Homeowners Win Zoning Fight Against Apartments
Responding to petitions by homeowners, the Glendale City Council unanimously approved zoning changes Tuesday that will prohibit apartment construction in two Glendale neighborhoods.
The provisions will allow only single-family homes in a south Glendale neighborhood in the vicinity of Highline Road, and in a 3-block neighborhood in west Glendale between Glenoaks Boulevard and San Fernando Road. The zoning changes are the most significant since the city overhauled its zoning laws 2 years ago.
The Planning Commission approved the zoning changes for both neighborhoods Nov. 14, and the City Council, without comment, followed the commission’s recommendations Tuesday. Four votes were required for approval.
Residents of the west Glendale neighborhood told the council Tuesday that the area’s single-family homes, most of which were built in the 1920s and ‘30s, would eventually be destroyed if the neighborhood remained zoned for medium-density apartment buildings.
‘We Fell in Love’
“When we first saw this street, we fell in love with it,” said Christine Hansen, 35, who recently moved to Rosedale Avenue with her husband and two children. “We would like to see our neighborhood keep its community feeling,”
Homeowners on 63 of the 89 lots in the neighborhood signed petitions supporting the change. Carol Aguilar, 64, said she and other neighbors began the rezoning effort in April, circulating petitions and making frequent trips to the offices of the city Planning Division.
“I’m the neighborhood busybody who gets people to do things,” she said.
Aguilar told the council the petition drive had brought together residents from diverse ethnic backgrounds. “We have people from Poland, Yugoslavia, Germany, Colombia, Switzerland and Cuba,” she said. “We even have a Texan.”
However, 10 Rosedale Avenue homeowners opposed the downzoning, some telling the council that it would prohibit them from adding units to house their extended families.
Ray Hovespian, 19, a political-science student at USC, said the rezoning would deprive him of a life-long dream of living in a second home behind his parents’ home on Rosedale Avenue.
Construction Difficulties
Residents of the south Glendale neighborhood told the council that the area’s steep and narrow streets would make apartment construction impossible.
That rezoning was also opposed by a minority of residents and by Albert Razzano, a developer who said he owned 5 acres in the area.
Razzano, who claimed to have lost $4 million when the council instituted a construction moratorium on apartment buildings and condominiums Sept. 27, said he was tired of having to defend his property rights in hearings before city officials. “You destroyed me in September; now you’re trying to do it again,” he said. “I feel like I’m in Moscow when I’m in here.”
After the council meeting, Aguilar said she and her west Glendale neighbors planned to celebrate their victory soon. “We’re glad we did it; we learned a lot,” she said. “We had thought you couldn’t fight City Hall.”
