Why Support the Abode Communities Development Project at Foothill & Briggs

As a local elected official and longtime resident of La Crescenta, I have been listening

intently to the current debate over new multi-family development projects being proposed in the Crescenta Valley. And since I live off Briggs Avenue above Foothill Boulevard, I have especially been watching the project proposed for that corner.

More specifically, Abode Communities – a not-for-profit 501c3 organization that builds and manages low-income and senior housing – is proposing to build a 66-unit multi-family apartment building on the northwest corner of Foothill Boulevard and Briggs Avenue. These apartments would be made available for rent to individuals and families with incomes between 30% and 70% of the Area Median Income ($31-74K/yr). Twenty-five of these units are specifically for young adults transitioning out of the county’s foster care system.

To understand more about this proposed project and its developer, I first attended the CV Town Council’s public meeting on the subject held last May. I then met with Abode Communities’ executive VP as well as reviewed its latest financial audit and IRS Form 990. 

To follow up on the issues and concerns voiced at the town council meeting, I met and spoke with representatives from the LA County Fire Dept., Glendale Unified School District and Crescenta Valley Water District. A detailed assessment of each issue and concern is available in the Addendum attached.

After considering all of the information gathered, I have concluded that the Abode Communities’ project is an overwhelmingly good fit for La Crescenta.

And here are the reasons why:

1. The project will help with our community’s desperate need for housing, especially low-income housing, and will proactively help mitigate homelessness.
2. The developer (Abode Communities) has a proven record of successfully developing and managing this kind of project and has already demonstrated its willingness to be good neighbors. After receiving input from the town council and community in November 2025, Abode made major modifications to its original project design to accommodate many of the identified concerns, including:

• • Reducing the total number of units by almost 20%
  • Reducing the building’s height by eliminating a whole floor
  • Addressing parking concerns by reducing the number of units and increasing the onsite parking/unit ratio
  • Addressing congestion concerns by redirecting resident cars onto Foothill and away from Briggs

3.   The project is in a good location:

• • The project is located on an existing commercial corridor alongside similar-sized buildings (there are already four other three- and four-story buildings on this block of Foothill)

• • It is within walking distance of public schools, grocery and other stores, restaurants, mass-transit lines and even the sheriff’s station

4.   Multi-family homes like this are more environmentally sustainable with residents using only half the energy and water per capita of residents in single-family homes. They also reduce urban sprawl and the pressure to mow down more of our beautiful hillsides for houses.

5.   It is a terrific project, especially considering the alternative. Case in point: the city of La Cañada has spent years (and a million plus dollars) fighting a multi-family housing project further east on Foothill. Recently, the courts ruled LCF could no longer prevent the development of this property and they now have a much larger project being developed there than the one originally proposed.

6.   Lastly, this project is a terrific opportunity for La Crescenta to demonstrate our best qualities. By being welcoming of these young adults and families, we can help provide them with the kind of safe, stable and supportive community we have all benefited from and that they deserve.

At this point if you are still not convinced, I request you consider the Addendum (found online: www.cvweekly.com/VIEWPOINTS) I have provided that digs deeper into each of the concerns voiced in opposition to this project. I think you will find that the reasons to support this project far outweigh the few concerns that are largely over-blown or have better solutions than just opposing this project.

Supporting this project will also demonstrate to other developers that we as a community can be reasonable if they are reasonable. This may go a long way in shaping what future development along Foothill Boulevard will look like.

In closing, I hope you will join me in voicing your support for this terrific project by emailing the CV Town Council (contact@thecvcouncil.com) and Supervisor Kathryn Barger (Supervisor.Barger@bos.lacounty.gov). 

