Review OKd for Sleepy Hollow Plan

The Glendale City Council on Tuesday narrowly approved an environmental review of a proposed 25-house subdivision off Sleepy Hollow Place, reversing an earlier decision and angering some homeowners who have fought the development plan.

The council’s 3-2 vote is expected to save Ken Doty months in processing a scaled-down alternative to his proposal. The council in December rejected the original tract and its environmental report.

Tuesday’s vote may also enable Doty to present the new plan to the council before it adopts more restrictive hillside development laws, probably in October, officials said.

Some Glenoaks Canyon residents--who have battled Doty’s Sleepy Hollow plan for more than a year--said the environmental review was faulty because it did not include smaller reasonable alternatives, as required by state law.

They also said they fear that Doty will not significantly scale back his 25-house proposal, which they maintain threatens the canyon’s ridgeline.

“He’s a businessman; profit is his profession,” said Andrew Cervik, a canyon homeowner and attorney who said he is considering filing a lawsuit challenging the environmental review.

Neither Doty nor his attorney, John M. Gantus, would comment on whether or to what extent the original proposal will be scaled back or when a new plan will be submitted.

Doty’s plan was one of four proposed projects exempted from an 18-month ban on hillside development passed in March to give officials time to develop new rules covering grading, ridgeline preservation and other issues.

In rejecting the environmental review when they first considered the proposal in December, three council members said they wanted to see fewer houses and less environmental damage to the canyon.

But Councilwoman Ginger Bremberg changed her vote Tuesday. She said she opposes any proposal affecting the ridgeline, but believes that the report will accommodate an alternative plan.