By Mikaela STONE

Tensions ran high at the Sept. 17 meeting of the City of Glendale’s Land Use Element meeting. Bradley Calvert, director of the City of Glendale Community Development, met with members of the Montrose Shopping Park Association, whose members include President Andre Ordubegian, owner of Copy Network, Corey Grijalva, owner of Joselito’s, Maureen Palacios, owner of Once Upon a Time Bookstore, and Steve Pierce, advising director of the Crescenta Valley Chamber of Commerce, and other community members. Calvert’s presence was part of Glendale’s outreach efforts to understand community priorities and eliminate misinformation surrounding the most contentious part of its Land Use Element, which could give the Glendale City Council the ability to approve residential plans in many areas of the city – including parking lots in the Montrose Shopping Park. Thirty Glendale citizens showed up to express their unanimous opposition for this possibility.

Calvert affirmed that the Land Use Element document establishes that not all the land parcels the plan recognizes as capable of development will be developed. He asserted that the proposal is for research purposes rather than a development guarantee. As Calvert wrote in his CV Weekly Op Ed, “the proposed [City-Owned Residential Overlay (CORO)] is different than traditional zoning in that a development project could only be initiated at the direction of the City Council.” Were every parcel developed, the units added would more than double the population of Glendale – an impossibility. Census projections currently report the Glendale population is trending downward. The purpose of the Land Use Element is to prepare for additional housing density requirements passed by the state: what Calvert calls a “defense position.” Glendale is currently fully compliant with all state mandates but Calvert recognizes that new laws have blindsided the city in the past. Recent changes to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), which “exempts local governments’ rezoning from CEQA as part of their implementation of approved housing elements to accelerate site readiness,” may herald controversial density changes in fire impacted areas. As CEQA is implemented on a case by case basis, the true impact remains to be seen. Calvert maintained that were it not for his colleagues’ work recognizing potential locations to develop prior to the passage of SB 79, a law that up-zones land near major transit spots, it would have affected Glendale even more severely. The city sent a letter urging Sacramento to veto SB 79. 

Calvert believed it is unlikely developers would take an interest in the Montrose parking lots as the largest lot would offer up to “only 27 units,” which Calvert sees as not being worth a developer’s investment. 

However, both locals and MSPA members expressed concern that developers may not care. Their concerns have historic backing: Montrose has seen many storefronts sitting empty. The transition from Rocky Cola to Gus and Andy’s took 10 years while the former Montrose Bakery’s future still remains unknown after closing its doors in 2015 – these decade-long spans represent significant profit loss. 

Glendale local “René,” who asked that only his first name be used, does not trust that development will not occur. He sees the city’s stance as “We are not going to do that, but we are taking every step to get there.” 

Further mistrust of city methods stem from the alteration of the Montrose parking lots’ reclassification to “surplus land” – a decision that left many citizens reportedly feeling blindsided. Calvert recognized that the city should have implemented more outreach efforts before making the decision. In response, the city has extended indefinitely the response period for the Land Use Element (https://www.glendaleplan.com/). 

Several commenters present at the Sept. 17 meeting demanded both the surplus designation and the inclusion of the lots in the draft of the Land Use Element be removed; it is their concern that including it in the draft will invite future policies to implement it. At the Sept. 30 council meeting, the city council will vote on a potential solution for this: to sell the development rights, or “air rights,” of the parking lot instead of the land itself. This solution works like intellectual property in which a studio can sell the right to make additional media in a franchise to another studio in another location while keeping previous media under its brand. An example of this sale in action is the Los Angeles Central Library, which stands at four stories. In the early 1980s, the developer of the current U.S. Bank building, Maguire Thomas Partners, sought to build a 73-story skyscraper in spite of California’s height restrictions. Maguire Thomas Partners offered to purchase the 36 stories the library was not using – to be placed over the skyscraper’s former legal limit. With the money from the sale, the Los Angeles Central Library renovated into what it is today. This solution is favored by MSPA treasurer Palacios as it would “get it in writing” that the parking lots will remain. Glendale hopes to use the money earned from selling potential rights to combat its current $34 million deficit. 

MSPA President Ordubegian leads the local effort to preserve the parking lots. Already, 300,000 people have signed in opposition to high density housing. As the final decision is left to the city council, there is no threshold of signatures to meet, but the council agrees more is better. Ordubegian intends to prepare comments from the community to drive home the point of just how important Montrose Shopping Park is to locals. 

“I do not want to wake up to more rules and regulations. It is hard enough to run a small business in this state,” said Ordubegian, who would rather the city council leave the area alone. He encouraged community members to show up to upcoming land use and city council meetings to express how potential changes will affect them. He also advocated for voting out council members who do not vote in accordance with citizen concerns. He wants the council to understand: “Our livelihood depends on the decisions you make.”