Developer Sues City to Build Hilltop Homes

The third suit in 10 months challenging the city’s strict new hillside development rules was filed this week in Glendale Superior Court by the Irvine-based partnership Homes by Polygon .

The suit seeks to reverse the city’s rejection in February of plans to build up to 61 homes in Glenmore Canyon on a 29-acre hilltop site west of the Glendale Freeway at Mountain Street.

Polygon charges in its suit that the city unfairly condemned the project, which was proposed in 1989, by subjecting the proposal to strict criteria for hillside development that were not adopted until two months ago.

Polygon is also the master builder of the massive 544-unit subdivision east of the freeway at Mountain Street.

The suit, filed Monday, also seeks to force the city to buy the property for at least $6 million if a feasible development project is not allowed. New hillside development rules would permit construction of only 15 units on the site, according to the complaint.

City Atty. Scott H. Howard said the suit “is not a surprising complaint, has no surprising allegations and is a fairly standard pleading.” He said similar suits “stretch back years” in which developers attempt to force the city to buy land after projects are denied. He said in most of the cases the allegations have been rejected by the courts.

However, the city, under a court stipulation, is considering an alternative development proposal for a 30-acre site near Sleepy Hollow Place in Glenoaks Canyon. In that court case, filed last July, developer Ken Doty charges that he was unfairly prohibited from developing the property.

Another suit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court last month by prominent Glendale developer John L. Gregg and a group of supporters seeking to nullify the new hillside development rules, which they charge are so restrictive that they prevent all feasible development. That suit will be heard in Los Angeles Superior Court.

In a court settlement several years ago, the city agreed to buy the 702-acre Inter-Valley Ranch property in the La Crescenta foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains for $5.2 million after plans for development were repeatedly rejected.

Like several other publicly owned parcels, the city had campaigned to preserve the ranch, now named the Gov. George Deukmejian Wilderness Park.