Council Backs Offer for Former Park Site

The Glendale City Council on Tuesday tentatively accepted an $800,000 offer from a local developer for a 1-acre lot off Rimcrest Drive that city officials decided to sell rather than convert to a neighborhood park.

Sam Danielian, owner of Danielian Real Estate Services, was the sole bidder for the Verdugo Hills property, known as Rimcrest Park. The council is expected to formally approve Danielian’s $800,124 bid next week.

Danielian said he wants to build two houses on the lot, which is in a neighborhood of large, single-family houses. He plans to keep one house for his own family and is negotiating with another family on the second, he said.

The council in January voted to sell the lot, appraised at $1 million, after dropping a plan to turn it into a neighborhood park. A poll taken last year by the city found that most nearby residents thought that the lot had become a dumping ground for trash and a noisy gathering place for teen-agers, and feared that a park would draw even more garbage, noise and traffic.

The lot was deeded to the city in 1975 by Auerbach Construction Co. as part of a plan to build a single-family housing subdivision, on condition that it be turned into a park or returned to the developer.

Under a plan approved last month by the council, Auerbach will receive $400,000 from the sale, with the remaining $400,124 to be used by the city to develop parks elsewhere, City Atty. Scott H. Howard said.