City Needs Better Outreach

I am writing regarding the City of Glendale’s Community Development Dept. presentation of the Draft Land Use and Environmental Justice Elements Report. My first exposure to these Elements was at a Dec. 9, 2024 “scoping meeting.”  The outreach for this meeting yielded an attendance of only four (4) members of the public. There were more staff members attending than the public. Something is wrong with the city’s outreach efforts. In addition, the public comment period for the scoping was conducted during the 2024 holiday season. Why?

The meeting on July 15 saw only three (3) members of the public attending. No surprise regarding the attendance as the meeting was held at 3 p.m. in the afternoon during a Special Council Session. Once again, something is wrong with respect to the public outreach efforts.

The updated Land Use Element and new Environmental Justice Element make very significant changes to the General Plan and Zoning in the City of Glendale to include an increase in projected population of 262,579 people over the next 20 years.  Another portion of the draft report calls for the parking lot behind the retail merchants on Honolulu Avenue in Montrose to be up-zoned to higher density multi-family residential, which would effectively take away the parking for customers patronizing the businesses on Honolulu. This would be catastrophic for those businesses.

In addition, the parking lots next to the Glendale Civic Auditorium on Verdugo Road and others along Verdugo would be similarly up-zoned to allow for multi-family residential. The most serious issue is that the residents in adjoining neighborhoods have no knowledge of what is happening and the public comment period, which started on June 30, ends on Aug. 19. Very poor timing again as people are vacationing.

The Environmental Justice Element is intended to mitigate disproportionate impacts on Glendale’s most vulnerable population. The irony is that some of the largest proposed density increases are in the Environmental Justice Communities thereby increasing pollution etc. for the most vulnerable.

The residents of Glendale need to be made very aware of what is happening in their neighborhoods and the city is not communicating enough with them. It is most critical that the communities of Glendale are fully informed as to what is happening in their neighborhoods.

Patrick Murphy
La Crescenta