By Julie BUTCHER

Director of Community Development Bradley Calvert addressed the Glendale City Council on Tuesday night responding to rumors and concerns regarding the City’s review of the land use element in the City’s general plan.

“The plan is far from done. Today we open the 45-day comment period and there is a lot more to do. We welcome the input,” Calvert told the council, responding to encouragement to improve community outreach efforts. “Typically, we don’t do this comment period for updates to the general plan, but we wanted to make sure to get input on this.” 

Calvert described the extensive outreach: banners on the city website since July 2; 8,000 accounts reached on Instagram; emails to 29,000 City subscribers; multi-lingual direct mailers to 40,000; ads on GTV and planned for the newspapers Glendale NewsPress and the Crescenta Valley Weekly; a presence at 11 community events including Cruise Night and National Night Out; meeting with homeowners’ groups; and more.

Calvert responded to concerns raised that zoning changes would automatically trigger redevelopment, specifically around City parking lots in the Montrose area and near Glendale Community College (GCC). 

“That is not true; that would be up to the city council,” he said. “We own those properties and there is no intent to sell those properties.”

“Our focus on city property right now is downtown – that’s where the growth needs to be,” he continued. “Anything else would be discussions for much further down the line. Plus, community benefits would need to be incorporated into plans and that includes not removing parking. We’re not eliminating parking, especially in the Montrose area – even if that discussion were to be had, we’ve conveyed many times with the organizations and groups up there that we would replace parking on a one-for-one basis, if not seek additional parking as part of any development. Again, that would depend on the council many, many years from now.”

Calvert corrected a mistake he had made in those meetings, acknowledging that Lot 3 in Montrose is zoned R3050.

“We want to hear from the public,” Calvert continued, addressing the rumor that the updated land use plans call for the removal of single-family zoning north of Glenoaks Boulevard. “This is not happening. That is not proposed here.” He urged debate “driven by factual information.”

“We love seeing the uptick in responses to the survey,” he said. “We just want to make sure it’s grounded in the reality of the plan.”

The draft land use update can be reviewed at https://www.glendaleplan.com/land-use-element or read the updated draft plan at https://www.glendaleplan.com/_files/ugd/81c7a2_997ec2748de84722922338990b6842f0.pdf.

Patrick Murphy read the report. 

“Everyone at the meeting [with Montrose Shopping Park businesses] only found out about [the meeting] from Instagram,” Murphy told the council, criticizing the City’s outreach efforts. 

“Staff was asked how many units could be built on Lot 3 in Montrose – it was also asked what the height limitations would be – and staff said it did not know the answers to these questions,” Murphy said.“There’s a matrix in the land use element that says 96,000 new units can be built over the next 20 years, housing an additional 269,000 people, taking our population to 459,000. That matrix wasn’t plucked out of thin air. [Staff] should know how many units could be built on specific lots with, of course, density bonuses. When it was asked if there’s the infrastructure to support this upzoning, we were told that’s the next phase. Shouldn’t that be the first phase? That we can support it with infrastructure – power, water, sewers? That’s the first phase.”

Murphy wrapped up his remarks. “These elements need to be slowed down considerably until the directly affected neighborhoods are well informed. Extend the public comment period, full stop. Mr. Gharpetian was at the meeting; he saw how incensed these people are.”

As part of its business on Tuesday night, the council debated the adoption of a Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP). According to the staff report, “The City of Glendale’s Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP) is a comprehensive roadmap to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and build resilience against climate change. Building on our history of environmental leadership, Glendale aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045 while enhancing public health, equity and economic sustainability by adopting goals, strategies and policies that support achieving that result.”

Glendale’s Sustainability Officer David Jones described the effort, joining more than 180 cities and counties across California.

“Glendale isn’t just joining the list but is becoming part of a much larger movement both statewide and globally to cut greenhouse gas emissions and strengthen our resilience to climate change,” Jones said. 

Consultants hired to develop the visioning document added that “the council funded the development of this plan to build resilient communities capable of withstanding and recovering from extreme weather impacts. This is a plan to protect human and environmental health by mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, aligned with state goals and regulations.”

The plan meets the requirements of SB 32 so future development projects requiring environmental review under state law can streamline gas emissions’ impact analyses by demonstrating consistency with the CAAP, the consultants explained, noting the potential to save both time and money.

