Bid to Halt Changes in Glendale Zoning Fails

An attempt by a Glendale City Council member to drop controversial changes in the city’s zoning laws has failed.

A motion by Councilman John F. Day on Tuesday to halt studies of proposed changes died without a second. Instead, the council opened formal public hearings on a plan to rezone the city.

The council adopted several preliminary recommendations from the Planning Commission, including retaining existing zoning in three neighborhoods whose residents had protested proposed changes. One of the neighborhoods to be preserved is a residential island in the Grand Central industrial area. Planners proposed rezoning it to allow manufacturing.

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“Many of the changes proposed in the . . . plan,” Day said, “are actually harmful and interfere--no, intrude--into our lives.”

The council also directed planners to eliminate proposals that would have required only whites and earth tones to be used on new or remodeled buildings.

Day said hundreds of residents and the Glendale Building Industry Assn. have asked for more time to study the proposed new zoning ordinance, which, if adopted, could dramatically alter all future development.

The changes, designed to bring the zoning ordinance into compliance with the goals of the city’s general plan as required by state law, have been under study for more than a year.

Two council members, Jerold F. Milner and Ginger Bremberg, urged the council to move ahead with planning changes. Councilman Larry Zarian said he may support Day’s proposal that the blanket rezoning plan be dropped but “it is a little too soon” for that action. Mayor Carroll Parcher has not voiced his opinion of the zoning proposal.

The current zoning ordinance would permit the population of 145,000 to grow to more than 300,000 by the year 2010, while the proposed changes, as recommended by the general plan, would limit the projected population to 200,000.