and Harvard Street to commemorate Artsakh. Unified Young Armenians, a non-profit

organization, originally requested that Sanchez Drive be renamed. They chose that street because it had no addresses so would be less disruptive. Staff and local historic societies noted the importance to Glendale of Tomas Sanchez, for whom Sanchez Drive is named, as builder of the Casa Adobe de San Rafael. For information on why the Republic of Artsakh is important to our local Armenian community, please see the staff report linked to in the March 13 council meeting agenda. You can also view the meeting video with all the public comment.

The Community Development Dept. is conducting a public comment period to allow the community to provide feedback on the proposed street name change. You can make individual comments directly to the case planner, Cassandra Pruett, cpruett@glendaleca.gov, (818) 937-8186. A public hearing and additional 10-day public notice will also take place for Planning Commission and City Council meetings tentatively scheduled to take place in three to four months.

Interest in the condominiums at 4201 Pennsylvania continues to grow as progress moves toward completion. There will eventually be changes to Pennsylvania Avenue conditioned when the project was approved. A small median to help enforce the no left turns in and out of the property is planned. I hope for patience from the community as increased population leads to increased housing and traffic.

The next CVCA meeting will be April 26 starting at 7 p.m. in the community room at the La Crescenta Library, 2809 Foothill Blvd. Park in the upper lot accessed from La Crescenta Avenue. All Crescenta Valley residents and stakeholders are welcome.

  SHARON WEISMAN