The Land Use Element, Community Engagement and You 

What’s a land use element? Some of the information circulating now would have you think it’s a scheme to develop large apartment buildings on parking lots in Montrose. Let’s put that to rest right now – the Land Use Element doesn’t call for that. 

But first let’s talk about community engagement.  

Over the past two years, City staff have been hard at work preparing updates to the Safety, Land Use and Mobility elements and drafting a new Environmental Justice Element.  

In brief, City staff engaged with the community about the General Plan updates at over 30 community events and neighborhood meetings, to 29,000 newsletter email recipients, by sending several emails to interested residents, by creating and updating a detailed website, by creating social media content, by making presentations at public meetings, by sending 40,000 mailers and so much more. 

As we prepare to open a 45-day review and comment period for the draft Mobility Element, and prepare for the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the draft Mobility, Land Use and Environmental Justice elements and the EIR review and comment period in the next several months, the City is committed to considering every outreach option as part of an outreach full-court press. 

Now, let’s talk substance. At the heart of the inaccurate information is the “City-Owned Residential Overlay” (CORO), a proposed new layer on the draft Land Use Map, which is part of the draft Land Use Element.  

The proposed overlay would apply to Lots 3, 4 and 6 along Florencita Drive and Lot 7 at the corner of Market Street and Broadview Drive in Montrose, along with four parking lots near the Civic Auditorium and Verdugo Park. 

According to the draft Element, the overlay “provides an opportunity for the development of stand-alone multifamily housing at a density of up to 50 units per acre.” 

The lots on Florencita, which have recently received the most attention, currently have a residential designation for “Moderate Density.” A community petition claims the overlay “can affect future zoning and leave the future of our parking, and the character of Montrose, uncertain.” 

Under State law, the Land Use Element and Map and the Zoning Code and Map must be consistent. So, the petition is correct to state that the Map would affect the zoning. However, the proposed Map doesn’t change the land use designation for those lots. The current land use designation for the Florencita lots calls for Moderate Density Residential, while the current zoning (R-3050) would allow for 25 units on Lot 3 without discretionary approval. The CORO would increase the maximum number of allowable units to less than 90. 

The proposed CORO is different than traditional zoning in that a development project could only be initiated at the direction of the City Council and any consideration of developing a CORO site would include extensive public engagement. Since the City retains ownership of the CORO sites, any proposed residential development project would have to meet the terms negotiated by the City.  

In fact, the CORO is an added layer of rules designed to give the City additional control over the development that could happen there. Given the State’s ongoing efforts to force more housing development, adding this protective overlay seems like the most responsible approach to capturing the community’s vision for this space in the event that developing housing on these lots appears unavoidable. 

We don’t know if that that day will ever come. But if it does, the CORO could allow the City to enforce the lots’ existing moderate density zoning standards, which the Glendale Zoning Code explains “is intended to act as a transition and buffer between low density residential land uses and more intensive development and to stabilize well maintained neighborhoods that have been developed generally in harmony with the open space and other amenities associated with low and moderate density residential land uses.”  

The bottom line is that there’s no proposal to develop on the parking lots in Montrose. And adding this protective overlay won’t make developing on these lots any more or less likely tomorrow than it is today.  

Reasonable people can disagree about the best way to plan for land uses in Glendale over the next 20 to 30 years. But if your goal is to protect the character of Montrose, I strongly urge you to read the entire draft Land Use Element then reach out to City staff to schedule a meeting to have an informed dialogue about the policies and goals that will shape the entire City’s future. 

The Land Use Element is a document that creates the framework for the rules and regulations for potential change. It also allows the City to study potential impacts prior to any potential changes in the future. Study is the operative word. The plan does not mandate change, nor does it guarantee that change will occur. 

You can reach the City’s Long Range Planning staff at GlendalePlan@GlendaleCA.gov or (818) 548-2140. For more information about the General Plan updates, visit GlendalePlan.com. 

Bradley Calvert, Director
City of Glendale – Community Development