Proposals Would Cap Population, Slow Building : Glendale Takes Steps to Limit City Growth

The Glendale City Council this week called for a package of sweeping measures to cap the city’s population and slow the rate of apartment and condominium development.

The proposals, following months of debate in the wake of last year’s apartment building moratorium, are needed to ease rapidly advancing stress on schools, streets, and police and fire services, city officials said.

In a series of steps outlined Tuesday, the council sent a clear message that it intends to establish strong zoning tools to hold the city’s population to the 200,000 limit recommended in the General Plan.

After reviewing a comprehensive package of zoning reform proposals introduced by City Manager David Ramsay at Tuesday’s meeting, the council instructed its planning staff to begin work on three zoning ordinances.

The first would cut by half the number of new apartment units allowed under present zoning laws. The second ordinance would limit the number of new apartment buildings allowed each year to a fixed, yet-to-be-determined number. The third would create a buffer zone of duplex apartments between single-family and multifamily neighborhoods.

The council voted 4 to 1 to move forward with the first proposal and unanimously approved the proposals leading to the other two ordinances.

Without new controls, city planning officials had warned, Glendale could house close to 300,000 people before reaching full occupancy.

Rounding out the package introduced Tuesday, planners presented the council with two longer range initiatives.

The first project would involve tightening limits on medium- and high-density residential zones. This would require a lengthy study to identify the appropriate parcels and the eventual redesign of city maps.

The other would involve formulating community plans that would incorporate residential, industrial and commercial planning.

Council members said they would review these initiatives in upcoming meetings.

In other action at Tuesday’s meeting, the council for the seventh time postponed voting on an ordinance that would raise the aesthetic standards and reduce the bulk and size of all new apartment and condominium buildings.

However, the ordinance is expected to be adopted next week and become the first in a series of changes expected to improve living standards in the city’s rapidly urbanizing multiple-unit residential neighborhoods.

The fate of the city’s apartment building moratorium was also put on hold for another week, giving the City Council time to consider a staff recommendation to ease the freeze by allowing construction of new projects that meet the zoning changes introduced Tuesday.

The moratorium was adopted unanimously in September to prevent an overflow of building applications while the city considered zoning changes to control its growth. Two months later, the Planning Department introduced a draft ordinance proposing zoning changes hailed by council members as the solution to the city’s growth problems.

During the campaign leading up to the March municipal election, incumbents Ginger Bremberg and Carl Raggio and former Planning Commissioner Dick Jutras were the only supporters of the proposed zoning changes among a field of 13 candidates. Voters responded by electing Jutras and returning the incumbents to office.

‘Design Ordinance’

But a week before the election, council members acknowledged that the proposed ordinance would do little more than improve the city’s aesthetic appearance and began calling it the “design ordinance.” After the election, the council instructed the staff to prepare the growth control package introduced Tuesday.

The moratorium will become void as soon as the council adopts the design ordinance. That would leave city officials with a choice between extending the present moratorium for a third time or voting on a less-stringent building freeze that would allow construction of buildings that meet what Mayor Jerold Milner has called the “projected new standards”--a 50% reduction of the number of units allowed in multiple-unit residential zones.

The council also postponed until Tuesday a ruling on the fate of some 25 building projects that were frozen by the moratorium.

Consortium Sues City

A consortium representing developers with projects halted by the moratorium has sued the city for not processing their building permits even though they were requested before the freeze. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Miriam Vogel ruled in favor of the developers in February, but the city appealed her decision and an appellate court ruling is pending.

“I plan to take the case all the way to the federal Supreme Court if I have to,” the consortium’s leader, Haik Vartanian, said Tuesday.

Vartanian said he does not have an opinion yet on the changes proposed Tuesday.

If such changes were to be implemented, the maximum number of new units allowed in the city would go down from more than 49,000 to just under 20,000. Glendale houses its about 163,000 inhabitants in about 68,000 units--an average of 2.4 dwellers per unit.

Saturation Rate

With 20,000 new units, at the same ratio of occupancy, the population cap would reach a saturation rate of 211,000 if all allowable units were built. But planners believe that this number would be even lower because not every lot would be developed to full capacity, and some lots would be purchased by the city and private organizations for open space and community services.

To adopt the zoning reduction and growth rate ordinances, the City Council would have to amend the city’s General Plan, and the proposal would have to go through an environmental review and public hearings. Principal City Planner James Glaser said Tuesday that these requirements would prevent the council from voting on the ordinances before April.

Once the process is completed, the ordinances would require approval of four council members to become effective. Four members signaled their preliminary support for the zoning reductions Tuesday by voting in favor of instructing staff to prepare the ordinance.

Jutras, so far the lone dissenter, said he voted against drafting the zoning ordinance because “it may be too much, too big a reduction. I don’t think we need that much.”

Option Presented

However, he said he was interested in an option to the proposal presented by private planning consultant Marlene Roth.

Roth’s proposal, which would not require a revision of the General Plan, limits population density without reducing the number of units allowed per zone. But under her proposal, a builder would be required to develop a full acre to reach maximum density.

In addition to Jutras, Councilman Larry Zarian said he was very interested in the Roth proposal, and the planning staff was instructed to study its feasibility.

Jutras did join his fellow council members in allocating $25,000 to $50,000 to hire a consultant to determine the rate of growth the city can tolerate, the first step towards establishing a yearly limit on apartment construction.

Ramsay said the consultant would bring both expertise and independence to the process of establishing findings to justify a growth rate cap, as required by law.

Study by Consultant

The consultant would study the city’s open spaces, schools and parking capacity to determine how much growth can be absorbed in multifamily neighborhoods, he said.

The third concept introduced Tuesday is the creation of buffer zones between multifamily and single-family neighborhoods to protect the privacy of families living in houses from the intrusion of big apartment structures next door.

Glaser said there are about 100 lots in apartment zones that border with single-home neighborhoods.

By unanimous vote, the council instructed the staff to prepare the buffer zone ordinance. It would require the same approval process as the other two proposed ordinances, but since it would affect a smaller number of buildings, city planners estimate that it could be completed by the end of this year.