Addendum:
The multi-family, low-income housing project being proposed by Abode Communities in La
Crescenta has created quite the stir on social media as well as at CV Town Council and
other community meetings. Most notably, the Council hosted a community meeting in May
at Rosemont Middle School which drew approximately 300 people to hear from Abode
Communities and to voice their concerns. Representatives from Abode presented their
latest project design, a design modified in response to previously received input from the
Town Council and community.
The modifications included reducing the building height from five stories to four, reducing the
number of units from 80 to 66, and changing traffic flow so that residents will exit the
building onto Foothill Boulevard rather than onto Briggs Avenue. From my perspective,
these seemed like significant modifications, made by a developer that was trying to be
responsive to our community’s concerns. But to most of those in attendance, it appeared
nothing could be said or done to appease their displeasure with the project. There were
only two people that voiced their support for the project during the whole meeting.
In addition to the concerns that community members had previously voiced about building
height, number of units and traffic flow, they now voiced concerns about the ability of our
schools to absorb any new students, the ability of our water district to be able to provide
water to these new residents, a concern about additional traffic on our streets, including a
concern about limiting the ability for neighbors to evacuate the neighborhood during a
wildfire, and lastly a concern about this project changing the “character” of La Crescenta.
All of these concerns seemed like valid reasons to at least question the appropriateness of
this location for this project but I did not know if they were truly fact-based or just people
projecting their unfounded fears. So, I set off to look into each one of these concerns to see
if I could discern whether they actually had merit. Here is a summary of my findings:
Schools – My assessment; NOT an issue.
I spoke with the long-term assistant superintendent of Glendale Unified School District
about the ability of our local public schools to absorb new students from this or other
multi-family developments in the Crescenta Valley. She told me that this was not a concern.
In fact, La Crescenta Elementary has seen lower enrollment this year and
Mountain Avenue Elementary has also seen lower enrollment due to the loss of students
from the Sagebrush neighborhood to La Cañada schools. She also mentioned that
additional students at Rosemont and CVHS might impact the number of students
attending those schools from outside of La Crescenta, but not those living locally.
Water – My assessment; NOT an issue.
I started with this issue by reviewing the Crescenta Valley Water District’s 2025 Urban
Water Management Plan, a state-required plan/report that projects population growth and
water supply and demand for the next 25 years and outlines how CVWD will meet that
demand. The report concluded that our local water system is “generally drought-proof” and
that CVWD is prepared to meet the water needs of today’s customers as well as with the
17% growth in population projected between now and 2050.
I also spoke to CVWD’s general manager who affirmed the report’s findings while noting
that continued thoughtful use of water and water conservation will still be a consideration
for all residents of Southern California, including us in La Crescenta.
It is also worth noting that CVWD, as the local water provider, has to review any new
development project in their service area. The review would include two determinations,
the first called a “will-serve” which indicates whether their water system as a whole can
provide for the additional water demand. And second, they have to determine if there is
sufficient “fire-flow” (water for fighting a structure fire) at the specific location of the new
project. Based on the information noted above, there is no reason to believe that the “will-
serve” will not be granted, and if any upgrades to the immediate water system is required to
provide addition fire-flow, the cost of those improvements are historically born by the
developer not CVWD rate payers.
It is also worth noting that the State’s water conservation regulations require CVWD to
meet progressively tighter maximum per capita water use levels over the coming years. And
that studies show that folks that live in multi-family dwellings, like those being proposed,
use 1/3 to 1/2 the amount of water per capita that folks in single-family dwellings do. So,
the fact that more of CVWD’s customers may live in multi-family dwellings will actually
help ensure our community will be able to comply with the State’s water conservation
targets in the coming years.
Traffic – My assessment: Over exaggerated and there are better solutions.
Well, of course, traffic on Briggs Avenue and Foothill Boulevard can be a bear sometimes, but in
my experience it is usually only for an half-hour in the morning and afternoon during school
traffic. Also, there are almost 1,300 residences (I counted them) above Foothill Boulevard and
east of Rosemont Avenue, so the addition of 64 new apartments (all the way down on Foothill)
will be statistically insignificant. And with Abode’s modification to traffic flow out of their
building, residents there will no longer be exiting onto Briggs Avenue, so I think it is
reasonable to assume the rest of us won’t even notice the difference.
But if you are still concerned about traffic congestion on Briggs (or Rosemont or La
Crescenta, etc.) with a little forethought or planning, there are way more meaningful ways
to solve this inconvenience including: Encourage your children to walk to school. For
safety, they can walk with other students from their street or with parents that take turns. If
you live too far to walk, then create carpools with other parents to reduce the number of
cars or simply leave for school or work earlier to avoid the most congested times. As a
parent, I understand that these are not easy changes to make, but if you think traffic is a
real problem, then you making these changes will be more effective than fighting tis
development project.
Emergency Evacuation – My assessment: There are better solutions.
And of course having the means of safely and effectively evacuating our neighborhood in
the face of a wildfire is of utmost concern to all of us in the Foothills, and the reality of this
happening scares me every time I think about it. But I am convinced that the Abode project
again will not have a statistically significant effect on our Briggs community’s ability to
evacuate when needed.
I also do not think we should allow ourselves to be distracted by trying to fight something
that is inevitable (like development along Foothill Boulevard) when we could focus our time and
energy advocating for meaningful solutions to our need for wildfire related safety. Instead, I
believe we should be insisting the CV Town Council and county supervisor help us with
meaningful solutions like:
 Installation of signage along Briggs Avenue and other north-south streets above Foothill
that remind people not to park on the street on Red Flag days.
 Connecting the west end of Olive Avenue to the north end of Rosemont Avenue. This
would divert 50 households from exiting onto Briggs Avenue at the Briggs Terrace
evacuation choke-point at Briggs & Shields.
 Connecting Vista Del Arroyo Drive to Utley Road. This would still have traffic from Briggs
Terrace evacuating down Briggs Avenue but it would at least provide for two exits out of
Briggs Terrace.
 Undergrounding utilities (power poles) along our north-south streets like Briggs,
eliminating the threat of a downed power line blocking cars in an emergency evacuation.
 Having LA County Fire conduct more controlled burns in our hillside like they
successfully did earlier this year. This will go a long way to mitigate the intensity of fires
and urgency of evacuations when they may occur.
 Pushing the County to develop an emergency evacuation plan and community
education program so residents of La Crescenta know which route to take out of their
neighborhoods so evacuations can be as orderly and efficient as possible.
 And lastly, all of us can do our best to actively comply with the State’s new Zone 0 [zero]
regulations, to help reduce the intensity and slow the spread of wildfires into our
neighborhood when they occur.
Changing the look of Foothill Boulevard – My assessment: NOT an issue.
There are at least four apartment and business buildings along the 2400 block of Foothill Boulevard that are three to four stories high. Abode’s proposed apartment building would be reflective of these existing structures, not something new or redefining to the area.