Luxury Builder Will Take Case to City Council : Development: Polygon wants to create a Glenmore Canyon subdivision opposed by homeowners. Planners have rejected all 3 versions.
The greatest, and possibly the last, battle in a three-year war between homeowners and developers over a proposed subdivision in Glenmore Canyon is expected to be waged Tuesday before the City Council.
The developer--Laguna Niguel-based Homes by Polygon--is prepared to fire its best missiles in a fight to win council approval of one of three plans to carve out pads for 40 to 61 luxury homes on a 28.8-acre site west of the Glendale Freeway (2) at Mountain Street.
But concerned homeowners also will be carrying ammunition in hopes of shooting down all three plans. They charge that the project would cause serious noise problems, traffic and health hazards for schoolchildren and residents and create scars on ridges surrounding canyon neighborhoods.
The homeowners won the latest skirmish, on Jan. 11, when the city Planning Commission recommended that all three plans be rejected.
The council will hear arguments during a special hearing at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the council chambers at City Hall, 613 E. Broadway.
Although public hearings on the Glenmore Canyon proposal have been postponed several times in the past, some council members have said they are eager to have the matter settled.
Councilwoman Ginger Bremberg said she is concerned that the development project could become an issue in the upcoming council election April 6. At least two homeowner activists--David G. Weaver and Bob Yousefian--are seeking council seats. Bremberg is not seeking a fourth four-year term.
Homeowners have asked for delays in considering the project until the city adopts long-awaited new standards for hillside development. A hearing on that issue also is scheduled for Tuesday, in a special Planning Commission meeting at 6:30 p.m. in the Municipal Services Building, Room 105, 633 E. Broadway.
That issue is expected to reach the council at a hearing March 2.
Bremberg and two other council members who are retiring--Mayor Carl Raggio and Dick Jutras--said they hope to adopt new hillside standards before their terms expire April 12.
New rules could significantly affect the density and nature of hillside development, but Polygon’s proposal would be exempt because it was submitted before changes are introduced, planning officials said.
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Marlene Roth, a consultant to Polygon, said the developer has had numerous meetings with city planners and homeowners in an attempt to answer criticisms. But she indicated after the Planning Commission hearing earlier this month that the company has few options left to modify the project without jeopardizing the financial viability of the subdivision.
Roth represented Polygon when the firm won council approval in 1986 to build the Rancho San Rafael subdivision on 316 acres on the east side of the Glendale Freeway at Mountain Street. Massive areas of the mountain were carved out to make room for 542 homes in what is the largest subdivision in the city. But many residents point to the project as an example of poor development.
Roth said the latest of three plans revealed last month for the developers’ second project, commonly called Polygon II, is an attempt to answer many of the critics’ objections and to more closely follow pending guidelines for building in the mountains.
But all three plans call for slicing as much as 100 feet off the top of a horseshoe-shaped ridge and filling in a canyon below to create building pads. The newest alternative allows for a total of 40 lots--36 on top of the ridge and filled-in canyon and four more below on a cul-de-sac on Glenmore Boulevard. Access to ridge-top homes would be gated to prevent unwanted traffic.
Roth said the new plan calls for less grading on the ridgeline and proposes that homes be set back from the mountain rim to reduce their visibility.
Initial plans proposed building as many as 61 luxury home sites. In the wake of widespread opposition, a second alternative was submitted last August, just prior to scheduled public hearings, that modified the grading project and scaled back the development to a maximum of 46 home sites. The hearings were delayed so officials could analyze the changes.
The amount of dirt to be removed from the hillside has been reduced from more than 776,000 cubic yards in the initial plan to 565,000 cubic yards in the latest.
But opponents have continued to object, saying the grading project is too large. Some argue that no development should be permitted on the site because all the wildlife and vegetation was destroyed in the disastrous June, 1990, College Hills brush fire that also burned 64 adjacent hillside homes.
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Rob Sharkey, a spokesman for the Glenmore Canyon Homeowners Assn., told council members last month that residents have become frustrated by repeated changes in the proposed project by the developer. The Glendale Homeowners Coordinating Council, an umbrella organization of 17 homeowners associations, earlier this month voted to reject the Polygon II proposals.
City planners, who will present a report to the council next week, also have found fault with the project. They said it would alter a prominent ridgeline visible from most of the city, create “static rows” of houses on flat pads rather than conform to the hillsides, and create dangerous traffic and health hazards for handicapped youngsters and children with health problems at nearby College View School.