The benefits to Glendale families include improved air quality, especially around schools and homes; reduced energy bills through home efficiency programs; expanded access to clean transportation options; preparing neighborhoods for extreme heat, wildfire and drought.

Beth Brooks addressed the council. 

“I know this report probably cost $1 or $2 million,” she said, “but there’s at least a billion dollars worth of spending in this thing. I went through 500 pages of it ‘cause I couldn’t take it anymore – I couldn’t read the last 300 pages.”

“Just so people understand, there’s no cost-benefit analysis in this thing. You reduce emissions. So what? Who’s suffering now without this climate plan?”

Brooks said, continuing, “To spend a billion on an ideological problem – it’s a champagne problem, not a real problem. People want their electric bills to go down. They want affordable housing. They don’t want all this traffic.”

“What this plan does is it eliminates zoning for single-family homes forcing high density building of massive apartment buildings,” she said. “I have the maps. They posted the maps – they color-coded the maps, and I have that map. It forces high density zoning in most of Glendale; it removes traffic lanes, creating bus-only lanes; it forces the City to replace 900 pieces of equipment with more expensive electric equipment; hires five staff people with a starting salary of $120,000 to implement a climate plan. Hundreds of thousands for consultants, more GWP staff – it completely monopolizes city support staff on a climate agenda. If there’re emissions out there now, I’m not suffering.”

Elise also addressed the council, commending the work done to develop this “vision for the future.”

“The money spent now will help avoid emergency spending later, which could be greater,” she said. “The plan is structured with care and extensive community outreach to ensure feasibility. 

“I didn’t read a lot about forcing people to do things,” she added.

On behalf of the Glendale Association of Realtors, Greg Astorian raised concerns about the feasibility of electrifying 25% of existing home by 2030.

“That’s five years from now. Goals are good to have but 76% of Glendale homes were built prior to 1978 and will be expensive to electrify. One study estimates the costs at between $34,000 and $50,000 in Los Angeles. We’re not against the CAAP, just for the clarification that this will be done on a voluntary basis and incentivized rather than mandated,” he said.

On a vote of 4-1, with Councilmember Vartan Gharpetian voting “No,” the council adopted the framework as a visioning document, adding a specific proviso noting that eliminating introductory provisions adopting the plan as city policy.

“Let’s not kid ourselves. Policy will be made based on it,” Councilmember Gharpetian said. “We’re not going to develop a 960-page document and not try to implement or enforce it. The vision is to reduce greenhouse gases, to get people out of their cars.”

Here is the full CAAP report: https://glendalecaap.rinconconsultants.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Glendale_PublicReview_CAAP_wApps_04152025.pdf. Comments can be submitted at https://glendalecaap.rinconconsultants.com/home/get-involved/.

The council discussed potential “reach codes” mandating electric heat pumps for new air conditioning installations and at a future meeting will consider incentives as well as mandates. 

Local resident Austin Stewart proposed an extension of the city’s Beeline bus to run along Chevy Chase to connect the neighborhoods of Emerald Isle Park, Camino San Rafael and Chevy Chase to local transit, noting that the walk to a bus stop is more than an hour.

The council voted to reduce speed limits on stretches of 21 city streets.

Before the council was able to vote on funding a study regarding the creation of an historic district for the Verdugo Woodlands neighborhood, proponents of the move withdrew their petition.

A resident of the neighborhood who helped organize opposition to the historic district designation criticized the process and advocated that it be retooled to require proponents to show a considerable interest prior to any action being taken by the city.

Councilwoman Asatryan announced that an event celebrating Glendale’s Women’s Equality Day would take place on Wednesday, Sept. 10 at 5 p.m. in the Alex Theatre Courtyard, 216 N. Brand Blvd. to bring together civic and business community leaders, equity advocates and residents and business owners for a program centered on education, empowerment and connection. The program will also feature live music, food, beverages refreshments and networking opportunities. More information is available at https://www.glendaleca.gov/government/departments/office-of-the-city-manager/communications-community-relations/women-s-equality-day.

Finally, the council adjourned in memory of local architect and respected Glendalian Garo Nazarian. 

“We’ll remember his warmth and his smile,” commented director of Community Development Bradley Calvert. “He always treated staff with the utmost respect, and we appreciate him, and we will miss him. The beauty of this profession is that his legacy gets to live on, and we will see his throughout the City for a long time.”

Councilmember Ardy Kassakhian added, “As we say in Armenian, may his soul be illuminated in heaven.”