Former city development director Hassan Haghani dies at 58
Hassan Haghani, who spent more than a decade serving at various planning capacities with the city of Glendale, died unexpectedly this week. He was 58.
According to a city of Glendale biography, Haghani began his municipal career in 1989 with the Los Angeles Planning Department. He then spent seven years with the city of West Hollywood, where he became a senior planner.
In 2003, he was hired by Glendale, where he was named community development director in 2010.
Haghani oversaw a period of rapid growth in the downtown area during his 12-year tenure, tasked with developing multistory, mixed-use projects and directed to grow the San Fernando Road Corridor.
However, he once told the News-Press that by 2014 he saw “very little room left to develop” in downtown Glendale.
Shortly after announcing his resignation from Glendale to take on the role of executive director of Planning and Building Agency for the city of Santa Ana, Haghani also told the News-Press he was driven to take his experience from City Hall and serve a different community.
“I felt that I could stay and look at the slow growth, but there are so many other communities that want to have that kind of well orchestrated program,” he said.
Under Haghani’s leadership, Glendale’s Community Development Department won the Urban Design Award of Merit, Award of Excellence and the Transportation Planning Award from the American Planning Assn.
The department itself was named Department of the Year by California Building Officials, a nonprofit organization based in Sacramento, the year prior to Haghani’s resignation from City Hall.
At the time of his death, Haghani had left Santa Ana after serving there for two years and was only nine months into his role as Development Agency director with the city of Ontario.
Former Glendale City Manager Scott Ochoa, now serving in the same role in Ontario, met Haghani 6½ years ago when Ochoa assumed his Glendale job.
“[He] struck me as somebody who was very well grounded and loved the community but also was worldly, eloquent, witty, intelligent and visionary,” Ochoa said. “Along with all of that, he had a tremendous sense of humor.”
Ochoa said that about six months ago, it was Haghani who helped bring him to the top management job in Ontario.
“I guess you can say [he] recruited me, when you look at the opportunities [in Ontario], that was something that seemed like a lot of fun and [Haghani], as a visionary planner and facilitator of development, he seemed like he was having a lot of fun and that was more than just a little enticing.”
Tuesday’s Glendale City Council meeting was adjourned in his memory.
According to a statement issued by the city of Ontario, information on memorial services for Haghani is pending.
Twitter: @JeffLanda
